11 Days In

It’s been 11 days since I officially launched my campaign, announcing to the world that I’m running for office, and I don’t really even know how to finish this sentence from there. For a virtually unknown candidate the reception has been strong, people seem genuinely excited about the campaign and have been receptive to my message—excited about my message!—in a way I wasn’t really expecting. I’ve raised a few hundred dollars so far, mostly from my friends and family, which is humbling, and already has been enormously helpful getting the ball rolling, but at the same time I can see exactly why campaigns are so annoying about always asking for money because, even being careful and trying to do this as scrappy as possible, that money is going quick. Tomorrow is the first day I can start collecting signatures to get on the ballot, and it feels too soon to even start thinking about that yet, but I know I absolutely need to get that going even though I only have two campaign events under my belt, and only one in person. Do I have enough volunteers? Do I have enough money? Do I have enough time?

The answer to all three of those questions is probably not.

But that can’t stop me. I haven’t felt like I’ve had those things since I made the decision to run, and yet here we are. A successful start to a campaign, two events under my belt, and a handful of people willing to help. People have done more with less.

The first event, my launch party live stream, started rough. We were having technical issues and didn’t get started for a full 15 minutes after we were supposed to go live. People were asking me questions days in advance that I should have already had the answers to but didn’t until the day of. We didn’t have the charity link in the description and no one could put it in the chat because YouTube doesn’t like links. I had a full panic attack in my campaign manager’s bathroom because oh my gosh this is really happening! I was terrified of saying something stupid, of my guests not showing up, of having no one in the chat, of my campaign ending before it had even really started—and none of that happened.

It went well! All of my guests showed up, people were in the chat engaging, watching, I felt like I came across well for the most part, which was validated by people who would tell me otherwise later. There were good bits that I can clip and post on tiktok (whenever I eventually get around to it…). Everything was okay.

Then it was time to work on the second event. The charity cast-on party at Fiber Friends Studios, a local yarn shop I frequent. I’d gotten it in motion before the launch and live stream, but since it came after several aspects became “I’ll worry about that later”, except later was now and I had to answer questions I didn’t have answers to. I’d worked briefly as an events assistant, but I’d never been the main point person before. I’d seen first hand how much work goes into these things, and still approached it with my, “I’ll figure it out, it’ll all come together!” attitude. Everything felt like a scramble up until the last minute, I didn’t even promote that there would be doughnuts because until that morning I still hadn’t decided what food I was bringing (pizza? maybe coffee? doughnuts only occurred to me that morning when I thought of all the places I’d be walking past on the way). Honestly, I was scared the owner of the shop would hate me after I was such a nightmare to plan with.

Again, my fears were unfounded. We had knitting patterns and stickers and doughnuts at an absolutely lovely venue where I already felt at home. And, most importantly, people showed up! The room was full, we had to pull in extra chairs because the community Fiber Friends Studios already built was interested in the campaign! They listened to my platform, told me what issues they care about, and cast on hats! We knit together and laughed and it felt less and less like I Was Putting On An Event and instead like I was just hanging out with some awesome new friends.

One of the things that’s happened in the past 11 days is that I was put in contact with someone who has event planning experience, and we grabbed dinner together to chat. I was telling her about my ideas for future events, and some of the advice she gave me was that I need to redefine “doing good” with the campaign. She said doing good doesn’t only mean volunteering and donations, but bringing people together in community with each other. That’s what the knitting event felt like. I hope as we continue, all the events do.

I’ve also learned some practical things about event planning. First, the sense I got from my event assistant job that events seem like a complete mess and then somehow fall together at the last moment is correct, but also I need more time before each one. Second, I need to try to think more simple; I have so many complex ideas for things, and while maybe a few events can have more moving parts, especially as we get started the simpler the better. And finally, as much as I am a very capable person who can do a lot of things, I cannot do everything, everywhere, all at once. Learning individuals’ strengths and delegating appropriately is not causing them undo burden, it’s leading. Which is kinda the point of this whole thing, after all.

I can’t get all the signatures I need myself. I’m going to have to ask for help—I’ve started asking for help. Letting people know it’s coming and asking if they’ll take a couple sheets and gather signatures when the time comes. And so far my community is saying yes.