When you first volunteer for just about anything, your excitement and enthusiasm are usually pretty high.  In other words, you’re not “burnt out” yet.

The following are a six suggestions on how to channel your energy in ways that are likely to keep you involved and help you get as much satisfaction from your efforts as possible - and keep you from burning out!

Make reasonable commitments

It is much better for you and any cause that you volunteer for to start with a realistic schedule.  Think about how you can achieve a happy medium between the time you’re able to contribute and the needs of the cause you’re involved with.  That way, everyone knows what to expect.  Just remember that in the end, it’s your dependability that’s most important.

Get to know everyone involved

In politics, personal relationships are the glue that holds things together, and knowing other likeminded activists will help you be more effective in the future.  Attend regular meetings and events as often as possible.  The best way to understand a group or cause is through the people who have committed themselves to it.  And knowing other likeminded activists will help you be more effective in the future.

Set personal goals

Just like any other endeavor, it’s a good idea to set specific objectives that you want to accomplish through your involvement.  How involved do you want to become?  Just a volunteer or become a leader?  What skills do you want to learn?  Who do you want to get to know?  What do you want to know more about?  Know what you want and why you’re involved before you get started.

Go the extra mile

People who are willing to give an extra effort and “fill in the gaps” when necessary are essential to making any new effort a success, not to mention sustaining it.

Keep a good attitude

Working in politics isn’t all fun and games, (in case you were wondering).  Sometimes it requires hours of menial work, such as delivering literature all over creation, or calling voters you don’t know.  A good attitude can boost morale, but a bad one can kill team spirit.  Always be positive, because people want to work with problem-solvers, not problem-starters.

Recruit others

Any group or cause can never have too many volunteers.  Share the vision with your friends, family, and others.  Invite them to meetings.  Send them updates.  The more manpower, the better your group or cause will do.  And the more conservatives that get involved in our political system, the better off the conservative movement will be as a whole.

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Related entries:

•  Patience and diligence are political virtues

(You can find tips like this and much more in my “Grassroots 101: Grassroots Training Series”.)

Over two thousand years ago a Roman general wanted to prove to his soldiers that perseverance in combat was more important than strength.  He had two horses brought before his men, one a healthy stallion and the other an old nag.

He then ordered one of his strongest men to pull off the weak horse’s tail.  When the soldier failed, the general ordered one of the weakest men in his command to pull the tail off of the stronger horse, but to do it one hair at a time.  Soon the horse’s tail was gone. 

Success in politics often requires the same patience and perseverance. 

Don’t be discouraged over everything that needs to be done or could be done, but rather focus on what you can do – or even “like” to do.  As a result, you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

In order to truly have an impact on our culture and our political system, the conservative movement needs volunteers that are diligent and have the patience to stay involved and finish the job. 

Whether it's someone running a church voter registration drive who only registers one fellow church member to vote, a precinct captain who identifies only one like-minded voter, or someone who joins an online campaign and forwards messages to their friends, each contribution augments the overall effort to give conservatives a greater voice in their government.

The key isn’t that a few do a lot, but rather that many do at least a little.  People like you that are willing to do the little things to collectively accomplish the great things.

Remember, many hands make light work.

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Related entries:

• A review of online organization tips
• Basic online campaign tools and activities
• Tips for conservative online organization

(You can find tips like this and much more in my “Grassroots 101: Grassroots Training Series”.)

Here’s a review of some of the central concepts of online organization that I've covered previously.  There's much more that you can review in the "related posts" listed at the bottom if you've missed any of them.

Create a “home-base”

Use either a complete website, a blog (such as with Wordpress or Blogger), or a free online group or campaign, (with AktNow, Google, Yahoo or Ning).  This gives you a central location where people can find you and that you can link back to in your offline and online activity.

Leverage the Internet

Choose online activities that will compliment and enhance your offline activities.  (For example, online petitions, newsletters, etc.)

Get Social

Create social network profiles, (ex. Facebook & Twitter), and link them to your home-base.  Let your supporters know you’re there.  These services expose you to individuals who most likely would never otherwise see your content.  And they can help with recruitment, as others can see your content being promoted by people they may know, (essentially giving you a referral)

Promote your content

Use email and social networking to push your content to others and expand your network.  (for example, you can use services such as Twitterfeed to “feed” your blogs RSS content to a Twitter or Facebook account).

Multiply your efforts

Don't try to do it all yourself.  Involve and coordinate with others.  The more pople you have contributing content and/or promoting your content, the faster you'll grow and the better off you'll be.  Be sure to actively request that supporters forward and promote your content or links via email, Twitter and Facebook.

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Related entries:

• Why conservatives should organize online
• Tips for conservative online organization
• Basic online campaign tools and activities

(You can find tips like this and much more in my “Grassroots 101: Grassroots Training Series”.)

Since we’ve been discussing online activity and organization lately, I wanted to post a list of some of the specific things you can do online in support of a campaign or organization, (or to augment any “offline” organization activity). Here's a handy list...

