Today we’re welcoming back our guest blogger Alex Carrick.  This is what he had to say about meeting the DCCK President Robert Egger:

Last Thursday Robert Egger held a meeting of the V3 Campaign. I was lucky enough to have a seat at the U-shaped table in the confined space that is the DCCK lunch room. Leaders from the local non-profit sector convened to discuss how to make the non-profit sector flex its political muscle.

This conversation began when Robert was talking to an Obama staffer about what non-profits can do to get their voice heard in the federal government. The staffer replied that it won’t happen until the sector unites and represents votes and money. Hence, the V3 Campaign was born.

One of the reoccurring themes of the meeting was that the Obama campaign did such a great job mobilizing volunteers, but after the election all that momentum faded away. Another key point was how his campaign spoke to individuals and encouraged individual action. The members around the table brainstormed how the non-profit sector could achieve a similar result, and how it would overcome the challenges that it regularly faces.

Then the meeting got interesting when the focus shifted towards what can be done in the Virginia Governor’s race this fall. The consensus was to hold a candidate forum with non-profit leaders. But the only way the candidates would make an appearance would be if there were enough eligible voters in the room. One of the leaders from a non-profit association in Northern Virginia spoke from experience about how hard it was in the past to get the non-profit leaders in the same room, much less the candidates. Robert had the ingenious idea of holding a digital forum where instead of going through the trouble of trying to get the candidates to come to us, where we will go out and seek out the candidates when they have a couple extra minutes to record an interview.

It’s amazing how much technology has changed even in the last five years as it pertains to elections. The V3 Campaign is on the verge of something great for the non-profit sector. I recommend everyone check them out at http://twitter.com/v3campaign and http://www.thesmokingpoet.net/id1.html

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