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Week 15 Blog

This was the last week of my internship with Councilman Daoud, and was another slow week which made for a relaxing end. On Monday, there was a city council work session that was relatively short, and we also formally closed down the campaign-related accounts for his run for mayor. There was not much to do since we have yet to get the agenda for next week’s city council meeting, and we could not really prepare for it yet.

To begin with, Councilman Daoud attended the city council working session. In this meeting, they discussed redistricting. This is done every 10 years at both the state and local levels of government, as new lines and districts have to be drawn to account for the new census data showing the amount and dispersion of people in an area. At the city council level, they get to work on and decide the new wards that will go into making up the city as a whole. These wards are supposed to be groups of people in areas with similar needs, such as the historic area of town, the higher-end golf course and retirement communities, and the starter home areas combined with apartments. Groups like these are supposed to be kept together as much as possible without any bias on the part of any particular party or city councillor themselves. While this is not always followed in practice, it seemed like the members on the council really were trying their hardest not to give themselves unfair advantages in drawing these new lines. I was struck by this and thought it was a good change from the usual quintessential corrupt politician who would always work to give themselves an advantage wherever they could. It ended with new proposals being drafted that will need to be voted on at a later date, so we will see how these pan out in the future.

I also closed out the campaign accounts this week that Councilman Daoud used during his run for mayor. His eCanvasser subscription was ending soon, so I made sure all the data we collected was safely exported from the program, and then closed the account out. I also ensured that the account with the radio station was up to date on all invoices, and made sure all the campaign finances were in order to be ready for the campaign finance filing deadline coming up here soon. This was the last time I’ll be working with the Kalispell City Council or Councilman Sid Daoud for this internship, but I wish him and his team all the best!

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Week 13 Blog

This week was very slow in the world of Councilman Daoud. We did a little bit of post-election data work to analyze a good strategy for his city council run next year, and I did some back-end data work in preparation for our campaign data-managing system to close.

To begin with, Councilman Daoud and his team looked closely at the data that we gathered in his personal city council ward. This ward, Ward 4, is on the southeast part of town and covers a lot of communities of newer starter homes and a younger demographic. The data showed that Councilman Daoud has a very high name recognition in that area, and that many of those voters showed up to vote for him for mayor on election day. It was one of the highest turnout wards across the entire city. This hopefully means that come next election for his council seat, Councilman Daoud will have to do little name recognition campaigning and can focus on what actually matters: his opinions, council votes, and political record when talking to the public. These are the small victories that come out of losses such as the one we just had, and it is good to be able to see these secondary things as positive after a loss.

I also worked on exporting all of our data from our campaign data management system this week. I was able to sift through all the data we imputed from door knocking, events, phone calls, texts, and any other interactions we had with voters and make sure there was as few errors as possible with it. I then exported the raw voter data with just the person and their information, and then I also exported the data with all our interaction information attached to that person and their home address, such as what their opinion of Councilman Daoud was and what the biggest political issues facing them was. This will all prove extremely useful when Councilman Daoud goes to campaign again in order to hold his council seat, as he will hopefully be able to use all that aggregated data and be able to speak more directly to each voter and to what their own individual issues really are. This should help interactions feel mere personable and help each voter think they were valued and remembered since the last time Councilman Daoud or a teammate of his talked with them.

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Week 12 Blog

This week was the first week since the elections, and it was relatively slow. This week, Councilman Daoud worked on organizing all his extra campaign paraphernalia post-election and had a city council work session. We also did post-election analysis as well to help determine a political road ahead for Councilman Daoud.

To begin with, Councilman Daoud had his weekly city council meeting. This week was a working session and was relatively uneventful, with only one item on the agenda. It was a very different session than usual, as the only item on the agenda was a training by the The Veterans Coalition of Northwest Montana titled “QPR - Question, Persuade, Refer.” It was a training on how to identify and reduce suicidal behaviors (especially in veterans). It was in essence a suicide prevention training class. Councilman Daoud, being a 14 year Army veteran himself, is very aware of the effects that war and PTSD can have on veterans and was very happy to see a group advocating for greater awareness and information about suicide. Since there was not much to discuss about this, there was almost no discussion by council members and that was the end of the council meeting for this week. 

