One Year On - Side A

On the 18th April 2017, Theresa May annouced a snap General Election.
On the 18th April 2017, I, like many others, joined the Liberal Democrats.

It was not an easy decision for me, and it is one I still struggle with in ways, but I was fed up with constant slide of the society and the world further and further from the kind of place I wanted to live in, and again like many others, Theresa May's obvious attempt to game the UK political system proved the last straw in making me go "no goddammit, I've had enough."
As Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off said - I am not going to sit here on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life.  I am going to take a stand.

A year on seems a suitable time to reflect on my experience so far, what it's brought me, what I've learned and why I keep coming back.

It took me about a month to really do anything after joining, mostly due to work, but one day, I turned up to the local Southwark Campaign office, told them I had a couple of days spare, and was put to work in the time-honoured, stripe-earning traditions, of delivering leaftets, stuffing envelopes, sorting into walks etc.
I did say I only had a couple of days spare.  Fast forward over the next few weeks and I'm juggling keys to 2 different campaign offices, driving print runs across London at 4am, becoming acutely familiar with how to troubleshoot RISO paperjams, and generally spending almost every free second I have outside of work helping out in one way or another.  At one point, I was even accused of enjoying myself!

Come Polling Day in June, I had become enough of a regular I was in charge of a polling district, despite never having really campaigned properly before, never door knocked, never used MiniVAN, and it being my first election, but my enthusiasm and commitment had been noted and was being encouraged as aggressively as the local party could without scaring me off.
It was a hell of a learning experience.
It took me reasonably far outside my comfort zone and stuck me there for 18 hours straight, and having to lead and guide others whilst doing it.  There are of course, things I would do differently, or just better next time, now I have a good deal more experience under my belt.  I still absolutely hate Telling and the entire prospect of Telling (I still have no idea why it's called that?) is almost enough to put me off the idea of helping out on polling days altogether.  But clearly, something felt right for me about the whole thing, because I've now spent the year following helping to campaign for the person who was in charge of me on Polling Day, and who is now standing as a councillor in the local elections this year (and I should add, it was also her first time campaigning in 2017, how far we've come!)

Roll on September and I manage to luck out with a last minute leave request at work to go to my first Lib Dem Conference - I'm immensely helped by the 'first timer' rate, allowing me to sign up at the last minute for virtually nothing, and the fact that a long standing lib dem friend has a spare bed in his room I can crash in.
I go worried that I won't know anyone/be brave enough to speak to them, will get irritated and frustrated at the general idiocy of people when they tend to gather in large groups, and feeling somewhat fragile for personal reasons at the time too.
I end up at a dinner with 20 people I realise I know most of by the second night, desperately wishing I had more time in my day to attend more sessions, and in my socks at 3am in the hotel bar the night of glee club (in my defence, everyone had abandoned the concept of shoes by that point).  I've already got my hotel booked for Brighton later this year.

I go to London Regional Conference, have some nerdy data discussions (thanks @BaronDenise!), find out I enjoy, and just 'get' compliance far too much for a generally sane person (*cough* GDPR *cough*), and am once again struck by how many faces I recognise in and around the place, and how many greet me pleased to see I keep coming back.

The past year I've been out campaigning once again in Southwark - it's not my local consituency, or ward, but it is the place where I can help make a difference.  I haven't been out as much as I'd like in some ways, but I've been out usually at least once each month.  As we get closer to the local elections on May 3rd I'm out more and more, and I already have Polling Day booked off work (and the day following to recover!)  Whilst I know there are others out there helping, it's odd in some ways that until April I had only ever really been out with just myself and the actual candidates since September - getting people out when there isn't the impetus of a General Election is hard.
But having been out enough times, I find I recognise the streets, the estates and the blocks of flats, I recognise names and know which places are hard to get into, which voters are sympathetic to the Lib Dem outlook, our local talking points and key messages are becoming second nature to me.

It's been a learning experience for me the entire year.  As anyone with any kind of anxiety will understand all too well, the shift that has had to take place in me internally in order to be able to go knock on 100 stranger's doors in an evenin, or buzz each and every door bell on entire blocks of flats, and cheerily speak to as many answer and try and coax quite personal information about their political views out of them is, well, utterly surreal for me.
I of course put a 'game face' on.  Well, a campaign face, I suppose, it's a specific context that's made it easier for me to learn to do it before I have time to let myself worry about it, and it's not a skill that has made the transition to other aspects of my work or social life.  But from where I've started, it's a huge step for my own personal growth.
Now, the concept of delivery leaflets being 'scary' seems ridiculous to me.  It's just a load of mailboxes.  Even for the builds you have to get buzzed into, I've learnt my tricks-of-the-trade on how to get let in via a 10 second intercom chat now and I can blitz my way through a delivery round.

