Obama Volunteers Share the Power of Personal Stories

"Get ready to have a lot of face-to-face meetings with people who may say yes as well as those who may say no to your ask for commitment," the manual states. "The strength of our campaign has been engaging people that have never been politically active. It is not easy!"

"This summer is all about building capacity," Wicks told the group, explaining that the volunteers would fan out in teams to identify community leaders -- some traditional, some neophytes -- who would "build miniature campaigns in their own neighborhoods."

For some people, that might sound overly like Kumbaya, Wicks said, "but for us it's about winning."

"So don't forget that part," she continued. "It's about the numbers. We need the right numbers to win. Data and management are a huge part of this."

Obama organizers are conditioned to enter results each day into the campaign's vast database. That includes voters registered and volunteers recruited and the number of one-on-one sessions and house meetings. The campaign also constantly asks what is working and what isn't.

If several people on the ground mention the same problem, the campaign can adjust. Similarly, if one organizer has a good idea, the campaign can quickly pass it along, as happened recently when someone started canvassing at gas stations and discovered that drivers irate about rising prices were motivated to register.

"Now, I'm really jealous of you, because you're going to have a lot of fun. You're going to eat cold pizza, and you're going to drink warm beer," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a fervent Obama supporter, told the volunteers. "But have fun. That's what he wants you to do. He wants you to learn how to reach out, organize people for power -- the good kind of power, the kind that comes from the bottom up."

McCaskill telegraphed the campaign's central focus: introducing Obama to voters who remain skeptical, and reassuring them.

"The message you've got to send, more than any other message, is that Barack Obama is just like us," McCaskill said.

"If you look at what he has done and how he has done it, anybody who thinks he's out of touch has not paid attention to who he is as a man."

The volunteers now scattered across Missouri are an eclectic bunch. Some have worked in campaigns; most have not. Volunteers in their 20s seem to outnumber all others, but more than a few are in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

One woman described herself as an unemployed single parent from Kansas City looking for bigger solutions. Another said she grew up in the 1960s, granddaughter of a suffragette. A law student raised in a small Missouri town said she was drawn to action after seeing foreign revulsion toward U.S. policy.