Councilman Daoud also worked to organize all his leftover campaign materials from his run for mayor. He collected all the signs that individuals had put out for him in their yards and thanked all the homeowners and business owners who had advertised publicly for him. He also collected the remaining campaign t-shirts and door hangers he had left and put them away for storage. While he likely will never run for mayor again, it is still good to keep around just in case something happens where he does run in the future.

We also worked on a post-election analysis of the area. We found certain areas in our messaging where we were just not hitting a resounding mark on the public, and others where we should have made our views more widely known rather than those certain issues taking a backburner in our messaging. Councilman Daoud is already preparing to run for his council seat again next year, and since his ward was one of his best precincts for him this election, we feel confident that as long as he stays engaged with his ward and puts in some hard campaign work next year that he can retain his council seat. Even though we lost, we gained valuable insight to the Kalispell community about what matters most to them, how they want to see their local issues addressed, and what will be the best path forward for Councilman Daoud to take come next election.

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Week 11 Blog

This week was election week. Leading up to Tuesday, Councilman Daoud and his team worked tirelessly to help elect him to the office of Kalispell mayor. Councilman Daoud and volunteers knocked as many doors as possible on Saturday. The responses from doors sounded great and many people had already voted absentee for him. Sunday was a prep day, as no doors could be nocked then. I was able to draft up messaging that we were planning to use on Monday and Tuesday reminding people to vote. On Monday, I set up a text bank that the team used to reach out to all the constituents in the city. We made thousands of texts to supporters reminding them to vote and to answer any last questions they had. Councilman Daoud also had city council then. Councilman Daoud, myself, and his advisor had a long conference call about how he was going to vote on a state aid package. The package was state funds to help assist lower income residents with their water bills. The reasoning the council was using to pass this was that it was already an established state program, and if Kalispell did not use the funds, another town would. However, we disagreed. State money is never free, and this was actually being used as a justification for raising the cost of ware in the city overall. Councilman Daoud voted against it, and we did not think this would have an impact in the race being so close to election day.

Election day was the next day. That morning, Councilman Daoud, his family, and other volunteers got up early and got to the polls to wave signs all day. I set up a phone bank for remote volunteers and they we called all his supporters reminding them to vote. Many of them on the phone let us know they already voted for him, and one in particular was standing in line to vote when he got the call! We called hundreds of supporters and felt that we had good results. The polls closed at 8PM, and I kept checking the results page to see what results came through. The first results to come in were just absentees around 9PM. These results had the mayor in the lead with Councilman Daoud loosing. This was disheartening, but we still stuck it out for the in-person votes to come through. They trickled in throughout the night, and sadly Councilman Doaud never got enough of the in-person votes to eek him out ahead of the current mayor. The last votes came in the next day, and at this point the results were clear that he had lost his race for mayor. While it was sad to put that much work into a campaign for someone to lose, there are still other paths forward for Councilman Daoud and just serves to remind that there is always a winner and a looser in an election. Councilman Daoud said he will work on getting reelected to his current council seat, and continue to work to better policy in his current capacity on the council. I am excited to still continue policy work and research for him on the council in the next month and hopefully can share some more great insights in the weeks to come!

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Week 10 Blog

This week, I left Kalispell and sadly cannot help out on the ground anymore for Councilman Daoud. However, that is not to say that my week has been any less packed than usual. Saturday, I was able to knock a full day for Councilman Daoud, and we started our second knocking round. This means I was able to talk to voters who had already been contacted by the campaign, so Councilman Daoud’s name recognition was much higher and it was not as difficult as talking to them cold. For these voters in the second round, many who were undecided were now supporters of Councilman Daoud or, even better, had already voted absentee for him! We are able to put more signs out Saturday as well, as many people wanted to display them before election day came around on the 2nd. 

