One of my regular critiques is that every 2 years - and especially every 4 years - a massive organization machine is created, and then disbanded. Finding ways to keep motivated people involved so that you don't have to rebuild the foundation in 18 months would seem to be easier than, well, having to rebuild the foundation every time. Of course in the February after an election there is less for volunteers to actually do, but involvement for most people is a bit of an illusion anyway. You just need to make people feel involved, and put the structures in place to make that possible.