Jeff Kurzon - Meetup Organizer of the Week - 11.13.08

In recognition of our newly elected President, we thought it would be fitting to meet one of the driving forces behind the Obama campaign in New York City. He utilized Meetup to work in conjunction with the national campaign, providing prodigious results.

His enthusiasm, dedication and plain old hard work has rallied an army of supporters to make an impressive impact on NYC. Its my pleasure to introduce you to the Meetup Organizer of the Week, Jeff Kurzon and his group, The New York Obama for President Chapter

I believe that by organizing with others with the same belief, we can make a big difference and even define the outcome.

-Jeff Kurzon

What inspired you to step up and organize an Obama NYC Chapter via the Meetup platform?

My good friend Raj Khandwalla started the group in January 2007 based on his experience with Meetup and the Dean campaign and his belief in Obama. I quickly became an Assistant Organizer to help Raj with the group as I was inspired by Obama and what I thought he could do for our country, particularly with helping to improve our country's reputation abroad. By July of 2007, Raj was too busy doing his medical residency to manage the size of the group, so I became Organizer believing that our group had real potential to make a positive impact on the outcome of the election.

During this historic campaign you must have had many memorable moments/triumphs. Could you share a few with us?

If you look at our group photo (above) you will see some of our members assembled in Central Park during the summer of 2008. Nina Agrawal organized the sign-making and Leah Kozak took the picture. One of our members, Enika Bodnar organized the whole event with the help of a lot of other members. It was a really great day for fellow volunteers to meet each other.

Probably one of my happiest times as organizer was when we learned that Obama won the primary election. Our photos say 10,000 words.

The most strenuous time may have been when I shared my apartment with the campaign the week before the Washington Square Park Rally in September of 2007. Campaign staff, our members and other campaign volunteers were coming and going through my apartment 16 hours a day to help get the word out about the rally. It was all worth it though to see Obama come and speak in a public setting in New York.

The campaign was very respectful and even documented how I spent a couple nights sleeping on my roof - something symbolic I believe about how hard so many volunteers worked on the campaign. My poor roommate from Ireland never expected to be so in the middle of American politics when he came back from a trip and found a campaign office in his loft!

What have you learned and has this experience changed/enhanced your life?

I have always believed in the self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, if you define something as real (Obama will win) it will become real in its consequences (Obama did win). Of course, this does not always happen because of external factors beyond one's control, but more often than not, something will only happen if you take positive steps to make it happen. What I learned though is that you can take this philosophy to online organizing and have real world (offline) effects. The internet is a powerful tool to organize politically. It has changed my life in that any election in which I have a vested interest in the outcome in the future, I believe that by organizing with others with the same belief, we can make a big difference and even define the outcome.

Now that the election is over, what are your plans for the future of the community you've assembled? Will you continue to Meetup?

We are looking for feedback from our members on this question. The best ideas will come from our members and the grassroots. I would like to continue to Meetup because our group has too many great people not to get together at least once a month to trade ideas. Many of us would like to be more involved with politics at the local level. So we shall see...