Quite simply, I was tired of waiting for someone else to get the job done when I knew I could do it better.

In fact, on March 20, I was inspired to write a blog post, entitled, "Let's get our Act together," on the DAG blog. That short, three-sentence blog post was a call-to-action. I was willing to head up the creation of a Republican counter to the wildly successful Democratic activist site, ActBlue, but I needed some help. I thought what was needed was some financial backing to help develop the site. But what came knocking on my door was really what I was looking for: a teammate.

About a month after my blog post, I received an interesting email in my inbox from a guy named Sendhil Panchadsaram who was willing to take me up on the offer. Sendhil, a young, energetic activist based in California could develop the utility and was willing to follow it through to the end. Perfect. Sendhil agreed to be the co-founder of Slatecard and started developing.

Shortly after development started we reached out to a designer who I work with on a number of projects. She was willing to help within our budget (less than peanuts) and was fired up about the project. I knew she'd be willing and able to put the time and creative thought in to making Slatecard a success

Over the next few months, we traded email after email, IM after IM, and call after call fleshing out the utility. Working deep in to the nights to accomodate aggressive daytime schedules and time zones we lobbed thoughts, ideas, and critiques to help realize our vision. In July, Sendhil made the trip from California to DC for a week to show off the first alpha of Slatecard. We thought then that we'd be launching the site within weeks. Boy were we wrong.

We took a step back from our platform and realized that the site we had created wasn't that great. The design we were going to tie in wasn't particularly fun to look at. And the user experience wasn't a true embrace of the Web 2.0 tools that we knew it needed to be remarkable and change the game for Republicans. All we had done was imitated what some other people had done without innovating.

Back to the drawing board.

When we took a deep breath and collobarated about the project, we came up with badges, buttons and The Ticker. We wanted the community we envisioned to qualify candidates on the issues that matter most to Republicans so that issue-based supporters could find the candidates who support their issues regardless of location. We wanted the community to be able to be voyeurs and see what was happening on the site. We wanted to make it fun to give Right. This was the renewal of our vision for Slatecard.

Through August and September, what started as an aggressive sideproject became the focus of all of our free time. Joe Mansour served as the special projects coordinator for Slatecard - researching third-party credit card merchants to find the most viable option, helping lead our volunteer team of "Slatecard Captains," and offering another eye on the site. Our designer started colloborating with other individuals for input while Sendhil hammered away on the development of the new innovations. I was helping guide the project, writing content for the site, and began building our legal and accounting team and the board of directors for the PAC.

We couldn't have done it without the help of our team of Slatecard Captains who helped provide candidate data. Specifically, we'd like to thank: Ted Pibil, Mark Hancock, Sean McConeghy, Brett Farley, Josh Hersh, Drew Sweatte, and Mitch Mauldin. You guys are the best.

And here we are today.

What started as a simple blog post by one individual was answered by a team of talented and dedicated individuals who have becom e the Slatecard team. And I'm proud of what our team has accomplished. I couldn't have done it without those people both named and unnamed in this post. To be sure, what we thought were barriers - distance and time differences - made the process more thoughtful and deliberative and the product, better for you.

And we're just getting started. We've got some great ideas from Slatecard and we're excited to hear your thoughts for how we can improve the utility to further support and enhance Republican activism. We're glad you're a part of the Slatecard Revolution.

Now, let's start making a difference. After all, with Slatecard, it's fun to give Right.