STORM, field reps and the CRNC
Posted by sage of monticello | Posted in CR gossip, CRNC, CRNC field rep program, CRNC field reps, CRs On The Record, S.T.O.R.M. | Posted on 27-08-2008
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Many comments have recently been made on this website concerning STORM, the field rep program (specifically the allocation of field reps) and the job – in general – the CRNC has been doing, Charlie, Ethan, Esther, Will, etc.
In response to those comments – many made anonymously – one reader, Jonathan Synder from Ohio, had this to say:
This anonymous bashing of the CRNC’s Field Program is not helping anything or solving any problems. To those of you complaining about states that are not Presidential or Senate targets getting reps, have you forgotten that we take CRs from those places in the last two weeks, especially the last 100 hours, and deploy them to battleground states? Having a rep there to make sure recruitment goes well is a good idea at worst, and there is nothing to say that some of these reps won’t be moved around once the election draws closer.
We have to embrace the growing use of technology in politics, especially when it comes to collecting data. Even if Barack Obama’s 3 AM text message was anti-climactic, his campaign was able to gather 2.5 to 3 million cell phone numbers. Lists like that help greatly to win campaigns, in addition to people on the ground. You can have a huge list of CRs and other volunteers for a campaign, but you have to use technology like Twitter, Facebook, text messaging, e-mail, and even STORM to turn those volunteers out.
Facebook is obviously superior to STORM as a Soc Net, but this is not the goal of STORM. With Facebook, there is no data integrity or control. With STORM, each State Federation and Chapter can maintain live lists and provide another method for reaching its members. For example, for our upcoming McCain rally in Dayton (The Veep Announcement), the OCRF was able to directly message another 1500 college students signed up on STORM and turnout a good chunk of CRs to the event that we otherwise would not have reached. This stuff has potential for a huge impact, and it is the medium of now, not just of the future. There is a reason why John McCain’s two most talked about commercials were not even on TV and Barack Obama is using text messages as a key communications component of his campaign. If the political operative establishment is embracing such tools, then we as the youth arm of the GOP are far behind the curve if we fail to do so, too!
Colorado is also one of the top targets for Democrats this year, as evidenced by the hard sell of having the DNC there this cycle. Sending CO a few reps is by no means unwarranted or a bad move. There have to be priorities, and someone has to stand up and make the tough decisions here. It is good to see a group of leaders that are stepping up and getting things done. If any of you have actually communicated with them since taking office last summer, you would know how differently the office runs on a day to day basis, and how much improved and more effective it now is. I would have to say that the CR brand is on the rebound, as is the effectiveness with which funds are utilized.
Very simply, I agree. This is not necessarily the opinion of every writer at CR Nation, but it is my own. How do you feel?
This seems like the Soviet Union and the Politburo to me, as any criticism is always dismissed by the CR insiders as unproductive. This is crap. There is legitimate criticism that can be levied against the Smith regime.
I agree with many other readers, who have raised questions about the CRNC’s burn rate. Money is being spent left and right. And I probably can’t criticize STORM without being called an old fart, but I’m sorry – this was a waste of money. We shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel folks.
Anyways, I am disappointed with the field program. I would like to see more of an emphasis on the so-called purple states. Georgia, Virginia, Montana, New Hampshire and other states that will be very important in this year’s election. These are Democrat-trending states that are largely overlooked by the Republican Party and the Victory program. I don’t understand why a state like Michigan, which hasn’t gone for Republicans since George HW Bush in 1988, is getting four field representatives? From my understanding, they already have an established state party-run program of field representatives. Why waste resources when they don’t need them?
Either way, I just wish CRs could speak their mind without being attacked.
Yes, Colorado is a top target for Democrats, and Minnesota is top target for Republicans, which is evidence by the hard sell of having the RNC here this cycle. But Minnesota only got one Field Rep. I still disagree with 3 Field Reps in Colorado and 1 in Minnesota. Something still smells fishy there.
Unfortunately, the attitude above is why Montana is at high risk for turning blue this year in the Presidential race.
We’re not a “battleground” state, and the attitude from Obama’s camp (and the DNC) is that our three electoral votes are a huge victory for the Dem’s morale, but from McCain’s camp (and the RNC) it seems like we’re not worth the trouble.
It would be interested to see a list of how many chapters there are in each state and how many schools in each state do not have chapters yet.
That might be a good way to see who should have gotten more reps beyond the battleground states
And for the record, I think STORM is extremely useful.
I just posted a response on the initial post, sorry I didn’t get back sooner, I’ve been bracketing at the DNC all week, its been intense.
