The Phone Bank 

"In a typical political context, the phone bank makes calls.  Ours was receiving them." –Rose Roberts Cannaday

(Written by Rose Roberts Cannaday and edited by Eric M. Appleman)  On February 20, 1992, following Perot's appearance on the "Larry King Live" show, the phones at CNN received so many calls they went into gridlock.  The next morning calls started pouring into the Perot office in Dallas.  Perot thought the calls would subside over the weekend, but Monday brought a new torrent.  It was impossible for anyone to get through, and the callers were bringing business to a halt. 

Perot located some vacant space on the 11th floor in his office building on Merit Drive and asked Sharon Holman, a long-time employee, to set up an operation to handle the calls.  Sensing that the situation might continue, Perot started to put together a staff to help and to be a resource for people who wanted to put him on the ballot.  Mark Blahnik, who handled Perot's personal security, was put in charge.  Four others moved over to help him organize the country.  Muffie McCoole was hired as an office manager and Ed Campbell as the volunteer coordinator.

In the first week of March, when Rose Cannaday came on board to direct the phones, she found 20 phones on the 11th floor in a shared space with people who came in to be trained on how to circulate petitions.  By the second week of March, the number of calls and volunteers continued to increase, so the phone bank was moved overnight to the second floor.  It opened with 50 phones, increasing the next day to 75 and then 100.

At the outset, volunteers took names, addresses and phone numbers on phone slips and entered into computer.  Soon after the data base was set up, a new form was designed with spaces for type of involvement volunteered, a comment section (many callers were offering use of office space, access to phones, etc.), a person's title and a box to check for VIP callers.

As each new volunteer came in, they were put through a fifteen minute training session to familiarize them with the phone system and the information they would need to know to answer callers' questions.  In addition to the training manual, Cannaday had a standing board at the front of the room which she could use to get critical, updated information to the volunteers until she and her crew of temporary workers were able to edit, print and xerox new copies for the books.

Information in the book grew and it became necessary to color code it so that volunteers could find what they were looking for.  Basic information, including directions to the office, the mailing address, what to say, how to handle hostile calls, a bio on Perot and a who's who of the staff, was white.  Media updates were on yellow paper, State of Texas information on pink and the rest of the country on green.

By March 16, with 100 phones on line, the phone bank still could not take all the calls.  The Home Shopping Network in Florida was engaged to help handle out-of-state calls.  Callers left name, address and phone number on voice mail, and the messages were transcribed and mailed to Dallas to be merged with the out-of-state data bank.

By March 20 as many as 2,000 calls per hour were being taken on the 100 phones in Dallas.  Perot's appearance on the Donahue Show on March 25 led to 257,280 calls.  MCI said that 18,000 hit the lines at the same instant.

The Dallas phone bank was open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, 7 to 8 on Saturdays and 1 to 5 on Sundays.  Cannaday managed 11 paid temporary workers who were responsible for training volunteers, xeroxing, keeping information current in the books and running the reception desk at the front of the room.

On April 27 the phone bank moved overnight to 6606 LBJ Freeway.  A crew worked all night and everything was up and running by 9 o'clock the next morning.  Regular hours were now 9 to 7 on weekdays, 9 to 5 on Saturdays and 1 to 5 on Sundays.

At the front of the room was a large table that held copies of newspaper articles about the campaign, Perot's bio and other information.  A banner over the information table proclaimed "Democrats and Republicans, Is that all you know?  None of the Above, There's always Perot." Another banner declared "The Revolution Started Here."  In the center were the 100 phones; an additional 25 phones in the back were used for making outgoing calls.  Also on one side of the room were tables which displayed Perot items being sold by various vendors.  A break room contained a big screen television and a large kitchen.  Perot provided free drinks and popcorn.

The phone bank went through a number of phases.  First, people were calling in to volunteer.  There was a period when people called to complain about how their state was being run.  When Perot ran into difficulties with the gay and black communities, many called in to voice objections.

The phone bank was a unique feature of the Perot organization; indeed it was the heart of the organization.  For people interested Perot it was the only way of contacting the organization, so everything went through it.  A nationwide "grapevine" evolved.  People working the phone bank knew things before anyone else in the organization.  The phones would light up instantly when something had happened. 

All this was made possible by the volunteers who came in day in and day out.  They were in contact with people all over the country, informing them, arguing with them, consoling them and crying with them.



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