Minnesota Members Ask and Receive

AFSCME volunteers get pointers on outreach efforts that get results.

St. Paul, Minnesota

When 13 AFSCME political activists from across the state attended a three-day training program here in early August on the best ways to encourage Minnesota members to take a more active role in the state's political process, they learned something very basic but very important.

They were told that the best way to encourage members to play a more active role in the political process is to ask them. So they did. And they found out it works.

What's important to you? On the first evening of the Minnesota AFSCME- sponsored training program--after an exercise on door-to-door canvassing--participants were paired, given lists of AFSCME members in a particular area, and sent off to visit them. They were to discuss the upcoming elections and ask the members about the issues they found most important.

Most of the volunteers were nervous going door-to-door and talking with strangers. But that didn't last long.

"Once you knocked on the first door, it was kind of fun," said Jeff Nachbar from AFSCME Local 9 (Council 14).

"Everyone who was at home in-vited us in," said Local 586 (Council 6) member Terry Pigman. "I thought they were real impressed that it was someone from the union."

"We actually got buzzed into an apartment building," Local 607's (Council 6) Loretta Meinke told the group the next day. "There was a lot of talk about the union."

Local 34 (Council 14) member Wes McGee and Ellen Goedtel from Local 2181 (Council 6) visited a member seriously disabled by multiple sclerosis. "He had a lot of issues with health care and food stamps," Goedtel said. He needed help registering to vote, which McGee and Goedtel provided.

All the participants found the home visits a positive experience, one that they planned to carry through the 1996 campaign and on into the future. After all, they had learned, you only have to ask.

By Susan Ellen Holleran