Grassroots Organizing/Volunteer Mobilization

Background
Grassroots organizing and mobilization of volunteers has been around for centuries and is not a new concept. What is new are the methods by which are used to mobilize these movements. In January of 1840 Abraham Lincoln offered this advice to his contemporaries in the Whig Party, "Divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of the man they will probably support. It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands such documents as will enlighten and influence them. It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a month, the progress they are making, and on election days see that every Whig is brought to the polls."

170 Years later Marshall Ganz a chief grassroots organizer in President Obama's historic 2008 election wrote, "Organizers identify, recruit and develop leadership; build community around leadership; and build power out of community. Organizers bring people together, challenging them to act on behalf of their shared values and interests. They develop the relationships, motivate the participation, strategize the pathways, and take the action that enable people to gain new appreciation of their values, the resources to which they have access, their interests, and a new capacity to use their resources on behalf of their interests. Organizers work through "dialogues" in relationships, motivation, strategy and action carried out as campaigns."