Rewarding Volunteers is iSmart ...

You've got to give Bill Frist credit for being creative on the web. Rewarding points is a great way to motivate your supporters (and inspire a little healthy competition).

This is from Hotline's "On Call" blog:

Sen. Bill Frist's VOLPAC launched the next phase of its web activist system this week: "iFrist Volunteers 3.0." The portal lets users obtain points by doing tasks online, such as commenting on the blog (one point), contributing (three points for every dollar) or singing up to be an iFrist volunteer (a whopping 100 points). Points will increase your rank, which in turn earns you benefits -- think T-shirts, a consult with the Web team or a pin denoting your rank (either "Organizer," "Captain," or "Leader").

Alright, so it's a little intense even for the blogosphere -- especially given the whole military (or perhaps even Star Trek?) motif. But you have to hand it to PAC that's already starting to train its volunteers -- all 1200 of whom have already signed up for the program according to their internet director -- years before an election.