When I retired at the end of October, I knew that one of the things I’d be doing in “retirement” would be working to help get Bernie Sanders elected President. I just didn’t know how.

Over the holidays I came to realize that a, if not THE, strategic task right now to support Bernie would be to do phone-calling to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first states to be voting. It is critical that Bernie do well in both states to give momentum to his campaign as it moves forward into the unfolding series of votes in other states in the months following.
So I volunteered to do phone calling, and I’ve been doing it every evening this week. More people need to volunteer, and as soon as possible!

I’ve found it to be interesting work. The Sanders campaign has a very high-tech, though easy to learn, phone calling system. It’s so advanced that I literally only need to make one telephone call the entire evening, calling in to get connected to the system. From then on, the system does the phone calling, I talk to people once they pick up, and after the call ends I report the results by posting and sending on a number corresponding to how it went (Bernie supporter, Clinton supporter, undecided, not voting, refused, no answer, etc.). As soon as I send that report, someone else’s number is being called, with the name I’m to ask for when they answer up on the screen.

I figure I’m talking to 40-50 people an hour. The calls are to identify Sanders supporters, as well as those who are undecided and who will get a visit from a Sanders Iowa campaigner going to talk to them in person.

I’ve had some good short discussions with some of the people I’ve spoken with. I’m glad to report that out of the 250 or so people I estimate I’ve talked to, of those who told me a preference more are Bernie supporters than Hillary supporters. A fair number can’t or are not planning to vote on February 1, and a fair number are undecided. And I’ve probably helped to recruit at least a few Bernie volunteers.

It’s good to be doing this work. It’s good to know I’m one of many thousands of Bernie volunteers doing so. It’ll be even better to learn that many more Bernie supporters have signed on at this critical time in the campaign to do the same—click on “volunteer” at berniesanders.com.

Let’s make history in 2016!