The NMDC: How to Coordinate a Statewide Effort

Can you believe that over half of 06 is now behind us? Were did it go? Looking ahead, there is a great deal of work to be done before November. With time passing so quickly, we need to optimize our efforts in every way possible. Organization is the key to success and the topic I want to discuss today.

Recently, the King Campaign began using Google Calendar to keep track of campaign events. The benefit to this type of web-based approach is two pronged. First, the service is available 24/7 and second, it is secure. What I mean by available is that everyone in the campaign can log on from any computer and access the schedule. Additionally, daily email agendas and cell phone reminders help keep everyone in sync. Because some events like staff meetings are private, we needed to ensure a secure place to keep information. Google makes this possible by using the most sophisticated encryption in the world. The calendar does not however end at our private campaign usage. The Public Calendar on the GK website is also powered by Google.
Now on to the exciting news.

As Sheila Bogost our scheduler put it, "The calendar is one of the best things we have done since the primary." No doubt coordinating the schedule of a statewide campaign with three field offices is a daunting task but Sheila makes it look simple. This is of course because Sheila is an excellent scheduler but now she has the ability to share up-to-the-minute changes with the entire campaign.

Our thinking was that if we are having so much success with this system why not share it with other NM democrats. That is exactly what we are doing. Starting this past week we setup a webpage that would have all of NM's statewide candidates schedules in one place. We call it the New Mexico Democratic Calendar or NMDC. This single scheduling access point keeps all democratic candidates in sync with events and gives the public a chance to see the actions of the party. To our knowledge, this is the first time in history that such a task has been undertaken.

Bill Clinton said, "You live in the age of interdependence." We are one party working to help the people of NM and our efforts should be coordinated to ensure the highest degree of efficiency. We accomplish this by depending on each other to work together to meet our goals. Thank you Gary for having the foresight to use technology to foment party cohesion.