We also were able to use other means to connect with voters. We were able to do a phone bank and a text bank to certain voters in Kalispell to remind them about Councilman Daoud’s policies and to remind them to vote before election day. I put together these efforts online and was able to participate in them both, calling and texting voters. City council has taken a backseat with the election so close now, but after election day I am sure it will get busy again. 

I have also been busy looking at past elections to see what voter turnout we can expect. I was able to contact the clerk and procure election records for the past five elections and see what we can expect this year as it is an off-year municipal election. This number helps the campaign to see how many supporters we need to draw out to vote on election day to ensure a win. 

I have also been working with the company whose canvassing app we are using to solve a technical glitch. Wednesday, Councilman Daoud was not able to use the canvassing app to see voters or their responses. We tried a variety of different ways to fix the issue, but none succeeded. This issue also only seemed to be for android devices, not iPhones. I got in contact with our sales representative we have been working with at the company, and went back and forth with her about what exactly the issue was and when it began. Within one day they released a new update that solved the problem. This close to election day, another glitch like that or the same glitch just a few days later could have spelled disaster for Councilman Daoud.

Lastly, Councilman Daoud had his last candidate forum on Thursday. It was an online Zoom forum that both he and the current mayor participated in. Before it, Councilman Daoud, myself, and his campaign consultant all had a call to go over important talking points that would likely be brought up, his responses, and the tone to try and strike during the forurm. Councilman Daoud was able to answer all the questions from both the moderator and the audience extremely confidently, and was very impressive with his talking points that we had gone over beforehand. We believe this resonated with the public, and now will see what happens on election day next week!

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Week 9 Blog

This week is the last week of Councilman Daoud’s “ID / persuasion” phase of the campaign. The week saw a lot of volunteers travel up to Kalispell to help in the final push, and in total we had five people helping us put up yard signs, knock doors, and make phone calls to voters. The new door hangers also came in from Vistaprint. The design is similar to the older ones, but the content is vastly different and has so far been helping a lot at doors. The door hangers talk about Councilman Daoud’s army service and his experience on city council. The hangers addressed the issue of taxes, affordable housing, and infrastructure on the back, and this time included Councilman Daoud’s contact information in case anyone would like to contact him personally. We will be using these until the end of the campaign as they are much more targeted than the previous iterations of door hangers. 

This week, I am staying at a hotel near the airport instead of with Councilman Daoud, since his spare room has other volunteers staying in it. This is fine, as I am able to get back and spend more time doing work for both his campaign and city council agenda, such as setting up our phone bank and text bank that we are using to reach more voters than just talking to them at doors. Our radio ad went live this week as well, and is in a 30-second time spot that is slated to play at different intervals during rush hour drive times. This will work to help boost name recognition of Councilman Daoud during this crucial week of absentee voting. We are also looking into different ad forms to utilize before the in-person election in November, such as internet-based targeting. We are also beginning to see the current mayor campaign more heavily, and signs of his are popping up around town. There is also campaign literature at doors that is being handed out. 

As far as council goes, Councilman Daoud gave his speech against using zoning as a weapon against cannabis that I helped draft with him. We addressed the possibility of lawsuits, the amount of voters in Kalispell who supported the cannabis legalization effort, and the result this restrictive zoning would have on cannabis-based businesses. Finding the answers to these took some digging and research, but we were able to come up with detailed possibilities, statistics, and maps of each of these items, respectively. Councilman Daoud also gave a speech to the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce who invited both him and the current mayor to speak at their luncheon. This went over fantastic, as afterwards Councilman Daoud was inundated with congratulations from local business owners and had trouble even leaving the event since so many people were wanting to talk with him. This was a great morale booster for both Councilman Daoud and the team, and we are hoping to keep up this level of excitement and enthusiasm as the election draws nearer.

