Why We Started the Obama Alumni Association

I walked into an Obama field office in 2007 and State Director Buffy Wicks and Regional Field Director Brent Messenger showed me a map of California, asked if I wanted to be a “Field Organizer” and set me on a campaign path across numerous states. I learned how to organize: building relationships, leading house meetings, phone banks, and launching canvasses. I was held accountable to numeric goals, hard to hit, but set up to help me succeed.

I was one of thousands of people trained on the campaign to believe in myself and my country, and then armed with tools to make an impact. Ten years later the Obama Alumni Association strives to help our community by connecting and supporting the many efforts that have stemmed from that mission.

Some of us met on our 12th hour of calls as first-time Field Organizers. Others met at Camp Obama in 2007, and some even met in the halls of the White House, a place we never expected to end up. Over the last 10 years we have fought many progressive battles, we have pulled all-nighters, met our future best friends, and grown up together — I even met my fiancé on the 2008 campaign. How we stay connected, support each other and continue the work that the President inspired us to do — will tell the real story of Obama Alumni.

My team included high schoolers too young to vote, but not too young to be heard. They were making calls alongside people born in the 1930s, graduate students who paused their studies to be involved, experienced activists and professional organizers. Everyone brought together by a young Senator from Illinois who taught us to “re-imagine the world”.

I remember the first time I met a new volunteer who had no interest in politics — until the year she realized what it could do for her community. I asked her to share her personal story and invited her to help us make this country a place where she’d want to live. It was inspiring to understand what compelled her to step forward, and to then empower her to take those conversations back to her community. She returned every day not just because of Barack Obama, the hope posters, or me, but because of them — her family, the teachers who taught her, the kids she grew up with — her community. We were obviously not the first political campaign to use a community organizing model, but it felt powerful with the inspiration of our candidate and volunteers who felt empowered within it.

I was one of the organizers who worked in the Administration after the campaign journey ended, in the White House and Department of Labor. I’ve grown increasingly inspired over the years by the mission and power of government — by our purpose that President Obama so eloquently described as “to steer the ocean liner two degrees north or south so that, ten years from now, suddenly we’re in a very different place than we were”.

Many of my mentors and bosses made big sacrifices in their personal and professional lives to advance the President’s goals. Yet, it wasn’t just the President’s government that reflected his values. It was about “the ripple effect” that he frequently spoke of — alumni taking their experience and bringing it to all different lines of work, across all sectors and nations.

And sure enough, new organizations, companies and leaders have emerged. Within the last few years my former field organizer friend Erin started Rhize, Alex started Landed, Sally started The Nexus Fund, and Will started Groundswell. Eric Lesser and Michael Blake, among many, ran for public office (and won), and thousands joined efforts to pass ACA and fight for immigration reform.

The President’s words at our 2009 staff ball have stuck with many alumni:

“But here’s the thing that’s most important to me, is that you take the spirit, the culture of this campaign, and you keep applying it not just to campaigns. That sense of possibility, that you guys can do anything, that you can re-imagine the world, that you can lead not by trying to manipulate your way or push down somebody else to get your way, but instead lead through the force of your example, and your discipline, and your creativity. I just hope that you carry that with you everywhere you go….because I promise you that if everybody in this hall is willing to keep doing what you guys did over the last two years, then I am optimistic about America.”

The idea that everyone involved in the campaign and Administration should apply the same values, discipline and skills in many different sectors has continued to reunite and bring together Obama Alumni as we start new ventures — whether it’s campaigns, pursuits of public office, companies or movements.

And that is why we started the Obama Alumni Association. In 2010, as Obama alumni moved back to their hometowns, changed jobs, and started families, we realized we needed a structure to keep our family together.

Over the years, the Obama Alumni Association has grown into a network with an expanding number of regional chapters — who all work to keep alumni connected and engaged in local politics, issue campaigns, job opportunities and community service projects. We try to get together around certain special dates:

• January 20 — The first inauguration of President Obama
• March 23 — The anniversary of the Affordable Care Act
• August 4 — President Obama’s Birthday
• November 4 and November 6–2008 and 2012 Election Days

The goal is to celebrate, connect and continue to plan how we can all work together and with other progressive allies. We share actions that need support, and updates on new organizations launched by alumni. We encourage people to use each other’s strengths to brainstorm ideas, connect employees and employers, run for office, and mobilize around issues and candidates. Most alumni know how to knock out a walk packet, but also know there is no such thing as a candidate with “no chance” or a bold idea that isn’t worthy of taking the risk to launch.

On that day I set foot in my first field office in 2007 I had no plans to work in political organizing for the next decade. The people I met and the courage the President instilled in us — to believe in ourselves and the understanding of what our democracy is powered to do — changed my life. I will always be an organizer and I will never stop fighting for the things that I believe our country is capable of.

We always knew that the Obama Alumni’s network was going to be needed more in 2016 than ever before. Alumni are leaving DC, finishing grad school, and launching their new ideas across the world. Therefore, we’ve created a new website (www.obamaalumniassociation.org) and are asking more people to lead regional groups. This is just the beginning, and an important step in creating the space to answer the same questions we asked in 2009 on conference calls and in basement meetings — how do we create the change that we seek?

It is on us to support each other’s new endeavors, take new organizers wrapping up campaigns out for coffee, lift up projects, fund candidates, and work closely with progressive allies.

The power of this network is not that every single member will support all the same causes or same candidates — we likely never will. Its power is that we were trained for moments like this — some will organize to protect the President’s legacy ACA, some will go fight for the thousands of immigrants in our country, hundreds will run for local office, many will start new movements, organizations and companies. and together, we will re-imagine the world.