Learning the Ropes

The time-honored way of learning the ropes politically has been to volunteer on a series of campaigns, taking on increasingly more involved and responsible jobs as you go. However, as with everything in politics these days, this has become professionalized.

Here are some options:

DFA Night School: If you missed any of the spring semester Night School sessions, you can receive the full Spring 2006 Night School series on DVD for a $30 contribution to Democracy for America. This is a great way to take Night School offline and into your community. Your DVD will come with an activist training kit that includes discussion materials for each workshop. Get your training kit today:

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/trainingkit

Class 1: Moving our Message
Class 2: Building a Grassroots Army: Volunteer Recruitment
Class 3: Rules of the Road: Canvassing
Class 4: How to Make Phoning Fun

If you have more expensive tastes, this may be for you:

Campaigns & Elections: The Art of Political Campaigning, June 1-3, Washington, D.C.

THE BEST GETS BETTER- The most comprehensive training seminar in the country. Learn everything you ever wanted to know about campaigning, fund raising, the Internet, polling, media, the press, telephones, voter files, voter ID, and much, much more. Come and learn from the best in the business!

For 22 years, our campaign training seminars and trade shows have been the best in the business. Seminars sponsored by Campaigns & Elections magazine have attracted people from across the world who need to know more about the strategies, techniques and technologies of modern political campaigns from a wide range of experts.

Join us for three blockbuster days of practical panels workshops and presentations that run the gamut of political campaigning - from fund raising to media production, opposition research to grass-roots organizing, campaign software to attack strategies and responses, candidate speeches and appearances to campaign management and legal compliance.

For more info: www.campaignline.com

Locally (PA) connected speakers include: Joe Trippi, Flavia Colgan, John Brabender, and Charlie Gerow