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Week 8 Blog

We are one week closer to election day, and Councilman Daoud’s campaign is in full gear now. This week, we had a few surprises, some city council happenings, and some new developments from the opposition. To begin with, we are now just two weeks away from the election at this time. The final stretch for the campaign is before us, and we have hit the ground running. Councilman Daoud is working to knock all the doors he can, and a volunteer staffer came to Kalispell this week to help in the knocking effort. We are estimating we can hit about 100 houses per day with both of them knocking, which would be a huge plus for the campaign to talk to that many people before election day. We are also handing out signs left and right, and have about 100 signs out in yards currently. Every day more voters ask for them, and we are trying our best to keep up the pace. The mayor has also started to put signs out for himself, and we are now starting to see his visibility in town. This is a change from before, as we previously had not seen any sign of the mayor campaigning. This just means we must work extra hard on our own campaign strategy. 

Absentee ballots were also sent out this week, making this week and next some of the most critical times for campaigning than ever. Having another volunteer who is knocking doors for us is a great help as well during this time. I designed and wrote the content for a new door hanger design that will be delivered next week. This new design has much more detailed information about the most prominent local issue that matter, such as taxes, infrastructure, and transparency. We also were surprised with a new rule from the Montana elections division. It allows candidates to now collect up to $400 from individual donations, a limit that used to be capped at $180. This is a huge boost for our campaign, as many donors had wanted to give more in the past but were not allowed. We will be reaching out to all of them to inform them of the new rule allowing bigger donations, in the hopes they will generously increase their give. 

City council also worked this week to enact guidance and zoning for recreational cannabis dispensaries. Last year, a measure was passed by the Montana voters for recreational marijuana, and it is up to the cities now to implement it. However, on the council, the measure was met with lots of opposition including from the current mayor. The council voted to practically zone it out of the city and create tremendous unnecessary burdens to opening a facility. Councilman Daoud was one of the members who opposed this, and after the city council meeting, he and I worked to draft up a response speech to this that he will be giving at the next council meeting. We also received campaign support from his outspoken opposition to this measure, as multiple cannabis business owners in the community reached out to provide support and fundraising for us. We will see what comes up next week, but I am looking forward to seeing the new door hangers and the response that we will get from them.

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Week 7 Blog

This week, Councilman Daoud participated in a forum and was interviewed by a local newspaper. We also are now less than one month away from the elections on November 2nd, and the campaign is in high gear. Councilman Daoud is continuing to knock doors, we are contemplating purchasing and recording radio ads, and beginning to develop our GOTV strategy. To begin with, Councilman Daoud was invited to speak at a Chamber of Commerce meeting along with the current mayor. I worked to help him develop what messaging he wanted to convey there and to formulate his talking points. We decided on a theme of business and lower taxes. This event went well, and Councilman Daoud was really well received here. Multiple local business owners approached him afterward and asked for his signs so they could display them in front of their storefronts. This was a great result and more than we could have asked for! 

Councilman Daoud was also interviewed by the Daily Interlake, a local newspaper that serves the Kalispell area. We had multiple times during the week when we got together and prepared for some possible questions that would be asked and what his responses would be. We discussed topics ranging from Kalispell’s homeless issue (as current events necessary it, since a homeless person just recently shot and killed a shop owner in town) and Councilman Daoud’s position on that, to his talking points about the city’s high property taxes and his talking points on the infrastructure developments around town. His interview was yesterday, and while I was not present for it, he said it went very well and he was able to speak about all the issues he was asked about with confidence and ease. I am sure our sessions leading up to the interview helped prepare him for it. 

We also began our entry into the final stretch of the campaign. We talked about radio ad purchases and contacted local stations to get their lowest unit rate prices, which are the lowest prices a station charges for a particular slot that the FCC mandates all radio stations give to political campaigns 60 days before the general election. In Kalispell, they were fairly expensive compared to other locations I have done electoral work in the past. We discussed the cost-benefit analysis of radio ads compared to other forms of outreach available to the campaign with the budget we have. We also started formulating ideas for our Get Out The Vote strategy, which will just precede election day and lead into it. While I cannot talk too much about this strategy yet, I can say as of now that it will likely be a very busy week.