I agree, people shouldn’t be attacked for criticism, but I think people who criticize should also take responsibility for their comments. That way you could weed out the true problems that people are having from the political posturing and the personal gripes.
I think you could make a coherent argument to change a lot of the deployments, I also think you could make an argument to change the placement of RNC ad buys, and we’ve had those discussions, over and over and over in the process of putting the program together.
Is it perfect? Surely not, but we did what we thought would be most effective. I’m sure plenty of people could give me good reasons to put more in one state or less in others, but we worked with the information we had. I’ll remind you that both myself and Charlie were always available to discuss the placement of reps both before and after they were finalized, if you didn’t pick up the phone or write an email to express your opinion you cant blame us for not knowing it.
As always, I’m happy to answer questions or listen to concerns via email or phone.
Isn’t this site anonymous? Kettle meet pot.
You’re already behind the curve if you don’t have an email list that you regularly send out information to. If your justification for STORM is that it’s a $300,000 list management program, then we’re really in trouble. The CRNC already had that in place under Gourley, Hoplin, etc. My guess is that you’re signing people up for storm using your email list or facebook. These are people you have already identified.
The purpose of storm is social networking, but it’s not happening. People aren’t using the site. Again, go to where the voters are. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The best way to invest in data is to get people on the ground recruiting new people.
Charlie and crew are nice people. I’m sure they do a better job of answering the phones and buy lots of drinks for state chairs. That’s great that they understand the inside baseball of CRNC politics.
However, as a political organization that ostensibly is set up to get results, you can’t help but be disappointed. 49 field reps in a presidential year when the previous administration did over 60 in a non-presidential year??? That’s just unacceptable. You’ll remember that the previous administration also had a spring field rep program.
As for the allocation, Colorado has about 15 schools. Virginia has about 40. Both are battleground states. Colorado got 3 field reps, Virginia got 2. Doesn’t make sense.
The previous field rep crop masturbated in public bathrooms, sexually harassed students, got the CRNC in trouble with the RNC and the White House a la Morgan Wilkins, and one of them was a vampire.
I would gladly have the lower number if we can skip all the above BS. Having 100 kids in the field who are total idiots is a heck of a lot worse then 50 who are competent and hard working.
I agree with Michigan Rocks and “Just some thoughts”.
The field rep program has to be the final straw for most people. Under the Gourley administration, even though they were lower quality reps, EVERY state got to have one for at least two weeks. Could have definitely used that STORM money here.
STORM’s most valuable asset is a nation-wide database. This then makes me question what they were thinking spending $250K on a database if they WEREN’T trying to make it a primarily social networking site. Since the social networking aspect turned out to be the main focus, and it has failed miserably, is it not safe to say that STORM is a miserable failure and we wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on something unnecessary?
Charlie and crew ARE nice people. The problem is that even worse than the two failures previously mentioned, perhaps worse is their lack of communication to state chairs. People not being contacted for months at a time in a presidential year is a serious blunder.
I think a more efficient use of field reps would be to try to hit all the major recruitment events in the continental US. You can do that with this field rep budget and still go back and target specific states later. There’s a tradeoff but you’d be recognizing that the strength of the College Republicans is invested in member chapters on schools with actual names. The strength of the CRs is NOT tied to state feds. (Think: How many hours a week does your state chair give to actual recruitment of CRs on campuses? Really, think about this and get back to me.)
Does anyone need me to go to their state? I recruit on campus during the prime hours of 2 a.m.-2:30 a.m.
Idiots? What defines a total idiot?
To the person who criticized past CRNC field representatives: Who do you expect to get with the long hours and low pay? The best operatives sign onto a presidential campaign followed by state party followed by a congressional or senatorial campaign followed by state-level campaigns and then local campaigns. The people LI and CRNC hires are the bottom of the barrel, and it’s not surprising if a few crooks, perverts or vampires are hired.
As for the distribution of field representatives, nobody is ever going to be happy. I will say that I am just flat out disappointed with Republicans in general because we are ignoring some of our ‘base’ states and districts.
Charlie is a lot better than past CRNC chairs, but the organization is still a joke. Why isn’t there a full-time, paid, PR director to get CRs into the news? Heck, the CRNC doesn’t even use proper grammar on the website. Someone needs to tell Charlie that “CR’s” (which is all over the websote) is incorrect. It should say CRs.
No one is saying that STORM is off to a roaring start, but let’s be honest that the money used to develop it is a small investment in the grand scheme, but not one that cripples the organization if whoever succeeds this administration decides to abandon it. We don’t all have to agree with everything that money gets spent on, but the reality is that money in politics is raised to be spent, not sat on for multiple cycles.
