Community Slack Overview

Table of Contents

Why Join the VSA Community Slack

First of all, thank you for checking out the Vote Save America Community. We’re excited to have you here. We think we’re a pretty cool bunch, and we hope you find our space encouraging and helpful.

You might be asking yourself: What’s the point of the Vote Save America Community Slack? Why should I join?

The purpose of the Vote Save America Community Slack is to create a space where you can connect with other volunteers, take action online with VSA partners, and find opportunities to meet up and take action in-person with other VSA volunteers. Here are some ways we’ll do just that:

1. Find your volunteer people

If you’re looking for some of the kindest political nerds in the game, we got you. If you’re looking for a place where you can ask your (never dumb) volunteer questions, or share sage advice for your years of organizing, mobilizing, and knocking doors, we got you. Heck, if you’re looking for a place to chat about the National Women’s Soccer League and young adult fantasy lit, we really got you. Lots of overlap there for some reason.

2. Chat it up with other volunteers in our Slack while taking action with a virtual event

What’s better than joining a phone bank to reach out to young voters? Doing it with other volunteers of course! One fun thing we like to do is keep a chat going in a Slack channel while we call or text with a partner org. Our “phone/text bank threads” are a great way to keep in touch with other VSA volunteers while you take action.

3. Connect with volunteers in state/territories channels

We have Slack channels for all 50 states, DC, and a channel for volunteers who live in US territories or abroad. There are a lot of reasons to join your state/territories channel:

  • Connect with local volunteers — Use your state channel to connect virtually with volunteers that live near you.
  • Canvass meet-ups — In 2024, VSA will place a strong emphasis on talking to voters at the doors in our target states. Knocking doors is always so much more fun if you have a buddy to meet up with. Use your state channel to coordinate days to knock doors together.
  • Other IRL meet-ups — Whether volunteers in your area want to get together to attend a Pod Save America live show or do an in-person training led by a fellow VSA volunteer, use your state channels as a first step to get the ball rolling.
  • Find content to share on social media or through relational organizing — In today’s hyper-fragmented media landscape, you are one of the best sources of information for the people you know. Use your state channels to find and share informative content.

4. Book Club

At Vote Save America, we treat our book club the way we treat out volunteering — with serious amounts of fun. But really, we read books that level up our organizing skills and deepen relationships with fellow volunteers. Be on the lookout for a VSA Book Club as an opportunity to make new friends and get yourself ready to volunteer in 2024.

Slack post announcing the start of a Get Out The Vote phone bank discussion thread. It starts by saying there are threeSlack post announcing the start of a Get Out The Vote phone bank discussion thread. It starts by saying there are three days left until Election Day, and then provides steps for how volunteers can take action today. days left until Election Day, and then provides steps for how volunteers can take action today.
A group of five VSA volunteers sit around a table at night in a dimly lit restaurant, all smiling towards the camera. They were celebrating meeting each other for the first time while canvassing in Georgia.
Slack post announcing the start of a Pod Save America discussion thread. It asks volunteers to let everyone know their favorite snack in the thread. Above the announcement post is a YouTube link to the episode.
A couple screenshots of our Slack and an IRL meet-up! Image #1 is one of our phone bank threads. Chit chat while you save democracy, you know. Image #3 is one of our fan-favorite podcast discussion threads. The middle image is of 5 VSA volunteers meeting for the first time to knock doors in Georgia.

A Look Back at 2023

In 2023, the VSA Community Slack proved there really are No Off Years. VSA volunteers made calls, sent texts, and donated their time, energy, and dollars to help Democrats in races across the country throughout the year. Here’s a taste of what we accomplished together:

April — Wisconsin Supreme Court: In April, we helped elect Janet Protasiewicz to a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, giving progressives a 4-3 advantage to protect abortion rights, create fair maps, and more. Things…seem to be going better.

June — Virginia Democratic Primary: In June, VSA teamed up with New Virginia Majority to help Lashrecse Aird win in a Democratic primary, ensuring that the Virginia Senate includes advocates for abortion rights and reproductive health.

