EAT Step by Step

Educate. Campus Organize. Advocate. Camp Wellstone ELECTORAL ACTION TRAINING Step-by-Step Packet Campus Camp Wellstone Contact: Mattie Weiss 2446 University Ave. Suite #170 St. Paul, MN 55114 651.414.6017 mattie@wellstone.org USSAF Contact: Emily Stuart 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #406 Washington, DC 20036 202.640.6570 training@usstudents.org Welcome Hi, and thanks for your interest in the Electoral Action Training (EAT for short)! We’re really excited about working with you on brining this training to your campus. This packet is a guide for hosting an EAT. Included in it is a brief explanation of our program, what you can expect from us, a detailed “step-bystep” timeline for the Host Committee, and resources for fundraising and recruitment. What is and Electoral Action Training? The United States Student Association and Campus Camp Wellstone have teamed up to offer a comprehensive training to give students the skills to register, educate and mobilize their campuses for the 2008 election and beyond. With a combination of workshops, exercises, and discussions students will be equipped with tried and true electoral organizing skills (plus creative new tactics) and a sophisticated understanding of student power. What will the EAT Partners help us with? While your Hosting Committee will be organizing this training we are here to help walk your through the steps and answer any questions that arise. We will: 1. Have weekly meetings with the Host Committee to make sure you’re on the right track (and will always be available via phone or email between meetings). 2. Provide some of the best young trainers around the nation, and take care of their flight and hotel arrangements—in addition these trainers will be available throughout the weekend to meet with students, and answer questions that may arise and brainstorm ideas and share their organizing experiences. 3. Bring background material, exercises and information for each participant. 4. Provide an energetic, skills-based training that is sure to stimulate electoral organizing on your campus. At the EAT, you will learn how to: • Increase the number of registered students on your campus • Increase student voter turnout on your campus • Develop a strategic plan for your electoral campaign • Overcome lack of participation on campus • Develop effective student leaders • Create a persuasive message • Build powerful coalitions So, now that you know a little about what we do, let’s look at the timeline of what you’ll be doing as the Host Committee... TIMELINE 6 Weeks Out Identify the On-Campus Host Committee (6-7 Students, 1 Faculty Advisor) • The On-Campus Organizing Team should be made up of 6-7 students, representing at least 3 different organizations (political, religious, identity-based) on campus. These students will be the primary people responsible for pulling together the details on logistics, fundraising and recruitment (see attached appendixes). It is important that students on the Team are committed to doing the legwork necessary to make the training happen. There should also be a faculty advisor—someone who can help navigate the campus networks, and promote the training among departments and faculty. Brainstorm 4-5 additional co-sponsoring organizations. These organizations will help publicize the training and send their members. These organizations should represent the diversity of the campus—and should include political/activist groups, as well as identity-based groups (examples include African American, Latino/Chicano, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander organizations, multicultural student unions, GLBT groups, women’s centers). • • Fill out application and send it in • The application will be given to you by a contact from USSA or Campus Camp Wellstone. TIMELINE 5 Weeks Out Have initial phone conference with Training Organizer • cont. As soon as we receive your application, we will call to set up a phone conference. We will work with you to develop plans for fundraising and recruitment, as well as to nail down training logistics (like space, food and registration). Get co-sponsoring organizations on board. • If you haven’t already, approach the organizations that came up in your brainstorm of potential cosponsors, and invite them to participate. Sometimes it’s easiest just to have a one-on-one with the leadership of that organization; sometimes it makes sense to attend one of their meetings and pitch the training to them there. TIMELINE 4 Weeks Out START RECRUITING!!! • cont. Once you’ve developed your recruitment plan with the Training Organizer, it’s time to roll! Make sure you’ve divided up the recruitment work so that each person on your Host Committee (as well as your friends and additional co-sponsoring partners) has a well-defined assignment. It’s useful to give people number goals and timelines (i.e. each person is responsible for 4-5 new recruits within one week). Make sure to keep in touch with your training organizer during this time period! You will want to finalize a date for the training, discuss possible oncampus spaces to hold it, and start thinking about meals for the participants. Training date: Before coming to a training date, make sure other organizations do not have major competing events. Also avoid midterms, breaks, and major sports events. Space: Figure out the school policy for reserving space so you know how soon in advance to do it. The training requires one large room, with PowerPoint capacity. Natural light (windows!) is ideal. It’s also ideal to get rooms in which tables and chairs can be moved around. Make sure the room isn’t tiny or cavernous. Meals: Your team will also be responsible for providing 4 meals for training participants (2 light breakfasts, and 2 lunch). Past students have a done this a number of ways: asked local restaurants to donate, gotten meal cards for everyone, asked the president/dean to cover the cost of meals. • Weekly phone call with Training Organizer • • • • TIMELINE 3-4 Weeks Out Recruit like CRAZY!!! • cont. After a couple weeks of initial recruitment work, you should have a better sense of what works and what doesn’t, who will be easy to get on board and who you will need to work on. New, updated recruitment goals and timelines should be set. Weekly phone call with Training Organizer • Multiple schools will likely be attending your EAT. These schools will find their own transportation, but you will need to help find a