Mizzou for Obama holds first meeting
Published Sept. 7, 2007
With more than 30 students in attendance at Mizzou for Obama's first meeting on Wednesday, organizers spoke about the group's goals for the year and held elections for the organization's executive board. The new student organization was founded in support of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, who is running a 2008 presidential campaign.
Organization founder Michele Boeche said she was enthused about the evening's events.
"Interest is high, and we're ready to kick off the year," Boeche said.
Mizzou for Obama is an official chapter of Students for Barack Obama, a national organization founded in 2006 by a few students who used Facebook.com to petition for the Illinois senator to run for president, according to the organization's Web site.
Last semester, Boeche decided to create a chapter for students at MU.
"I contacted the national Students for Barack Obama organization and said I was interested in setting up a chapter on my campus," Boeche said. "And I did."
The first task on Wednesday evening's agenda was to recruit volunteers for the group's tabling campaign. Thirty-six positions were available for a three-day campaign, and in less than two minutes, every position was filled.
But tabling isn't the only plan of action for the group.
"Probably in October we're going to do some canvassing of student-housing areas," said Glenn Rehn, the organization's newly elected director. "Hopefully we can get a home bank infrastructure and call all the people we have gotten to pledge and making sure they're registered to vote."
The second task at the meeting was to vote for the organization's executive board. Those who had not pledged their primary vote to Obama were prohibited to run for an office and vote for a candidate.
One or two people ran for every position. Freshman Katie Ryken ran for the position of outreach and membership coordinator.
"Politics in America has really exhausted me recently with so much partisan politics," Ryken said. "I think it's refreshing to have someone who is willing to work across the border, across the isle, to try to bring some actual change."
The names of the newly elected officers were posted on the Mizzou for Obama Facebook group page Wednesday evening.
Mizzou for Obama is not an official MU organization, as it has failed to register with the Organization Resource Group, a group that assists student organizations in acquiring funds and gaining recognition on campus.
"We are in the process of registering," Boeche said.
At the present time, Mizzou for Obama is receiving assistance from the Mizzou Activist Network, an organization that supports any activist groups on campus.
The organization is working to gain enough support from students on campus in hopes that Obama will come through Columbia and MU on his campaign trail. The goal is to have 5,600 undergraduates, roughly 20 percent of the students on campus, pledge to vote for Obama, Rehn said.
"All chapters have that goal," Rehn said. "We need to be able to talk to the national campaign and say that we have a huge base of support for Obama here, and if (he comes) here, it will activate these people, and it will be the biggest event that the campus has seen in years."