Vantaggi
Guest lecturers came a few times before we would canvass and were very interesting. Program staff very dedicated (however these were not my direct coworkers). Good mission, and gets good political work done.
Svantaggi
This is a long story to explain so I apologize in advance for length. To give background, canvassing hierarchy worked like this: regular canvassers (2-10pm work hours), trainers (1:30-10pm with only slightly better pay) and field managers (1-10pm, sometimes 12-10pm, salary pay with some minor benefits). Then Obama came in and said that all salary employees making below a certain amount need to pay overtime. CWA decided rather than pay the field managers decently (overtime pay) and not make everything literal insanity, that instead they would cut everyone's hours so that field managers only worked a 40 hour week. This meant that trainers when only worked 7.5 hours a day, and canvassers 7 hour days. Oh and our lunch break was taken away. Which is illegal by the way. In addition quota (fundraising expectation in order to keep job) went up, and we were told our pay would go up however it did not, at least while I was there. CWA claims to be a progressive organization, yet they've treated the canvass like crap with all these recent changes. In my opinion it was very hypocritical. Which is the main reason why I left. While I loved the program work they were doing, I can't support or work for a group that does good things yet treats their "underlings" like crap. "Underlings" who raise money to pay the salaries of the program staff, who might not have a job otherwise (don't confuse this with me saying the program staff treated the canvass badly- they were great. It was the organization as a whole). Basically, underlings who are a pretty integral part to the organization.