RPCV's For Obama Founder Tom Leonard believes that from more than 190,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, at least 10,000 are interested, even passionate, about electing Barack Obama the next President of the United States. The site he has created will allow former Volunteers to connect with others who are interested in the same objective. RPCVsForObama has a goal for each of the 10,000 members to reach out and pledge to produce 10 votes for Obama. "Because of the thin margin of success in previous elections, the resulting 100,000 votes in November can make a difference", says Leonard.
RPCVs organize online for Obama
RETURNED PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS ORGANIZE ONLINE FOR OBAMA
BURBANK, CA, August 1, 2008 - As the internet becomes a valuable political campaign tool in this Presidential Election, a new web site has been launched targeting the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) community.
Just launched, RPCVsForObama.com (www.rpcvsforobama.com) has three goals:
. To make 10,000 connections within the RPCV community resulting in 100,000 votes for Obama in November;
. To provide a platform for former Peace Corps Volunteers to give their advice to Barack Obama on how the Peace Corps can fulfill its goals;
. To utilize social networking tools for former Volunteers to connect with other RPCV's.
RPCV's For Obama Founder Tom Leonard believes that from more than 190,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, at least 10,000 are interested, even passionate, about electing Barack Obama the next President of the United States. The site he has created will allow former Volunteers to connect with others who are interested in the same objective.
RPCVsForObama has a goal for each of the 10,000 members to reach out and pledge to produce 10 votes for Obama. "Because of the thin margin of success in previous elections, the resulting 100,000 votes in November can make a difference", says Leonard.
The internet provides the opportunity for this new type of grassroots effort. Requiring only very limited resources, these sites can target a very specific group and reach a much larger audience than has been possible in the past. And social networking tools - such as creating profiles, posting messages, sending email, using instant messaging, and sending text messages - allow for greater interaction among the site's member group.
The features available on the site include links for voter registration, absentee voting information for Americans living at home and abroad, and ideas on how members can organize their own "get out the vote" campaign - called the "November Project".
Members of RPCVsForObama are also encouraged to "Tell Barack" their ideas and opinions on how to make the Peace Corps an effective organization.
The next step in the development of the site is to attract the attention of the RPCV community. The social networking sites have already demonstrated the ability of the internet to attract large groups of users interested in a common subject. Facebook and MySpace have sizable groups who are interested in the Peace Corps and other types of public service opportunities.
The site is not associated with the official Obama web site. "We have been inspired by their groundbreaking internet efforts and we just want him to win" Leonard says.
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Tom Leonard was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji, teaching at the Fiji Institute of Technology in Suva. He has worked in the marketing groups at Netscape, AOL, and Netflix and now works as an internet marketing consultant. His company specializes in database marketing, search, affiliate marketing, and eDM projects. The most recent focus has been working in the growing fields of political and video internet marketing.
