Let’s start with this. We are all living in some form of isolation and connecting with friends and family is fun and helps break down that isolation. And then participating in a meaningful activity that could have immense import in the future of our country is a great way to both sustain communication with those friends/family and deepen the relationship. Hey, on Nov 3, with your work done, you can zoom together and toast your success. So, let’s get started forming a team.

Using Doodle and Zoom to Create a Team of Friends to Be Active in Swing State, Key Senate Race Team or NM Legislative Race

We suggest that you start by selecting friends and/or family who:

• All know each other (this is important to forming the initial group, but once formed, you may well branch out and invite others);
• Are strongly Democratic;
• Are likely concerned about the election; and
• Likely have at least a little bit of time to devote to this;

We also think that if you have friends in swing states or states with key Senate races, to make that a plus in selecting folks. But it is by no means essential. But before you reach out to your friends, you may want to think about what specific kind of work you’d like to do together. There are three strategies outlined on our Election Page and you can pick any one of them. You can also share all three of them with your pals and decide together, but it would be good for you to be familiar enough to guide the discussion.

We suggest that for your first Zoom, you email a group of friends or family members who know each other and tell them you want to set up a zoom to reconnect. You don’t need to tell them the motivation for doing this just yet. Most likely your friends or family members will welcome the opportunity to connect. Tell them you will send them a doodle poll to identify a good time. Then you will simply send them a link for the Zoom meeting you’ve scheduled at that time.

Once you get on the zoom you can all check in and exchange news etc, and then you can pop the question with something like: “Hey, I am guessing all of you are really concerned about the election coming. I am working with a group here in NM called Retake Our Democracy and they’ve set up a very easy way for people like us to get involved in the election. I was thinking we might want to try to use

Send the Doodle poll with possible times identified. If you’ve never used Doodle, click here for a step-by-step guide. It is free and very simple.

Once you get a good time, then you will send them a Zoom invite. If you’ve never done this, Retake has also set up a page with step-by-step guide to setting up a free account and creating your first meeting. Click here to review that guide.

That’s it. Please let us know how it goes. You can post a comment below to let us know how it is going. This will encourage others.

And thank you for your getting seriously into this campaign effort. So much at stake. So much.