Hat tip to Powen for the inspiration. Vote for Powen for Treasurer.
Hi! I'm running for the Democrats Abroad Germany Membership & IT Coordinator position for the 2023-2024 term. I plan to attend the Meet the Candidates sessions on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 19-20:00 CET and Sunday, March 19, 2023 14-15:00 CET. Here's some more stuff about me. But you are also welcome to ask me questions via email — use cliff at omg dot lol and you'll find secure contact methods at https://keys.cliff1976.net.
Please attend (virtually or in person in Ingelheim am Rhein) the 2023 DA Germany Annual General Meeting on Saturday, March 25, 2023 and vote for me!
Besides helping found NCB as its Secretary, I've been active in several IT-related capacities.
Nationally: I aided in GOTV efforts by preparing contact lists for chapter outreach while strictly following the data handling rules. When Democrats Abroad Germany changed its chapter names and borders, I did the analysis of members changing chapters. And I nudged the chapters to refresh their web presence with updated copy and photos.
Globally: I am a proDA IT Liaison - helping caucus Leadership activate members through event publishing and email blasts. I contribute to acute/ongoing global member data quality initiatives. In 2022, I tested major upgrades to VoteFromAbroad.org. When DA IT needed a data geek to try something new in Autumn 2022, I stepped up and put in many hours developing a system, building upon and meshing with existing systems, to deliver valuable new contacts.
If elected, I will continue to do those same things, but better: I want to document our successes and failures for the next person in this role. I have learned so much from the people around me, and whoever comes after me should benefit from this, too.
So, I plan to:
- optimize postal mailer processes
- use globally available DA IT tools and provide feedback for improvements to benefit all country committees
- share best practices among DA Germany chapters for membership data
- aim for low-stress membership count activities by spreading the work out over the year as much as possible
- recruit a small team for load-sharing and bottleneck prevention
We've got big results in 2024 to deliver. I look forward to working with you all to get the most mileage out of the resources available to us, and making success easier for those who come after us.
I am happy to endorse Cliff Stuehmer for the Democrats Abroad Germany (DAG) at-large position of Membership and IT Coordinator.
Shortly after I took on that role in 2021, I asked Cliff if he would be my deputy coordinator. He said yes and I am sure glad he did. He took over full responsibility for approving all DAG new members and did that well. In addition, he helped with other Membership and IT projects, including membership cleanup, chapter reassignments, and GOTV mailers to our members.
I have found Cliff to be 100% dependable. He is a perfectionist which is what you need for this role. He makes sure he understands a task thoroughly without trying to second-guess what someone is asking. He also documents everything so that tasks are repeatable the next time. If you ask him a question, you can be assured that if he does not know the answer, he will find out for you.
Cliff is the right person for the role of DAG Membership and IT Coordinator.
I have had the immense pleasure of working with Cliff on a variety of projects where his IT assistance was invaluable. In all cases, he was immediately responsive, reliable, very pleasant and clearly exhibited his IT expertise. As Chapter Chair, I often peppered him with IT questions – particularly regarding Nationbuilder and database issues - and list requests. He was dependably responsive and always included helpful reminders regarding GDPR policies and compliance. He always exemplified an extremely conscientious and responsible approach when handling membership data. In my voter protection work, I called on him to assist with an urgent matter involving a significant glitch in VFA and FVAP that affected the delivery of over 100 FPCAs to Fulton County Georgia. He was immediately responsive and provided invaluable assistance in determining the cause and formulating a solution. Additionally, he went way beyond providing his IT expertise to actually contacting many of the voters himself. I also repeatedly called upon Cliff to assist us with understanding various glitches in LEOs’ voter information databases and LEO online dissemination of information. In all cases, I so appreciated his responsiveness, clearly demonstrated technical expertise and professionalism.
Since the founding of the Democrats Abroad North and Central Bavaria (NCB) Chapter in June 2020 and even before, during the Global Primary, Cliff Stuehmer has been an active member of our group. He served the past two years as Chapter Secretary and applied his excellent organizational skills to our day to day operations. Cliff introduced communication tools such as Mattermost to improve our internal communications in a structured manner. He introduced the use of Kanban boards to better plan more complex projects and enable project task assignment and tracking.
For our chapter, Cliff is the go to person for anything related to IT topics and his experience has helped us all to work comfortably with these tools. He is basically the helpdesk for those of us who need a bit more coaching and was responsible for solving many IT problems. He also maintains the platforms and ensures they are always updated. This is a great relief for the chapter users.
Cliff's involvement goes far beyond the IT part of chapter operations. He regularly attends tabling events and prepares the QR codes to enable our guests to quicky access important sites. He also regularly supported GOTV events and walked people through the voter registration process. His IT knowledge and willingness to assist others has been an asset to our chapter. That is why I am endorsing Cliff Stuehmer for the role of Membership & IT Coordinator at national level. Cliff has proven his strengths at the chapter level and can definitely build on the past work for Membership and IT and continue to improve the related processes. I urgently request that you cast your vote for Cliff.
It is with great pleasure that I endorse Cliff Stuehmer in his quest to become the next Membership and IT At-Large Coordinator for Democrats Abroad Germany. Cliff has been very active in Democrats Abroad at all levels of the organization. He is a valued member of the North and Central Bavaria Chapter and most recently served the chapter as its secretary. At the national level, Cliff assisted in Germany’s GOTV efforts by preparing contact lists that the chapters could use for their outreach efforts. He also did the analysis of members who changed chapters when the DAG implemented new chapter names and boundaries. At the global level, Cliff serves as a ProDA Liaison by helping the caucus leadership engage its members through event publishing and email blasts. In addition, he has tested upgradest to our voter registration platform, VoteFromAbroad.org. Cliff has proven himself to be a person who uses his knowledge and expertise in IT to help Democrats Abroad maintain and improve its technological platforms and to help DA adhere to the data privacy regulations it must follow. During the past two years, Cliff has worked closely with Shari Temple, the outgoing Membership and IT At-Large coordinator. This "training" has given him a special insight to the position, and I am fully confident that if elected, he will continue to implement the processes he has learned, that he will implement best practices managing DAG’s member data according to Germany‘s data protection laws, that he will continue to offer suggestions for improving DA’s data management systems, and that he will support DAG, its chapters and caucuses with the technical help they need.