Page 187 - The Resilient Organization

174 Part Four: Step 3. Rehearsing a Culture of Resilience

and organizations that formed throughout the year 2003. Many were local,
as an outgrowth of Dean Meetup events. Others were regional or state
based, like those in California, Texas, Massachusetts, Georgia, or Kansas
and Missouri. Most of these unofficial groups were in states that did not
have official DFA field organizations because the states were not immedi-
ately relevant or critical in the early stages of the 2004 primary voting.
Some volunteers from these groups, in addition to participating in their
local meeting and visibility events, would travel to where they could be
most useful to the campaign; for instance, a number of Massachusetts-
based volunteers reported that they had traveled to the competitively signif-
icant neighboring state of New Hampshire. As unofficial DFA groups
formed, they provided another means for new and existing volunteers to
follow and remain in touch with the campaign’s developments, through
forms and channels different from the official campaign messages. Other
than an alphabetical roll call of unofficial DFA groups on the sidebar of the
Blog for America Web site, the official campaign imposed no governance or
cross-channels of communications for these groups.

HOW TO LOSE AN ELECTION

The campaign began its collapse in January 2004. Howard Dean was at the
time the dominant frontrunner and seen as the almost inevitable party nom-
inee, but he lost the first primary in Iowa. Following the loss, his impas-
sioned speech in Iowa at a rally of his volunteers was widely broadcast on
mass media outlets and frequently replayed and lampooned. A week later,
Dean lost the primary in New Hampshire, a state that borders his home state
of Vermont. The campaign full of surprises had come to an abrupt end.

GRASSROOTS PROJECTS FOLLOWING THE START OF THE
OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN’S COLLAPSE: THE HOW IT REALLY
HAPPENED VIDEO
The evening that Howard Dean came in third in the Iowa caucuses, he
came to a large rally of his supporters, most of whom were out-of-state