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Report by Chair Edward Teyssier
printed in the Libertarian Party of California, San Diego Region Liberty! newsletter
November 2001

SDLP Volunteers go ALL OUT to get Libertarians on the Ballot! Report by Chair Edward Teyssier

In a real life event reminiscent of the roadwork scene in the movie, "Cool Hand Luke", I was dumbfounded at the rate at which our volunteers stuffed envelopes Saturday, October 13.

As the 'work chief' for one of the largest, and certainly the most complicated mailing the SDLP has ever done I was expecting an 'all day' effort. We had to get 10,500 petitions, 7,000 pieces of out-reach materials, 3,500 drawing coupons, 3,500 voter registration cards, along with 3,500 cover letters and a like number of self-addressed return envelopes, all correctly selected, folded, sorted and stuffed into envelopes.

In fact, at one point earlier this week, I was wondering if we'd have enough help to finish in one day or have to go into overtime and work Sunday. Or, whether we'd even get it done in one weekend.

As it turned out, the candidates and volunteers started arriving about 9:30 AM and all were very enthusiastic. Together, they worked at the amazingly fast average combined rate of over 9,000 petitions and other items stuffed per hour and we were essentially done even before the pizza arrived!

Due to the complexity of the mailing I had been uncertain about how to anticipate the total time and effort to stuff the envelopes. In order to get the best rate for postage each envelope was required to weigh exactly the same. Each envelope was encoded as to which combination of petitions was to be folded and stuffed into it. Because we decided to combine this mailing with a membership drive we added flyers, forms, and voter registration cards.

Then, we also included a 'sweepstakes' drawing to entice more people to sign and return the petitions, which also further complicated and enlarged the project. Altogether, each envelope had to have exactly the correct combination of three different petitions and six other inserts, no more, and no less. A grand total of over 35,000 envelopes, flyers, coupons, forms, and petitions, not including extras and spares. So I knew it was a lot of exacting, tedious work, and I didn't know how many volunteers would show up or how long it would take.

I should have known better. I am the Chair of Region 37, the biggest, most powerful LP region in the world and I had requested help to get it all done in one day. So that's what I got!

Throughout the day we had nearly 40 volunteers and candidates. Everyone may have started off a bit slow, but then their rate increased as they got used to doing it. Some came early and worked through to the end, but others had prior commitments and left early. But more came in and took their seats and took over where the others left off. As more volunteers showed we set up more folding tables and chairs. The work was going faster and faster. And even as we were getting towards the finish, evenmore volunteers showed up helped make the work go even faster. As an aside, all those people at work meant a surprising amount of heat. The weather was relatively mild, but the air conditioner, even though set on "HIGH", was struggling to keep up with the heat load.

Every horizontal surface in the house was being used; Tables were use for stuffing. Countertops and floor space for sorting envelopes and temporary materiel storage.

Imagine this scene: One minute, everyone's working away. Some are stuffing, some are scurrying around, either gathering more materials or sorting or distributing envelopes. Faster and faster! Envelopes, petitions and papers are flying everywhere!

And the next minute...everything's stopped...and there's a dozen people hanging around me asking for more work.

"Edward!", they said. "What else?...And where's MY pizza?"

And I'm clueless about what to say, or what to do next!

On behalf of all the candidates and all the members of the San Diego Libertarian Party, I would like to express my thanks to the following volunteers who made the "Stuff Party" such a huge success:

Lynn Badler, Sarah Baker, Mike Benoit, "Bill", Joyce Byrons, Steve Ciscero, Dale Conklin, DANN, Cinthia Duroche, Amy Del Nagro, Karl Dietrich, Richard Fontanesi, JR "Nobody" Graham, Lars Grossmith, Dan Baehr, Tina Hoglund, Virgil Hall, Tom Hohman, Jeff Keup, Paul King, Mark Menanno, Lisa Mennano, Mike Metti, Max Metti, Lou Misko, Rusty Nichols, Gardner Osborne, Patrick Picacho, Mel Pinney, Richard Rider, RobRob, Kristi Stone, Mak Stone, Thomas Stott, Edward Teyssier, Dan Uglietta, Ted Warren. Also, the University City High School Interns: Keri, Jennifer, Jessica and "Bogi".