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Week 6 Blog

This week was another exciting week in the world of Councilman Daoud. We knocked voters doors, held fundraising calls, got yard signs delivered, and did some data work. Firstly, the week started off with us working to narrow our focus of voters to speak with. We decided that trying to knock and talk with every voter’s house in the city would be impractical, a waste of time, and cost too much money. Since the election is this year, 2021, and is an off year, it is very likely that most people who are not extremely plugged into local politics will not vote. That means a great chunk of the people we talk to and hand out campaign literature for (that costs money) won’t even go to the polls and we will see no result from. Therefore, we decided to pull out ‘supervoters’ in Kalispell and target just them. We used voter history from the past three election cycles, including primaries, to ascertain who is a regular voter. We used 2018’s primary and general data, 2019’s general (no primary since municipal elections in Montana are nonpartisan), and 2020’s primary and general data. Anyone that voted in 4 or 5 of those elections we decided to target and label as ‘supervoters.’ This made the amount of houses and people in Kalispell much more manageable and shaved the full voter list down enough to where we should be able to knock and talk to each of these voters now.

Councilman Daoud’s yard signs also got delivered, and we put out over 20 signs from last week and this week in voter’s yards that had asked for them. They look good, and with the white, yellow, and purple color scheme stick out great in people’s yards. Councilman Daoud hand delivered each sign to those that asked for them, and this gave him a great opportunity to reconnect with those voters at those houses and answer any political questions they may have. This week we also knocked some more doors like last week, and heard the same concerns of last week: affordable housing and lower taxes seemed to be on everyone's mind. We also did knock a different area than last week, the historical district of the city, and heard a few concerns about crime that we did not hear in the previous northern area of town. 

Councilman Daoud also had a bunch of fundraising calls this week. He started off calling family and friends. He has to make a lot of individual calls since the maximum donation limit to political candidates in Montana is $180. It is a bit difficult to raise money efficiently this way, as it takes a lot of brute force effort and volume to see any big difference. However, since every other political candidate is limited by this same thing, it does put his opponent on the same playing field. Over the course of the week, Councilman Daoud got a good amount of donations from his fundraising work, and this will be something we will need to continue to do until the end of the election. 

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Week 5 Blog

This week was another jam-packed week for Councilman Daoud. We were in parades, got to knock doors, did data work, and now starting to retweak our messaging. To start with, Councilman Daoud’s door hangers that I wrote and designed came in and they look fantastic. However, one part that we all overlooked on these door hangers was neglecting to put any contact information for Councilman Daoud on them. We forgot to include his phone number, social media handles, and website. I felt terrible about this since I was the one that designed and created them, however, they were reviewed multiple times after my initial drafts. This proved not to be as big of an issue as I had feared, since when we were actively knocking doors we just mentioned where to find his phone number online as well as his website name. 

On the topic of door-knocking for his mayoral campaign, I felt as if it went very good this week. I was put in charge of another of his volunteers for this, and was very proud I had the chance to lead his field team while doing voter outreach. We started out in his current city councilman ward, where a lot of people knew who he was and many already had opinions about him. We were able to knock over 200 doors a day between the two of us, and had a high hit-rate of people at some so we had the ability to talk with hundreds of voters each day. It was very unique being able to see what the community thought about him and their local issues face to face, and really helped to give me a different perspective about the city of Kalispell and the psychology of how voters think. Being able to talk one on one with them about Councilman Daoud and all he’s accomplished was also very rewarding, and you could tell that many of the people appreciated that we were reaching out directly to them to get their input. From this, we got a lot of data points. We asked everyone we spoke with what their most important issues were, and heard countless different answers. However, there were a few topics that were pretty persistent throughout the week, such as lower taxes and more affordable housing. These seemed to be on everyone’s minds. We also got to see how many people were supporters of Councilman Daoud, how many either knew or didn’t know who he was, as well as those who were pretty apathetic to this off-year election. Having that information will also be invaluable as the election draws nearer.

