Republican campaigns had policy of responding to volunteer sign-ups within 24 hours.

[Eric J in MN]

The R.E.D.D. program emphasized the need for campaigns to do a better job of recruiting and empowering volunteers. (Mindy) Finn advised campaigns to follow the “Jack Bauer rule,” named after the main character from the TV series “24,” because after any volunteers signed up to help out on a campaign — through a website, an email, or phone — they were each supposed to receive a response within 24 hours.

...(RE email solicitations) “We don’t ask people for a vote. We encourage them to be voters...We don’t ask them to just give us money. We ask them to be supporters.”

http://news.yahoo.com/how-republicans-turned-the-senate-r-e-d-d--224413361.html

[LP2K12]

1. I attempted to volunteer.

Here in Florida I attempted twice to volunteer for Crist's campaign to unseat Rick Scott. The first time I received a call almost two weeks later stating they didn't need assistance in my area. The second time I did not hear back. I did however receive a plethora of e-mails asking for donations.

[Eric J in MN]

2. Your experience is consistent with what the article describes.

(Matt Lira, the NRSC’s deputy executive director's) team also “secret-shopped” Democratic campaign websites, signing up to volunteer for opposition campaigns to see what kind of responses they would get. Most asked for money, but not a lot followed up with phone calls, he said.