Can anyone honestly say that the money raised and spent by the Gourley administration was actually better managed? For crying out loud, they were renting office equipment, spending over $1 for every $1 raised, and certainly did not do a judicious job of managing a field program by most accounts. We really want to go back to having a field rep in your state for two weeks, never checking in with the state fed (or in some cases even the chapter), and never submitting any lists to the chapter and/or state they were in? Sure, communications can always be better, but there is some onus on the states to have the initiative to let the CRNC know of their needs and requests. They are just a call or e-mail away!
This is by no means a state of perfection, but the debt is gone and there are some fresh ideas and innovation involved. As for list management systems, at least STORM lists are accessible to the states, rather than the CRNC recruiting CRs and never giving their info to the chapters and states and even selling their data, circa 2005-2006. There is obviously room for improvement, as with any system, but this is still a new facet of the CRNC and one cannot definitively call it a failure less than a year into its creation.
At some point the state federations have to take it upon themselves to be more autonomous and ambitious with regard to publicizing the work of their CRs, training their members, and creating the funds that are crucial in winning elections. If we rely on the CRNC for everything, it is just like being on welfare waiting for the next check. We have to be self-sufficient and strive to be great on our own, because you simply cannot achieve great success by always relying on an outside or parent group for everything you need.
Jonathon,
You were right on one thing: NO ONE is saying that STORM is off to a good start. Those notions generally shouldn’t be shrugged off so casually.
And I made no impressions that we should be sitting on money. That’s just dumb. I’m saying it could’ve been spent on a better field program, federation grants, or even what that guy mentioned above you (a PR rep). Think about it, a person whose full-time job it is to make sure people know we’re making an impact and not just on college campuses.
The Gourley administration wasn’t perfect, and their reps were weaker (although, I wouldn’t know, I haven’t had a field rep in my state since the Smith administration took office). But to say STORM hasn’t set us back would be a stretch. It probably killed any hopes of having a spring field rep program.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten that this is a bottom-up organization, just like your state federation is. The CRNC is supposed to be a SERVICE organization. How can you say the onus should be on a state chair to contact them? What if your waitor just left you alone the whole time you’re eating, never said a word. Would you classify that as good service? All I’ve seen is more and more hoops to jump through for state feds and chapters and have seen little or no return on any time investment I’ve given. Call me crazy, but my philosophy has always been that it should be easier to join CRs rather than harder, it should be easier to be a chapter rather than harder. The same could be said of state feds.
The CRNC should focus on getting all its state federation and member clubs into compliance with federal and state campaign finance laws. 95% of them are illegal.
STORM is not mean to be the next facebook. It is a DATABASE that will make the transition for chairs between administrations EASY. The point of it having facebook like features is so that people WILL log in and keep their information current.
The new CRNC is ten folds better than the Gourley administration. Somewhere West of the Mississippi are in California? Regardless, as a former CCR Field rep and CR from the state of California, some states just do not want to work with the CRNC. (California) You can’t blame Charlie and crew for your state chair’s inability to be proactive with an organization that IS there to serve.
Kudos to the Smith organization–I can make that statement because I’ve seen firsthand the work they have done.
Maybe if some of the other CR Nation readers would stop playing World of Warcraft and maybe go outside once in a while, they would see all the work the CRNC is doing.
Just a thought.
Jonathan: I think the point is if they wanted a database or list management system, they could have created one for 1/10 the cost. Charlie ran on building exactly that, but it turned into this much bigger concept of a social networking site.
Charlie and crew have been living in a vacuum. But they’ve actually been making major strategic blunders on STORM and the field rep program that are going to severely limit what could have been. Imagine if they had 30 more field reps instead of spending $300k on Storm. They could have put a field rep in every state. That would have been a victory for the organization.
They’ve tried to build the technological infrastructure, but what really needs to be expanded is the organizational infrastructure.
My comments are not being approved but I will try again.
You can claim all you want to about STORM. But when State Chairs invited everyone on their board or in their state, what do you think 100% of CRs thought they were being asked to join?
A) A cheap Facebook knock-off
B) A database to improve CRs
I guarantee that everyone in the country thought it was answer A, except, apparently, the national officers.
It would have made much more sense for a hybrid of Constant Contact and the Facebook event apparatus that state feds could automatically add their list to, communicate with in a professional way, and inform people about events while keeping track of attendance estimates.
Instead, we have a database that we can’t use unless people want to join, and that no one wants to join. A successful chapter or federation aggressively recruits. STORM is the total opposite – it takes the “If you build it, they will come” approach to getting results.
Of course, this comment will either be deleted or I will be blamed because people don’t want to join STORM.
Re: New CRNC Sucks
Yeah, noooo one wants to join it. Other than the 108,000 people already signed up to the network.