Lastly, we participated in Kalispell’s biggest parade all year. It kicks off the fair weekend in the city, which is a three-day-long event that everyone in the town seems to go to. We bought four big bulk bags of candy and two 48 pack cases of water to hand out during it, and by the time we finished the route we had ran out of both! There was eight of us there walking with Councilman Daoud, tossing candy to kids, waving yard signs, and having very short chats with random voters lining the streets. This was a fun event and Councilman Daoud even got to speak briefly at some microphone booths along the way, which was fantastic for visibility for his campaign. Overall it has been a busy week and next week should be the same level of energy!

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Week 4 Blog

This week really kicked off Councilman Daoud’s run for mayor. We had events, registered for parades, ordered campaign materials, and started our field strategy. The week started with Councilman Daoud’s Duck, Duck, Goose event at Woodland Park which had previously been overrun by ducks. We started the day off by purchasing bulk snacks and drinks, as well as picking up the Duck Duck Goose sheet cake we ordered last week at Costco. We got to the park, met the DJ, and started setting up for the event. We put up some temporary campaign yard signs that Councilman Daoud got made to hold over until he had campaign funds for a bulk order, as well as a couple banners of his campaign logo he got made at the same time. It also sadly started to rain that morning and was slated to continue all day. But despite the rain, there was a good turnout of people to the event, and Councilman Daoud gave a short talk about the history of the park, the adoption effort, and the great potential he sees in the community. He also mentioned his run for mayor, and that he was happy to share his first campaign event with his constituents in the city. After this event, I wrote up a press release for his campaign, and sent it out along with pictures of the event to the three biggest news outlets in the area. 

After the event, I also was tasked with ordering campaign materials in preparation for the field work. I both designed and wrote up content for door hangers from Vistaprint. The content was all based on what we heard back from the survey that we ran, which gave way to three major planks: affordable housing, fiscal responsibility, and the preservation of individual rights. After some editing and reworking by the team, I ordered 2,000 door hangers to be delivered as soon as possible so we could start public outreach as soon as possible. I also began writing up content for his website based on these three issues as well. Since his website can hold much more than a small paper door hanger can, I was able to expound much more greatly on these issues and really able to flesh out his finer details and politics on them.

We also registered for the Kalispell parade this week. It was a relatively short form to complete, but I filled it out and got us approved for a spot in next week’s parade. We’re currently planning just to have a truck with his banners and logos on it, as well as a bunch of Councilman Daoud’s friends and family walking with the truck holding his campaign signs and tossing out candy to the crowds. It was a $25 entry fee, but should be well worth it as this is apparently the city's largest parade all year! Lastly, I also navigated the city bureaucracy and procured the current voter list from the elections department. This allows us to see the name and address of every person currently registered to vote in town, and will hopefully make his campaign a bit easier as we know who to target and who will be most likely to vote this year. That way we do not waste resources trying to convince people to vote for Councilman Daoud who most likely will not vote anyway. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get out more and be able to connect with the public in the field next week once the door hangers arrive!

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Week 3 Blog

This week was a big week in the world of Councilman Daoud. We had administrative work, council decisions, and one very big announcement. To start off with the fun stuff, Councilman Daoud officially announced he would be running for mayor of Kalispell, Montana. Kalispell is one of the fastest-growing cities in the state, and is currently the 7th largest city in all of Montana. With over 15,000 voters (not just citizens) residing within the city’s limits, this will likely prove to be a challenging and large race! Councilman Daoud is running against the current mayor, who he is surprisingly still friends with even after his announcement! The current mayor is running for his third term, and this will be the first time he has ever had an opponent as well. Councilman Daoud is hoping that no matter what, win or lose, that this being a contested race will bring a revived interest into local politics and hopefully have the newspapers and news stations shed some more light onto local issues and allow for some healthy debate that is far away from polarizing federal politics. 