Things that I've learnt over the last year:

• Firstly, one of the best bits of advice I've ever heard that is just generally worth thinking about in life, which came from Autumn 2017 Conference's 'Dealing with Difficult People' session: We read emails like a letter, but we write them like a note - when we write an email, it is quick, with often little thought to format, layout, phrasing, etc.  When we read one from someone, we assume they've spent considerable time writing it, and chosen their town carefully, much like you would with a letter.  A lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication comes from the difference between the two
• As a newbie, go to as many training sessions as you can.  They help.
• Knock on the door before you have a chance to set your anxiety kick in
• Everyone is volunteering and giving their time freely, they'll always try and squeeze just a few more doors out of you, but no one will criticize you when you need to go, even if you got their later, we all have lives.
• When the ink drum in a RISO bursts, don't end up being the guy that fixes that unless you have a change of clothes.
• People, in London certainly, are REALLY NICE on the doors, much to my surprise.  There's the odd aggressively slammed door in your face - I'd probably do the same to a UKIP canvasser if they ever tried it on me, but most people understand you're a volunteer, or just trying to do your best for the world, even if they disagree with you.  Even if they're juggling 3 screaming kids and a growling dog and trying to do the dinner at the time you press the doorbell, they just say, sorry it's a bad time, and you have a chance to politely say sorry to disturb you, have a good evening.  
• Being polite back pays dividends, if someone is busy, leave them in peace.  They will always remember which party the pushy campaigner who insists on trying to speak to them was from - negatively so.
• Showing people how to canvass is much better than telling them.  After a few doors they'll get the idea and usually start speaking to voters themselves.
• About 26 million different tactics for getting the nice lady in flat 34 to buzz you in so you can canvass the entire block.
• The envelope stuffing machine never works.

Things that have helped this:

• Experienced members immediately sharing their knowledge with me so I could help the campaign more - even something as trivial as where is usually the best line of text to tri-fold your A4 letter up to so it fits in the envelope nicely.
• Members explaining the purpose of internal campaign office admin - understanding how my little repetitive actions helped us target and reach voters and how it fed into what other campaigners were doing meant that you had a sense that you were doing something, you felt politicallly active and involved, even if you were just sticking labels on coloured envelopes.
• People being pretty decent about you knocking on all their doors like an annoying double glazing salesman actually makes it a lot easier to get over the nerves and anxiety, thanks People!
• Being rapidly recognised as capable and enthusastic, and being encouraged as much as possible by other members.
• People taking risks, and trusting and encouraging that enthuiasm by giving you responsibility early on.
• From Conference - everyone is keen to hear from the new members, who they are, how they became a lib dem, what they've done, what they want to do, what they think; whether they're 18 or 77 every new member is encouraged to speak up as much as possible
• ALDC - I joined on the recommendation of a friend.  Their resources are fantastic for anyone who wants to learn more about how to be a better campaigner, and what campaigining is effective.  Definitely worth the membership dues.
• Getting out there as often as I can - eveyrone says it, and eveyrone's right.  There is no substitiute for being out in the field, actively talking to voters, seeing how other campaigners do it, what the pros & cons are of different letterboxes (ow fingers!), door entry systems, miniVAN, learning your local area and what resonates with people.  GET OUT THERE.

I will continue to be out campaigning in Southwark over the next few weeks, I will be out on Polling Day trying to get voters out there and ensure they use their votes.
I will be going to Brighton Conference, and dragging a friend with me, for whom it will be his first time (I'd warn him about Glee Club, but honestly, nothing really prepares you for that)
I still really really want to get more involved with the data side of how we understand our voters and what makes for effective campaigining, to learn how to use Connect, and am continuously hampered in this by my a) lack of free time and b) a seemingly general lack of inroads to anything other than on-the-door campaigining (admittedly, I was invited to a Lib Dem hackday this weekend and would LOVE to go and discuss R with them cause everyone loves pretty graphs with great coding behind them, but alas it is postal vote weekend and I'm really needed out campaigning)
I have gone in for the Lib Dems hook, line and sinker; I don't regret it, it's probably one of the better decisions I've made in life, and there is still so much I would like to get involved with.


As a final note:
Two of my friends, long standing and well-known Lib Dems recently got a dog.  Their first ever.  A rescue animal. I grew up with several rescue animals, and had a dog for 10 years; I'm used to them, and can read their mannerisms quite well.  It's slightly odd that as I'm watching my friends 'learn' how to own a dog, and rolling my eyes at things that seem so obvious to me but aren't your first time around, they are no doubt finding no small amount of amusement in watching me discover my internal Lib Dem campaigner, something they have both done for years.  Life is funny sometimes.