Grow Your Congressional District
by Evan Mulch, Program Director
Our volunteer leaders in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District recently completed six Constitution Is the Solution workshops in a three-month period. That’s 36 classes in one congressional district! New chapters have been formed, and our constitutional expert Robert Brown has just toured the area delivering speeches titled “The Constitution Is the Solution.” A website, https://sc4th.com/, has been created for members in the district to help them stay focused on the Power of 500, which you can learn more about at https://jbs.org/power500/. The members’ website includes a list of important upcoming events in the district plus information about the Congressional Scorecard. Members in the area are serious about creating an Americanist congressional district, and they hope to soon have a congressman who not only obeys the U.S. Constitution but also works on The John Birch Society’s Americanist agenda!
The trouble we often face in the Society is that members are not confident that we have a winning game plan. Those who lack confidence have an extremely difficult time recruiting new members. We must remind ourselves every day that we have a strategy to control every congressional district! When we control a congressional district, we are taking over not only the congressional seat but also state- and local-level positions — including county sheriff. To do this, we must focus on having at least 500 active, God-fearing, true Birch Americanists in each district, because influencing an entire congressional district is not an easy thing to do!
Here is what you can do with your field coordinator to help you take control of your congressional district:
- Create a map of your congressional district that includes current chapters, potential chapters, current committees, and potential committees.
- Write down a plan for how you will help lead the effort to take over the district (make sure to include names of people whom you plan to activate in the process).
- Call volunteer leaders or potential volunteer leaders in the congressional district and show them your plan for implementing the Power of 500.
- Encourage all members, even those who don’t want to be chapter or committee leaders, to hold Constitution Is the Solution workshops in their local communities and let them know that doing so is part of a winning strategy to take control of the congressional district.
- Update your field coordinator on the progress.
- Recruit new members from each Constitution workshop and find a way to include them in the Power of 500.
- Create new chapters and committees, and do your best to locate them in strategic areas so that they are spread throughout the district (this helps when recruiting new members, as people are more likely to participate if there is an active group a short driving distance from where they live).
- Repeat steps 1 through 7.