To plan for this, I helped Councilman Daoud file online for his intention to run. I was also tasked with setting up and overseeing a phone survey to gather the most prominent local issues on people’s minds. This was in preparation to develop our messaging for his campaign so that we had strong positions and solutions to the most prominent issues facing the Kalispell community. The phone survey took a couple of days of trial and error, as some of the data I was working with had issues and was corrupted. However, it all got done on time and we were able to pull some great issues from the local community as to what was most important to them. 

Councilman Daoud also attended a city council meeting in which they were discussing a local walking trail that is in the process of being built. Many community members are supportive of it, however there are also some who are vocal about the cost and the green space impact it will have in the city (it is a paved trail through town). He proposed an idea to convert an existing amphitheater along the trail into a free speech location, where citizens would be encouraged to hold small events and have gatherings. While this idea is new and still needs some ironing out, it seems to have gone over well with the council and they were receptive to it. We will probably work on this in the coming weeks to make this idea into a full-fledged proposal, and see how his position impacts his mayoral race.

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Week 2 Blog

This week, I officially began my internship with Councilman Daoud. I got to know his team that has been assisting him since he was first elected in 2018, and what role they all play in the overarching strategy. I was surprised to see such a big support staff for a city councilman, as I had previously thought they were pretty much on their own. The first thing we did together was sit down and talk. I thought this was interesting since we just talked about his life, what he’s done in the past, his family, his presence in the town, and things like that. During it all, I was not too sure how this all applied and was starting to think it could just be a waste of time. However, after talking and him telling me all about himself, he told me why. It was since I was to be a representative of his, I needed to know all about him and be able to answer any question I was asked. If a citizen facebook messages him and he is in a council meeting, I need to be able to answer nearly any question they could ask about him in a timely fashion. He also wanted me to be able to speak confidently to citizens in town about him, for instance, if I was at a bar and got asked, or if we were at a council meeting and a concerned citizen was talking to me about him or a particular subject. This made sense, and it certainly also does help to get to know the person you’re working with on a more personal level.

This week I was tasked with helping to plan out some outreach activities for him. Apparently, there was a big issue last year with one of the local parks (the oldest one in town). It had become overrun with nonnative and domesticated ducks and geese. They were a nuisance in the park, terrorizing children and leaving waste all over playground equipment and the picnic tables. The city proposed four plans to the city council to take care of these animals, and all four plans involved killing all the animals. Councilman Daoud did not support any of these plans, and instead organized a community-led effort to catch and adopt all the problematic ducks and geese. This was a resounding success, with the community rounding up about 200 of the animals and removing them from the park. So as a thank you, I helped to plan a big thank you event for all the volunteers who participated in this. We rented out a pavilion at the park, and planned to have it be a family-friendly event where everyone could come out and enjoy some food, snacks, music, and games. We hired a DJ to come out and take care of the music, and ordered a Costco sheet cake complete with duck decorations that said “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Hopefully it will be a successful event with lots of people coming out to enjoy the park free from the haranguing ducks and geese!

[ucfhistoryinternship]

Week 1 Blog

This week, I did back-end work setting up my internship. I did very little with Councilman Daoud this week, since we just started working together for this internship recently. I did do a lot of prep work to get this internship started however. I set up my registration for the internship on the last day of the class add/drop period, as it was offered to me at the last minute. Today, I had Councilman Daoud fill out the partnership form and send it over to Dr. French, who did not receive it. Due to his, I had to forward Councilman Daoud’s email to my knights email, then over to Dr. French as I believe it was not going through since Councilman Daoud was sending it from an email that was outside UCF’s organization. Once that was taken care of, I sent in my registration form which got approved by the history department and was sent over to CAHSA. I called CAHSA immediately once the form passed through the history department’s hands, to ensure that this internship would be processed by the end of the course add/drop period today. After some back and forth between us, they located my form and assured me that I would be registered very quickly. Within about one hour, I was approved and fully registered in HIS 4941. It was a great relief to know that I was able to take this internship this semester and ensure I got the experience and credit for participating in it. I am hopeful that over the weekend Councilman Daoud and I will be able to connect and plan out future tasks for me to complete and have some time to talk about what he thinks this term will look like.