PPOW is a 100% volunteer-powered political party. If you have the time and passion, we invite you to volunteer with us.
Below is a list of volunteer opportunities. Look them over. Select which ones interest you. Then volunteer by filling out the Volunteer form. Once you submit that form, one of your fellow volunteers will contact you.
Welcome aboard!
Volunteer!
PPOW volunteers generally fall into 2 categories: 1) Working Members, 2) Project Volunteers. Read more about the volunteer opportunities and time commitments for both categories of volunteers below.
Become A PPOW Member
Don’t have any time to volunteer? (Believe me, we understand.) Support us by becoming a PPOW member. Membership fees are optional. However, if you can kick in $5 or $10 a month, those dollars are much needed and appreciated.
Give Financial Support
To be frank, we really need your financial support. We are a new party with many start-up and ongoing costs. We need money to pay for flyers, banners, our FEC-related accountant, website hosting fees, and much more. Are you able to offer financial support? Donate Here.
Which Type of Volunteer Are You?
Working Member Volunteers
Our Working Member Volunteers have both the time and passion to attend strategy and/or structural meetings on a regular basis in addition to the time to accomplish needed PPOW tasks outside of those meetings. Basically, people who have the time and passion to support PPOW and to fight for their fellow Washingtonians.
Working member Volunteers should have about 3 to 5 hours a week available to spend on PPOW-related activities. We understand that your time available will vary. Check out the Working Groups (WG) and their activities, listed below, to find which one you would like to join.
Project Volunteers
Our Project Volunteers are also passionate about PPOW and fighting for their fellow Washingtonians, but don’t have the time and/or interest to attend regular meetings. Project Volunteers help do specific tasks on an ongoing basis or just occasionally as time allows. They work along with Working Member Volunteers to accomplish all the varied tasks that need to be done to grow PPOW and help all the residents of Washington.
Explore the “More Volunteer Opportunities” listed below to one or more that interests you. The list of opportunities below is not comprehensive, feel free to ask about others or suggest something not yet listed.
Join A Working Group
Media & Messaging
Meets: Every other Tuesday @ 6 to 7:30 pm.
Chair: Betsy Czark, Vice Chair: Shannon Skinner
Media & Messaging (M&M) is an active group with a broad mandate to promote PPOW and its goals, principles, and values. Participants are working on many of the items below, however, some are still to be implemented and many more projects/activities have not yet been considered. Do you want to help get the word out about PPOW?
Media & Messaging Activities
● Work on one or more social media platforms. Create content and/or comment on relevant posts, encourage other volunteers to comment, and/or moderate. Currently, we have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. Our platforms will expand as we have people who want to take that on.
● Work in the Newsletter Circle to create, curate, and solicit content and images for a PPOW newsletter published every other Wednesday.
● Help with print media outreach efforts. This could include: 1) writing or soliciting members to write letters to the editor as well as op-eds in Washington State news outlets 2) writing/publishing press releases 3) contacting journalists to suggest articles on PPOW and relevant issues 4) other outreach efforts some of which may come out of one of your suggestions
● Radio and Podcast Outreach – 1) create PPOW-friendly or focused podcasts, 2) obtain guest spots on relevant podcasts, 3) solicit interviews on local radio stations regarding WPP or on issues that PPOW supports 4) other efforts to get news of PPOW out onto Washington’s soundwaves.
● Help develop a Rapid Response team that will be charged with commenting immediately on any videos, podcasts, or articles that talk about MPP/PPOW or any of its major platform issues (e.g., pandemic relief, climate emergency, and Medicare for All).
● Help create or curate visuals to support the party. These could include videos, photographs, and other images. This work includes creating a PPOW logo, design of a potential party mascot, and more.
● Merchandise. Create and market merchandise (t-shirts, hats, yard signs, etc.) to sell on our website and other venues.
● Tech, Databases, and Website. Participants in this area could help administer Guilded (our internal communication platform), website creation, updating, and maintenance, help with the development and maintenance of various relevant databases, and other technical aspects of running and creating a new major political party.
Governance
Meets: Sunday @ 6 – 7pm.
Chair: Marc Mixon, Vice-Chair: Timothy Zahn
Governance is responsible for drafting, updating, and maintaining PPOW’s Charter, Bylaws, Governance Agreement, Rules of Order and Participation, and Adjudication and works to make them accessible for all. Do you want to help craft these foundational documents and structures?
Governance Activities
● Consider any proposed amendments to the Charter, Bylaws, or operational rules of the State Coordinating Committee and the Party organization as a whole.
● Undertake deliberations about the structure of the party, and seek to improve and update that structure to continually make it more inclusive and representative.
● Investigate and recommend actions when appropriately informed of potential misconduct and violations of the rules and bylaws.
Organizing & Outreach
Meets: TBD.
Chair: Jamin Mason
Organizing and Outreach is responsible for a wide range of activities: Actions, Recruitment, Welcome & Onboarding, and Partnering. We are doing some of the items below now, some will be pursued more as we grow, and others are still to be developed. Can you see yourself working on any of the following activities?
Organizing & Outreach Activities
● Help to welcome and onboard new volunteers. This involves providing new volunteers with information about PPOW and support to participate in the success of PPOW as they are able.
● Recruit and conduct outreach to find people who may be interested in becoming a PPOW member.
● Help to develop a power map in your area so PPOW is better able to collaborate, grow, and be an effective party for the people. (A power map is a visual display of who is who in your area. It is used to figure out who you need to influence, how to influence them, and who can do the influencing in order to reach a specific goal.)
