Deeply Invested, Deeply Integrated, Deeply Satisfying
Deeply integrated volunteers have a special relationship with their organizations
By Martha Merson
The invitations pour into my in-box. Most of them for short tasks.
– Call AZ voters.
– Text young voters this week.
– Join a Signature Collection Canvass
By the time November arrives, most of us will have logged dozens of hours on election related tasks like these. I’m one of many volunteers who enjoys plugging in and disappearing at my convenience. Yet such freedom entails a trade-off between my flexibility and my impact.
DIVs, Deeply Integrated Volunteers, are the opposite of the free-spirited volunteer. They will commit a number of hours per week between now and Nov. 2024. They will work alongside paid staff and master various administrative systems in order to make a significant contribution to voter engagement. Small wonder that DIVs are in great demand. If you aren’t one, could you be?
We asked three DIVs to explain their roles and the rewards of committing to this deeper form of engagement.
Meet Holiday Adair
“I came to Blue Voter Guide when the Turn PA Blue Slack channel announced they were looking for volunteers (in 2022).” Since then, Adair adds, “I have evolved into one of the leads. When I reflect on how to spend my time, I choose actions that impact the most people with the energy and time that I have. With Blue Voter Guide, I have the potential to reach more voters and to influence more voter decisions than I ever could by working phones or knocking on doors.”
Adair works 10-15 hours per week for Blue Voter Guide. “It is VERY flexible as I do it whenever I have a block of time - morning, noon, late evening, whenever!” Is the work taxing? “We research endorsing organizations and the party affiliations of non-partisan candidates. Attention to detail, perseverance, and a knowledge of spreadsheets (which can be acquired!) are useful for Blue Voter Guide’s operations.” In addition, Adair plays an important role in training volunteers and helping when they get into a jam.
Adair, former head of the psychology department at the Penn West California University, says being a DIV filled a void. “When I retired,” Adair notes, “I felt the pull to find something of equivalent demand on my time, skills, and attention. Blue Voter Guide filled that void.”
Meet Nancy Goodban
“We’re all frustrated,” says Nancy Goodban (above left), who has worked with the Center for Common Ground (CFCG) in Silicon Valley, California since 2017. “We all want a sense of purpose in our lives. I tell people, ‘Do something. It’s better than just yelling at the TV. Or moaning about how awful it all is.’” As a DIV, Goodban adds, “you get involved to a greater degree than if you take a phone banking shift here or there. You not only meet other people, you form connections with colleagues and partners and you have them as reminders that you aren’t doing any of this by yourself. A DIV is part of a team.”
Along with being on the national CFCG postcard organizing team, Goodban is also co-organizer for the Silicon Valley chapter of CFCG. The chapter has a very active membership including multiple postcard packeting hubs in the area. Goodban works about 10 hours each week.
Meet Meika A. Mustrangi
Meika Mustrangi (above) loves interacting with many many volunteers by email and phone. “Together we make a difference. It’s a nice feeling. Almost like family.” As the Center for Common Ground’s Manhattan Regional Organizer, Mustrangi fields calls and email inquiries from individuals as well as congregations and other groups interested in CFCG’s initiatives.
She recently helped two new colleagues get started as organizers in the Bronx and Queens. “I used to cover those boroughs. Now we collaborate. It’s lovely. They may organize the work of postcarding, for example, in a different way. I learn from them. There are also some young members on the national leadership team and as a 50-some year old, I love the multi-generational energy we have at Center for Common Ground.”
Being a DIV has other rewards, Mustrangi says. Being “deeply integrated,” DIVs gain a perspective on campaigns that drop-in volunteers miss. “You have the chance to take initiative and be creative,” Mustrangi explains. “How should we approach this temple or church? What talking points should we use?” Leadership meetings with Andrea Miller (Founding Board Member of the Center for Common Ground), Mustrangi adds, “are inspiring and exciting. We see the strategy and get a front seat on the reasoning, such as why we decided to become active in a particular congressional district. The questions I get from volunteers who drop in for discrete tasks remind me that I am getting the whole picture and they aren’t. They don’t know how we decided on the addresses and names or the greeting or the message or even the timing.”
To DIV or not to DIV?
For some being a DIV is not a question; it’s a calling. For Holiday Adair, Nancy Goodban, and Meika A. Mustrangi, deep involvement has opened doors to new relationships, heightened commitment, and made a difference for the work of their organizations. Because many organizations need dedicated volunteers to accomplish their goals, the more DIVs the better.
“I’m in favor of people stretching themselves a bit,” Mustrangi says. “More minds together think better. The result is always better.”
Nancy Goodban worked as a social services administrator and a human services consultant prior to her retirement.
Holiday Adair recently retired from her position as the Chair of Psychology at California University of Pennsylvania.
Meika A. Mustrangi grew up in Brazil and has enjoyed learning about US history through the lens of political activism.
My wife and I are DIVs in our local Indivisible chapter. This post will be very helpful as we try to recruit more DIVs to our leadership team. It describes so well the experience of being involved that way and gets us access to meet with candidates, campaign managers, other DIVs in Indivisibles and allied organizations in our state, the adjacent state and even the co-founder of Indivisible, Ezra Levin.