Ben Wendell ran out of the Bloomington Democratic Party office mid-meeting Saturday afternoon to put more money in his parking meter to make sure he didn’t get a ticket.
“Twenty dollars that I give to Bloomington is $20 I can’t give to Hillary,” Wendell said.
This is the mentality of almost every office manager and volunteer, said Terri Siler, Hillary for Indiana volunteer office manager for the state headquarters in Indianapolis.
Siler and Marcella Jewell, state director for the Hillary Clinton campaign, ran the first office manager training session at the Bloomington Democratic Party office Saturday afternoon.
Office manager duties include greeting volunteers and keeping the office informed with what is happening with the Clinton campaign, Jewell said.
Above all, the office manager’s job is to establish a culture of caring and dedication in the office, Siler said.
The Indianapolis office is a giant family, and she hopes this will continue into the Bloomington office, she said.
Jewell said the office culture is centered around the Democratic philosophy that everyone is important and has something to offer.
“One of our biggest principles is that nobody comes in and doesn’t get acknowledged,” she said.
Many people who volunteer with the campaign are going through personal struggles and are looking to find a purpose, Jewell said. The office culture should create a safe haven for everyone.
Siler said the Indianapolis office has become so close since it opened in July that they don’t know what they are going to do when the election is over.
She has become a mom of 60 volunteer “children,” she said.
“We’ll be working in the office together all day, and then we’ll go home and be texting each other at midnight,” Siler said. “We never stop talking. We’re family.”
The other party has done nothing but fearmonger, Siler said.
The election has been a psychologically horrible experience for a lot of people, so volunteers at the office lean on each other for support, she said.
Siler first volunteered for the John F. Kennedy campaign when she was 11 years old, and she has volunteered for many campaigns since then.
She said she has never experienced a presidential election like this.
She added, it is now a “life or death situation,” so training volunteers and office managers is more important than ever.
Currently, phone banks are the main voter outreach method for the party, Jewell said.
The winning campaign is the one that can talk to the most people and turn them out to vote, she said.
“It’s simple, but not really at all,” she said.
Mary-Kay Rothert, a Bloomington resident who attended the training session, said this election is critical.
That’s why she wants to be an office manager.
The next president will fill at least one Supreme Court seat and decide the future of this country for the next 30 years, Tom Zeller, a Bloomington resident, said.
“Up and down the ticket we have an unusual chance to make a change,” Zeller said. “Other than that, no pressure.”
