[This email was sent by Travel for Change's Alisa Whitfield on Sept 7, 2009]

Hello from Travel for Change! It’s a new campaign season, and we have a new campaign to update you about.

A group of us Obama campaign alumni are now coordinating the out-of-state volunteer (“Volunteer Vacation”) program for Maine’s No on 1 Campaign. If you’re not aware, marriage equality activists are fighting a version of Prop 8 in Maine. They’ve asked for our help. Please read our completely re-designed website to learn more about the campaign at www.travelforchange.org.

Jay Cash from Northern California for Obama and I are working on this full-time through the November election. We’re now managing their national travel program in all phases up to the time the volunteers arrive at their assigned campaign office. We’re really excited to be asked to do this, but we need some additional help. Our goals are to solidify between 225 and 400 “Volunteer Vacationers”, with most of them self-funding. In addition we’d like to raise miles to fund 100+ airline tickets. Here’s what we need:

1) Be a volunteer travel coordinator.
Our goal is to call all potential travelers within 24 hours of their signing up online. You’ll have responsibility for communicating with a small group of those travelers. You’ll just touch base with them, see how committed they are, see if they have questions/concerns and just get more details from them (like if they want to share a hotel). Just like with OFA volunteers, if you don’t know the answer to something, we’ll find it out for you. You’ll keep a dialog with them until they’ve booked their travel plans. This is a *really* important job. Coordinators get their own TFC email address to use if they’d like.
–Learn more by emailing Jay at: jay (at) travelforchange (dot) org.

2) Sign up to go to Maine!
You can sign-up on the travelforchange.org website now. We did a soft re-launch of the TFC website this weekend so it’s all-Maine-all-the-time. We’re still making it pretty, but it’s functional. Considering that most of you are very experienced organizers, we’ll try to partially subsidize your travel expenses. If we can, it would likely be by buying your airline ticket with donated miles. If you do go, No on 1 really wants you to commit to 7-days on the ground. *If you can stay longer, please let me know right away.
–Sign up at travelforchange.org

3) Donate airline tickets (miles and direct purchase).
If you have enough miles to fund a traveling campaign volunteer or if you can buy a ticket for one of them (just like with the nearly 400 tickets we secured in the general election.) you’ll go a long way toward making the trip affordable for people who can commit lots of time to the No on 1 Campaign.
–Ask people you know if they have a lot of miles and if they’d use them to send a volunteer to Maine.
–Sign up on travelforchange.org and/or send Alisa an email at alisa(at) travelforchange (dot) org.

4) Donate online to the general program costs.
We’re still looking to pay some pieces of the program, including licensing of the carpool program we used for Nevada‘s Drive for Change program. We hope to launch it (driveforequality.com) in 10-12 days. We’re also hoping to hire a local LGBT business owner as a field staff member.
–Donate at the Travel for Change website

5) Help us fundraise and/or host a fundraiser.
We’re developing a house party/event kit and hope to have it available in 48 hours.
–Check on the TFC website on Wednesday.

6) Spread the word and promote the Maine travel program.
–Send emails to your friends, family, Facebook friends, blog about it. Track us on Twitter, etc.
–Action buttons are on the new TFC website.
–Speak to LGBT leaders you may know and ask them to send people.

7) Organize a group of people to travel together.
OFA alumni at the Courage Campaign (Hope and Arisha especially) and some friends at The Taskforce in L.A. are helping to organize larger groups of traveling volunteers.
–For group planning, email Jay at jay (at) travelforchange (dot) org.

8) Other: website work, content, additional research, assistance with setting up a MyCampaign backend (activist codes, survey questions, etc.)

Thanks everyone! We will only continue to email you if you express interest in helping.

Yes we can,
Alisa