● Field organizing, plan grassroots organizing events and meetings, plan social and fun events
● Build and support local hubs (e.g., produce a hub starter guide)
● Answer organizing emails and conduct mass organizing texting as needed and appropriate
● Foster a regenerative culture of care and respect; nurture a beautiful, joyous, compassionate, and resilient political party
● Moderate group communication platforms (e.g., Guilded), uphold the community agreements, including nonviolent communication on various platforms and in meetings
● Provide support to members, identify potential sources of tension, prevent conflict and burnout, and provide mediation if needed.
● Reach out to organizations and movements that are potential allies to share our mission, build relationships, and ask how we can help them.
● Reach out to the various people in your community, invite them to join PPOW, and to start forming groups such as Students for a People’s Party, Teachers for a People’s Party, Latinos for a People’s Party, African Americans for a People’s Party, Labor for a People’s Party, Scientists for a People’s Party, etc.
● Work on winning over and involving influential allies and thought leaders to help promote and help with the success of the PPOW.
● Develop and plan direct actions and civil disobedience
● Keep apprised of actions other groups are doing and share this information with PPOW members
● Work with allies to support their actions and to build solidarity
● Coordinate training and logistics on direct action
● Promote and participate in actions to support legislation that increases ballot access, improves election transparency, strengthens democracy, and supports issues that are in accordance with the principles & platform of PPOW.
● Be a conduit to receive, evaluate, and potentially implement action ideas from PPOW members
Admin & Development
Meets: Tuesdays @ 11 am.
Chair: Rebecca McNeill, Vice-Chair: Veda Stram
The primary function of the Administration & Development Circle is to help all Circles and Working Groups within PPOW fulfill their individual mandates through the administration of internal communication platforms, database management, document storage and organization, and provide administrative support for new hubs, Regions, Circles, or Working Groups. Are you interested in helping with these critical activities?
Admin & Development Activities
● Facilitate transparent communication between all Circles, Working Groups, Hubs, Regions, Precincts, etc., formed within the People’s Party of Washington. This includes management and administration of all internal communication platforms or servers.
● Maintain a database of all Members and donors.
● Maintain and organize all PPOW documents in an accessible location.
● Maintain and organize all records related to PDC filings, election compliance, donors, and financial transactions in a secure location with the ability to produce any such documents within 24 hours if requested.
● Assist all other Circles, Working Groups, Hubs, Regions, Precincts, etc., formed within the People’s Party of Washington with the creation and management of any templates, documents, servers, databases, etc., needed to fulfill their own mandates.
● Develop systems, processes, and protocols for consistency of workflow, ease of communication, safe storage of documentation, and transferral of data.
● Responsible for Email server management and technical and training support.
The People’s Party of Washington will not take corporate money. Therefore, its financing depends upon the support of numerous small-dollar donors. Do you want to help develop the financing PPOW needs to be a successful major new party?
● Work on developing methods and investigating platforms in order to collect dues and/or donations effectively and transparently.
● Develop, administer, maintain, and update PPOW budgeting and effective financial practices.
● Develop, review and update our processes for showing our gratitude to our donors and due-paying members.
● Work with the Tech group to develop and enhance PPOW accounting processes.
● Identify, create, and implement fund-raising activities and opportunities
● Track PPOW expenditures, identify fixed costs and look for ways to reduce and/or leverage those costs while meeting the needs of PPOW’s activities.
Platform & Policy
Meets: Mondays @ 4 pm
Chair: Jim Lee, Vice-Chair: John Paul Parikh
Before holding its founding convention, the People’s Party of Washington is developing its platform. This platform will represent the principles, values, and goals we will honor and fight to achieve. Find out more about our platform development here. Are you interested in helping to develop our Party Platform?
The Founding Convention
We will have our Founding Convention in early May 2022! Very exciting. However, behind the scenes, there is much work needed to organize and plan the convention. Would you like to help in the success of this historic event? Let us know on your Volunteer form.
More Volunteer Opportunities
You can also volunteer to participate in specific types of activities like graphic design, content creation, or whatever your interest may be.
The Working Group (WG) descriptions will give you the scope of the types of activities you could help with. In fact, at this time we may not yet have the people with the time and/or skills to do them. This means you can step up to do one or more of them in the time you have available.
Listed below is a list of some of the tasks, projects, or roles that we currently need people to do. It is not a comprehensive list by any means. Some may require occasional attendance at the relevant WG meetings. We welcome your energy and time that you can share on these or other items to make us stronger
Graphic Designer. Looking for volunteers with graphic design experience. The design tasks would include one or more of the following: flyers, t-shirt, and other merchandise design, website graphics, and more.
Videographer. Looking for volunteers with video creation, editing, and/or production experience. The tasks would include one or more of the following: storyboarding a video, shooting footage, edit videos, and working with others to produce various short videos.
Content Creation. Looking for volunteers to research and write content on topics of concern and interest to PPOW members. The tasks would include one or more of the following: write articles for our website, write press releases, and other written content.
Treasurer-type duties. Looking for volunteers with finance experience to do the necessary tasks needed to track and report income and expenses. The tasks would include one or more of the tasks listed under the Finance & Budget WG.
Website tasks. Looking for volunteers with experience with WordPress websites. The tasks would include one or more of the following: post various items onto our website, website maintenance, google analytics, and others.
IT Tasks. Looking for volunteers with experience in IT. The tasks would include one or more of the following: set-up an email server, email retention strategy, coding (HTML, CSS , javascript, or others), and other tasks.