August — Ohio Issue 1 (Vote No) ballot initiative: In August, VSA volunteers called into Ohio to make sure Ohio voters voted no on (this) Issue 1. This ballot initiative would determine if future ballot initiatives (aka see below) would require 60% to pass, or stay at the current level of 50%.

November — Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania elections: In the fall, VSA put its efforts behind the Virginia General Assembly elections, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court race, and the Ohio Issue 1 (Vote Yes) constitutional amendment. All three were, at the end of the day, great victories for Dems.

  • The November Ohio Vote Yes ballot initiative paved the way for abortion rights to be enshrined into the Ohio constitution. Passing by a 56%-44% margin, winning the August Vote No campaign was clearly a huge victory for Ohio voters.
  • Democrats took back the Virginia House and held on to the Virginia Senate. Let’s make Virginia the next Democratic trifecta in 2025, yeah?
  • Democrats won the single open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, retaining their previous 5-2 majority on the court.

Missed out on the 2023 fun but want to get a glimpse into what it was like? Check out a few events that we put on last year. Getting Lovett to play “The Kinsey Scale of Volunteer Actions” was a particular highlight for all.

VSA Slack Overview

In between the canvasses and phone banks, we like to have some fun in our Slack too! Keep an eye out in our channels for icebreakers, podcast discussion threads, adorable pics of cats and dogs, pictures of completed puzzles, and much more.

See below for a complete list of our Slack channels where you can hop in to take action or just find a place to hang out with fellow volunteers like yourself.

Slack Channels

#00-start-here → If you’re new to our Slack, start here. It’ll include an overview of what we get up to and get you caught up and what we’re doing right now.

#01-introduce-yourself → Say hi to your newest VSA friends here!

#02-announcements → Channel where we post our weekly “Bird’s Eye View” to get you caught up on what’s going on in the Slack. Start off your week here!

#03-community-hq → Think of it as your volunteer living room. We’ll use this channel for phone bank threads, weekly icebreakers, and more.

#04-help → Like it sounds, post here if you need help! For anything (VSA related).

#05-organizing-level-up → Where we host our virtual phone/text bank threads. Also the channel to discuss topics related to organizing and campaigns or to post a really great training resource.

#06-call-crew → Call Crew is a team of the most on fire, supportive, and encouraging volunteers at VSA. We phone bank together weekly and attend training and check-in calls so we feel good about taking action.

#07-social-squad → Social media organizing will be a key tactic we take part in throughout 2024. We’ll use this channel to organize ourselves to take action. Also to post memes.

#08-every-last-vote → We’ll use this channel as calls-to-action for anything related to voter protection to multilingual phonebanks.

#09-volunteer-pics-and-stories → Use this channel to post pictures/selfies of you out in the volunteer wild, canvassing, or making calls on a virtual phone bank.

#10-field-office-XX → Join your state or territory/abroad field office channel to connect with volunteers near you. (Note: Each #field-office channel is opt-in; you must join yourself.)

#11-high-notes → Have a volunteer-related high note, cherry, good-feels story to share? Share it here!

#12-zen-den → Whether it’s puzzles or the great outdoors, use this channel as a way to step back from the phone banks and find a peaceful moment.

#13-friends-of-the-books → Our unofficial book club channel, let us know what you’re reading here.

#13-friends-of-the-pods → Can’t stop thinking about a recent episode of PSA or What A Day? Neither can we! Let’s chat about it here.

#13-friends-of-the-showtime | #13-friends-of-the-sports-games | #13-friends-of-the-tunes
These are a few extra fun channels to talk about movies, music, sports, NYT Games, Zelda, and more. (Note: These are opt-in channels that you must join yourself.)

#14-pet-pics → A Crooked Media tradition, post pictures of your pets here, and often.

#15-politics-and-policy-chat → Twitter, but kinder. Use this channel to talk all things politics and policy. Read an amazing article this week and want to share with the group? Discuss it here.

Community Guidelines

Uh-oh. If you ever get these sent in a DM from a Vote Save America staff member, you know you’ve done goofed. Jokes aside, we want to take care of every volunteer that joins the Community Slack, including you! 2024’s gonna be a long year — let’s get through it together.

Take a peek at our Community Guidelines and we’ll see you in Slack soon!