Create an online campaign:

Some online services let you use their sites to host campaigns where you can set up petitions, online faxes to members of Congress, private online groups for your supporters, etc.  These services are usually free, (or at least cheaper than creating your own website!).  (Check out AktNow as an example)

Online polls and surveys:

Conduct opinion polls of members or supporters.  These can also be useful when trying to identify prospective supporters, (ex. set up an online survey that asks questions that will help you identify likely prospects and capture their email addresses – then email links to the survey to your supporters, encourage email forwarding, post it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Build your database:

Once you’ve got a spot online, you can have a central place where people can sign up for a newsletter so you can communicate with them on a regular basis.  (You can do it yourself with your own email programs, or online solutions such as Constant Contact, TalkList, or ListServe).

Post Information:

Create a central place where supporters can come and get important information about your cause that they can use to help recruit others and/or communicate to elected officials in lobbying efforts, (such as talking points, flyers, voter guides, scripts for telephone calls, etc.).  You can also offer your information in a PDF format that supporters can download and print on desktop printers.

Provide links:

Offer a list of important and useful links that supporters can use, (such as to key contact information for elected officials, local newspaper “letters-to-the-editor” information, talk-radio call-in numbers, voter registration links, etc.).  Also post links to your Facebook and Twitter sites, (if you have any).

Online scheduling:

You can use online calendar services to maintain a schedule of important dates and events that you can easily update and keep people informed, (free services such as Google Calendar even allow people to sign up for email alerts from the calendar).

A successful Internet presence, (web site, blog, email and social media), better enables you to be found by potential supporters, to communicate and get them organized.

All of these elements should be incorporated into any online organizational strategy.  If you’re not online, or you don’t give people an opportunity to “sign up” online, then you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity.

Remember, it’s not just about who YOU know, or who may stumble across your information, but it’s about your supporters – and who THEY know.

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Related entries:

• Tips for conservative online organization
• Why conservatives should organize online
• What churches can and cannot do in politics

(You can find tips like this and much more in my “Grassroots 101: Grassroots Training Series”.)

Whether everyone in politics realizes it yet or not (still "not" for many people), online organization is not only here to stay, but it represents the quickest, most impactful and cost effective form of political organization.

And when it comes to organizing and campaigning on the Internet, there are some fundamental tips you should keep in mind in order to be more successful.

Be Visible:

Voters expect to be able to find you (and information about you or your cause) online.  Increasingly, some sort of web presence is a minimum threshold for credibility of any serious organization.  If they can’t find you, they can’t interact with you.

Generally speaking, a website gives you an Internet headquarters, or “hub”, to operate from.  It’s a place to park critical information about your group or cause, to promote action items that your supporters can act on, and make it easy for your supporters to join your cause, reference your information and pass it on to others.

You can create an online site/blog easily with services such as Wordpress or Blogger.  Short of that, you can easily create your own online “group” (for free) with services like Ning, Google and Yahoo.  These can be public, private or moderated however you see fit.

Keep it Fresh:

How often do you come across sites that look abandoned, or have out-dated information?  And how often will you go back if that’s the case?  Keep that in mind when maintaining your online presence.  Think like the type of person you want to attract.  What information are they looking for?  What are they likely to act on if you make it easy for them?

In addition to the “fixed” information you might add to a site (such as fact sheets and information about your group or issue), you can keep sites fresh by adding a blog, (even letting several supporters help keep it updated), or adding newsfeeds on related topics with RSS feeds, etc.

The better and more useful the content, the more people will visit, and the more often they’ll forward the site and/or its content on to others.  Which means your site can become an email list building machine.

Get Social:

If a website is your Internet “hub”, then think of social media as the spokes.  And it can take your Internet presence to a whole new level.

Given that social media is an “opt-in” type of medium and also tends to be much more personal in nature, it can give you or your cause much more credibility when people share your links and information with others.  In other words it’s like the Internet version of “word of mouth” advertising.

According to Pew Research, around 20% of all Internet users that were surveyed indicated that they either received or shared political information via a social network in the run-up to the 2008 election.  These are real people that live in the “real” world where you may be looking to identify volunteers for a precinct and/or church based organization.

Social media enhances your ability to aggregate small expressions of support from a large number of people into a greater whole, (in fundraising for example) – which means that it provides leverage.

If people are a primary resource in politics, then the “other’ people that they know are potential resources as well.  Social media makes it easier to leverage your chief resource.

Be Outgoing:

Don’t just create a web presence and wait for the world to come knocking at your door.  Do some promotion. 

In the business world, you wouldn’t spend time creating a product for sale and then keep quiet about it.  You would advertise.  The same principle applies here.  You make use of the tools you have (and those you can get) to let people know you’re there and why they should be interested.

The Internet offers a constantly expanding menu of ways to reach out.  The most familiar is email and, given that virtually everyone who’s online has an email address, it’s the most fundamental.

The newer avenues are the social networks mentioned earlier.  Set up profiles for your site on those services and link them back to your site.  Send an email to your list letting them know that you’re up on those networks, (“Hey, we’ve got a Facebook page up – pass it on!”).

By regularly posting messages on those services with links back to pages or blog entries in your site, you “push” your content to a larger audience than would otherwise be exposed to your message.

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Related entries:

• Why conservatives should organize online
• What churches can and cannot do in politics
• Organizing churches with church contacts

(You can find tips like this and much more in my “Grassroots 101: Grassroots Training Series”.)