E-Democracy.Org is run by dedicated volunteers.  We have no staff and a very small budget.  We are the ideal voluntary association where your involvement is essential and recognized. 

Unlike most volunteer work, you participate on your own time from the convenience of your home (although we do have in-person meetings and events).  Some volunteers spend 30 minutes a day running our community issue forums and others spend just 30 minutes a month helping promote our efforts in the community. Together we can make an e-difference.

To get involved contact us via our comment form and include your full contact information.  Read from the list of volunteer needs below and let us what interests you in particular.  If you have a big idea that you'd like to develop as an E-Democracy project, propose it and let's make something happen.

Suggested Volunteer Roles

1. Volunteer Center and E-mail List - We have an internal e-mail list for those interested in the behind the scenes activities of E-Democracy.  All volunteers are added to this low volume e-mail list.  Here you will find out about meetings and other opportunities. You can join this network and then figure out what you would like to do at a later date.

2. Participation - The number one need we have is for people to help recruit participants for our local and statewide e-mail lists.  From online outreach to in-person recruiting at political and community events, this is the best way to for us get more citizens involved in democracy across Minnesota.  One at a time recruiting works!

3. Community Forums - Propose the creation of a community issues forum in your community or get involved in our Minneapolis, St. Paul, or Winona efforts.  Each existing community forum has a volunteer committee you can join. We currently need someone to lead our dormant Duluth forum.  You need to be a good facilitator and be able to set your own political agenda aside to some extent. 

4. Capitol Topics - Help with our new Capitol Topics e-mail lists designed for serious public policy information exchange on issue at the state legislature.  Or get involved with our well established MN-POLITICS e-mail lists. 

5. Online Candidate Debates and Elections - Every year we create a special online guide to election information on the Internet in Minnesota.  We need help collecting candidate web site information as well as help organizing our online candidate debates.

6. Web Site and Technical - We use a very basic information infrastructure - e-mail lists and basic web pages.  We can be a global test-bed for next generation e-democracy technical development.  We are particularly interested in the use of open source applications such that the tools we use or create can be shared with others.  Volunteers from anywhere in the world can connect with us through our Democracies Online Code Network. If you are a content or design person, we have lots of opportunities and needs as well.

7. Fundraising and Grants - The reason E-Democracy does not fold when we run out of money, is that we don't have any money (or very little).  We are sustainable based on volunteer support and donated online tools.  However, currently we have limited scalability.  Help us extend our institutional base so we can expand our activities across Minnesota as well as nationally/globally (if substantial grant support can be secured - planning and implementation.)  We believe in volunteer-based model where for each staff person there are at least ten volunteers.  E-Democracy, as a concept, is too expensive to professionalize or pay people the value they contribute. If it is not viewed as civic activity worthy of volunteer involvement it will not exist.  That said, we have essential administrative needs that require a base amount of funding to keep our organization thriving.

8. Research - We receive dozens of academic requests for information about our efforts.  We would like to establish a formal research and evaluation component tied to our activities.  Let us know if you'd like to play a coordinating role.  First up, a list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions.  If you are a researcher from anywhere in the world, we can accommodate you as an internal member of our Volunteer Interest Network e-mail list as long as you share the results of your research with the organization.