College Republican Federation of Virginia

After graduating from JMU last week I decided to forgo a beach trip and spend a week at the Leadership Institute learning the fundamentals of how to run a campaign and get the latest info on how to be an effective internet activist.  Here is a brief overview of the two courses.

 Campaign Manager School

I left the course with a binder that could be filled with the equivalent of a semester long class, five free books, and a DVD player!  I entered the class having run a campaign, but wondering how to connect all aspects of such a large operation together.  I left having learned how to write a campaign and a finance plan, create a campaign structure, fundraise, run an effective GOTV drive, maximize media potential, and deal with consultants.   

 Top notch speakers like Tom Lizardo, Carlyle Gregory, Dan Hazelwood, Jordan Lieberman, Steven Sutton, and Morton Blackwell covered various subjects in the week long course. 

Food, lodging, and materials were all covered in the reasonable school price.   The class registrants numbered about 25 and came from all over North America.  A Ron Paul supporter from Hawaii joined us as well as eight Canadians (nearly all from conservative Alberta).  The class packs in a wealth of knowledge in a short amount of time and I recommend it for anyone wanting to become actively involved in a campaign.  The next class is July 7-11th.  Sign up here. 

Internet Activist Workshop

A slew of fantastic speakers like Jon Henke, Mary Katherine Ham, and William Beutler spoke on various subjects.  The first day of the two day course focused on blogging.  It was a general how-to guide that helped place blogging in the context of the media as a whole.  The second day covered topics from social networking, cracking search engines, online video, building email lists, and fundraising online. 

The school at first seemed like a beginners course on what the internet offers.  However, I grew to realize that while those new to the internet would learn the basics, those heavily acquainted with the internet’s potential took away from the course a tested method of combining email, blogging, and search engines into the over campaign structure.  A new school is not currently on the roster, but sign-up here to get updates on all Leadership Institute schools.