But yeah, that’s nobody, really.
The whole program needs immediate reform. Most of the kids were sent to non-swing states a considerable distance from their residence. One kid was even sent from Florida to Oregon! Why? Resources are wasted, field reps are disillusioned, leadership spends money and makes decisions worse than most liberal Democrats.
TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE AT THE CRNC!
It’s also pretty ridiculous that the directors at the CRNC only want to here constructive criticism if they know who you are. Is this the KGB? If Karl Rove and Lee Atwater knew of this stupidity they’d probably flip.
The only way STORM has 108,000 on it is if state chairs uploaded the membership lists of their chapters (i.e. using its proposed function).
There is NO way 108,000 people actually spent the time to create a profile on there, which shows the impact of the site (its advertised function and the function that made the bill $250K).
Michigan Rocks, et al, critics:
The decision of whether to implement STORM is past tense.
Has the CRNC and her allies used cheapshots against STORM’s critics? Yeah, probably.
STORM is much more complicated than a database. Will people use its more complicated features? Perhaps not. They seem to be using cause groups and state/chapter groups, while laying back on events.
I think STORM can help sign up new people at membership tables and put the information straight to database, which would be GREAT. I have spent hours and hours doing that stuff and this would save some time (we’ll still need paper signups for some people).
Let me continue by saying, straight out in plain English: I don’t like state chairs, I don’t think they help our organization, and I think they impair if not hurt our organization more than they help it. I don’t like the idea that a state chair can send frequent STORM messages to grassroots members without the latter having some sort of opt-out. I think that upstages a hard-working chapter chair, someone who matters a lot more than most state chairs.
It would be nice if STORM just deleted state chairs like that, poof. Bye bye. Keep state feds together but just delete their leadership, we don’t like you.
And lastly, I hope the CRNC reaches out to chapters that aren’t using STORM. Maybe they haven’t heard about STORM (don’t be shocked), or maybe they’ve decided not to bother with STORM, for good reasons or maybe out of ignorance. But your chapters meet every week, and your state feds are weak every week. Thanks for reading this rant.
I never signed up for STORM, but others signed me up.
there are not 108,000 people who ‘joined’ – there are 108,000 ’signed up’ (I realize you said signed up, but you used it as if it was interchangeable with joined)
the difference between joined and signed up is that the joined do it willingfully; the signed up include both the willing and the ones who were added by another CR and never took the time to reject it or accept it
the actual number of people who have joined is probably closer to 10,000; and the number of whom actually use it is definetly less; and you’d have to subtract non-CRs, because anyone with a .edu e-mail from a school with a chapter can join and chapter/state chairs are probably not kicking them out because they don’t know all their members or potential members
108,000 joined would be very impressive
just an FYI for above poster
oh yeah, since it’s being discussed here and Ethan decided earlier to respond, a good question to ask Ethan and company is how many ‘active’ users are on STORM? How many have actually signed up and completed atleast one action?
This is a bottom-up organization. For that reason, chapter chairs are a hundred times more important than state chairs. Same relationship from state federations to the CRNC. Both the above-chapter organizations are meant to provide services. The CRNC, however, insists on everyone being on STORM or only allowing resources to go to STORM-using chapters. Essentially the chapter has to provide a service to the CRNC, a service most don’t want to do because the first thing they think of when they see STORM is some cheap knock-off of facebook.
But we need state federations. They need good, hard-working state federations that provide them with materials, guidance, etc. The state federations need a CRNC that does the same. But all the CRNC keeps doing is creating more and more requirements.
“The people of this organization need state federations if only to have somewhere to go without crawling to Potter” James Stewart, It’s a wonderful life!
Current Field Rep, I agree. Maybe we should be friends on STORM.
FL to Orgeon? Hmm…sounds like whoever oversees the Western region has a cush on that field rep.
Or maybe it’s because the further a field rep is away from their home state, the more productive they can actually be. Hard for mom or dad to call up and say “Hey Johnny, come home and mow the lawn” if they’re a couple hundred miles away.
108,000! Nice try!
Check out some of those chapters that are listed as having 200 members, only if you click on their group they will only have a half dozen people.
108,000 people were added to the STORM network. Very few of them actually chose to join, fewer chose to build a profile, and even fewer are active users.
State chairs can be important, but they generally are not. It takes a special person to understand how to make a federation work. Most 22-year old or younger college kids don’t have the leadership skills and political instincts to run an organization with so many moving parts. I’ve been critical of the current crop because I haven’t seen anything special.
As I’ve said before, I think Charlie & Co. are nice people, and that they are working hard. But, working hard, and making the right decisions are two different things.