From Candidate to Campaign: Putting Together a Campaign Organization and Building a Volunteer Army

1. From Candidate to Campaign: Putting Together a Campaign Organization and Building a Volunteer Army Vonzelle Johnson, newly elected City Commissioner, Seat 3, DeLand City Commission Paul Lachelier, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Stetson University Saturday, August 28, 2010 Lynn Business Center Stetson University

2. What is a Campaign Committee and What Positions Is It Composed of?

3. The Campaign Committee • Should be one of the first things established in a campaign, and should meet weekly. • Is composed of smart, committed supporters with varied experience and skills. • Essential committee members: the candidate, campaign manager, treasurer. • Other possible committee members should take on one or more core campaign activities: volunteer recruitment, fundraising, media, graphic design, website management, canvassing, phone banking, etc.

4. For what specific tasks does a political campaign need a volunteer army?

5. For What Does One Need a Volunteer Army? Simpler, volunteer-intensive campaign activities include: • Phone calls (for voter ID, GOTV, vol. recruitment) • Door-to-door canvassing (for voter IDand persuasion) • Door-to-door lit(erature) drops • Putting up lawn signs and storefront/office front signs • Repairing lawn signs and storefront/office front signs • Assembling mailings, yard signs

6. Where does one get volunteers?

7. Sources for Volunteers • Family and friends • Work colleagues and connections • Community groups to which you belong • Your local political party club • Other politically-interested groups (e.g., unionists, veterans, environmentalists, tax/anti-tax advocates, gun owners, pro-choice/pro-life and gay/anti-gay activists, teachers, seniors, government employees) • Elected officials, former politicians, candidates, and other local political leaders

8. Create a Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet Your sign-up sheet should ask for name, telephone number(s), email, and give people specific ways they can help your campaign, such as: • donating money (suggest specific amounts) • posting a yard sign or store/office sign • Door-to-door canvassing • Phone calling • Clerical work (e.g., data entry, office maintenance, assembling mailings and yard signs) • Writing letters to the editor or opinion columns

9. Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet (cont.) • Copies of the sign-up sheet should always be available and conspicuously placed in the campaign office, and on the website. Relevant campaign committee members (e.g., candidate, campaign manager, volunteer recruiter) should carry copies with them. • Volunteer information should be entered into a computerized (e.g., Excel) volunteer list that can be easily updated and emailed to campaign committee members as needed. • Always ask (for time, money, etc.), because many people won’t help unless you ask. People are always free to say no.

10. How would you motivate and sustain your volunteers?

11. Motivating & Sustaining Volunteers • Appeal to people’s values foremost (e.g., freedom, equality, fairness, family, faith). • Americans are moralistic and idealistic. Values and principles inspire Americans more than self-interest.

12. From a Master Organizer “If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that’s positive for them, that taps important values, that gets them something they desire, and it has to be presented in a compelling way that they feel inspired to follow.” -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Note the key words: • Vision • Values • Desire • Compelling

13. Motivating & Sustaining Volunteers In some cases, self-interest can motivate (e.g., NIMBY, union and anti-tax interests, personal ambition), but better to connect self-interest with values. Examples: • NIMBY: protecting community, environment, little guy • Union: Fairness, little guy, workplace democracy • Anti-tax: freedom, private enterprise, smaller government • Personal ambition: Make the world a better place; fight for freedom, equality, fairness, or else.

14. Motivating & Sustaining Volunteers • Psychological research shows: if you ask people to do something small first (e.g., donate $5 or $10, put up a yard sign), they are more likely to do something larger (e.g., donate $25 or $50, make phone calls) than if you had asked them to do the larger thing first. • Have candidate work with volunteers (e.g., canvassing) to nurture connection. • Don’t waste volunteers’ time. Make them feel needed. • When volunteers show up, get them promptly oriented, trained and working.

15. Motivating & Sustaining Volunteers • Appreciate your volunteers: • Say please and thank you sincerely (make eye contact!) • Compliment volunteers personally and publicly on work they accomplish. • Have snacks , coffee and drinks available for volunteers. • Be understanding when they fail to show up or do what they say they will do. • Get to know your volunteers. Ask them how they heard about the campaign. Converse with them. • Celebrate the birthdays of your volunteer champions. • Celebrate victories and achievements, even small ones.

16. Recommended Reading Shaw, Catherine. 2010. The Campaign Manager: Running and Winning Local Elections, 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Green, Donald P., and Alan S. Gerber. 2008. Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout, 2nd ed. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.