"I’ve been volunteering as a Braver Angels Alliance Tech Lead for about a year, first for Columbus, Ohio and then for all of Ohio. It’s felt good to be so appreciated – the alliances around here, at least, don’t have all that many tech-savvy folks with much time on their hands, so even a simple service like organizing a Google Drive folder can make a difference in how well the Alliance runs. 

The technology itself is varied but nothing very complicated – we use Google Drive, Google Forms, Google Sheets, Google Groups, Eventbrite, Zoom, Mailchimp, and a database tool called Action Network. Though if you wanted to get deeper into finding tech solutions, there are definitely opportunities for that. 

During my time in this role I’ve seen some exciting expansion in nation-wide Braver Angels technology systems, and I even got to have a hand in shaping it! It’s flexible, though, in how much of those deeper problems and solutions you want to get into. The essentials of this role actually have more to do with communication and organization. You are a liaison between the non-tech leadership of your Alliance, and the tech nerds at the Braver Angels regional or national level. You pay attention to the opportunities that the Alliance leaders see for technology help, and you pay attention to what the nerds say they are doing or are able to do, and you help those two things meet. 

Oh, and training! Your Alliance volunteers want to actually use these fancy tech toys – so show them how! They’ll ask you a lot of questions and have you do a lot of troubleshooting. And they love you for it! Technology can be pretty helpful, after all. Despite the political slants of a lot of the big tech companies, people definitely don’t mind benefitting from the usefulness. 

Through my work in this role, I’ve talked with lots of Blues and lots of Reds, and we all have the same goal – let’s learn and use this tool, for the depolarization of our nation. We all respect each other when we’re looking to get competent and useful together. So in that way, tech work has the ability to bring us together."

- Jacob Rodeheffer, Ohio