place to house them. Here are a few ideas: some dorms will house students or free in the basement or other multipurpose rooms. You could also ask local unions and faith groups if they would donate their space for a night. Try to start this project as early as possible. Weekly phone call with Training Organizer • Keep the training organizer up to date about how fundraising, recruitment and logistics planning are going. About an hour before your scheduled meeting you should send the organizer a list of all CONFIRMED participants. TIMELINE 3 Weeks Out Solidify Participant List • cont. By now you should have at least 30 CONFIRMED participants. You should also have a list of 50-70 people that have expressed interest in the training, but have not confirmed. Confirm with these people by email AND phone. Solidify plan for meals • Make sure you know where the food is coming from. Check to see if you need a permit to serve food in or near the training space, and whether any of the participants have dietary restrictions (if not already addressed). Lock down all logistics (space, food, etc…) • • Parking for Trainers Housing for student from other schools TIMELINE 2 Weeks Out • cont. Send list of Confirmed Participants to Training Org. We will enter these into it’s databank and send out an official email reminder. Make sure you have materials for trainers • Host Committee you should have Butch paper/flip charts, markers, tape, and any other materials discussed available for trainers. Call ALL CONFIRMED participants • This may seem redundant, but a final phone call to participants makes a big difference in turnout. Split up the list so that the number of calls is manageable. Weekly phone call with Training Organizer • All of the loose ends should be tied up, and any last minute details should be taken care of during this call. TIMELINE Week of Training Tuesday cont. Have a check-in call with Training Organizer • Go over the following: 1. Final questions and thoughts. 2. Confirm Host Committee has collected money. 3. Reminder to confirm food and contact participants. 4. Confirm the meeting on campus with trainers and Host Committee (at least an hour before camp). Thursday Make sure you have materials for trainers • • Butch paper/Flip Charts, Markers, Name tags Confirm Food Friday Make sure you have materials for trainers • • Ensure that Host Committee is on call for trainers. Meet the trainers 1 hour before camp starts to introduce student organizers and trainers, go over the weekend schedule, arrange room, and hook up technology. Set up registration table (info sheets are given first, once info sheets received then give participant a folder). *WATCH FOR LATE COMERS* • TIMELINE Week After Training cont. Have a debrief call with EAT Training Organizer • • • How did the training go? How were the trainers? What is the vibe on-campus like now? RECRUITMENT Everything you need to know to get People! Appendix A Getting People to attend an Electoral Action Training The Rule of Halves No matter how many times we do a EAT, every new student host committee thinks they will be the first to defy this rule: HALF AS MANY STUDENT SHOW UP AS COMMIT TO THE TRAINING! In other words, if you sign up and confirm 50 participants, you should expect to see 25 on the day of the training. For a training to be successful, interactive and high-energy, we need a consistent group of 35-50 students. That means you need to sign up 70-100 participants. Breaking It Down So that signing up 70-100 students doesn’t seem like an overwhelming task, let’s break down the work. 1. Map Your Campus: Start your recruitment efforts by “mapping” your campus. Think about (and write down) the various ways students group themselves on campus: Identity group (Black students, Latino students, queer students, Christians, etc) Political affiliation (activist organizations, political parties, etc) Interests (student clubs, student govt, Greek life, service learning, sports, etc) Major (Political Science, American Studies, Women’s Studies, etc) Geography (Residence Hall, neighborhoods, etc) Another good thing to map is the influential people and media sources on campus. Ask: Who’s got the campus’ ear? Who throws great parties with lots of people? Who wins student council elections? Who moves people/money/issues on your campus? *Hint: get these people to help with recruitment! 2. Reach wide, go deep: Reaching out to student organizations who do work in campaigns, issue organizing, and community organizing is the first place to start recruiting. Now think about how you might approach each of these different groups and individuals to get their support for the training. Do you know the leaders of the organizations? Do the groups have open meetings you could attend? Oftentimes, asking organizations to sign on as co-sponsors to the training is a good first step. Make a schedule for the host team to meet with possible co-sponsors. Students for Peace (Shaun, 3:30 Mon, Drew Hall, 12) College Democrats (Camille, 5:30 Tues, Student Union, 323) College Greens (Adriana, 4:00 Mon, Student Union ballroom) Black Student Union (Mattie, 4:30 Thurs, Student Union, 232) Student government (Marjahn, 3:30 Wed, Student Union, 115) 3. Develop Group and Individual Goals: Your host team should develop weekly recruitment goals—for the group and for each individual. For example, if the training is happening in six weeks, and your goal is to sign up 90 people, you need to sign up 15 people per week. If you have five people on your recruitment team, then each of them is responsible for signing up 3 people per week. Goal = 90 5 weeks out 4 weeks out 3 weeks out 2 weeks out 1 week out Cumulative Goal/week 15 30 60 75 90 3 3 3 3 3 Shaun 3 3 3 3 3 Camille 3 3 3 3 3 Adriana 3 3 3 3 3 Mattie 3 3 3 3 3 Emily 3 3 3 3 3 4. TALK to People: General recruitment includes poster-ing, getting announcements in campus media, tabling, doing classroom announcements, and facebook-ing people. But it’s FACE TO FACE CONVERSATIONS that ultimately fill the room. 5. Involve faculty and administration: We have found that the most successful trainings are ones that involve and are supported by the whole campus community—including faculty and administration. Many professors/administrators are particularly helpful when it comes to recruitment. Your host team should brainstorm a list of sympathetic professors and/ or staff members, and approach them with specific requests for support (co-sponsorship, participants, and/or recruitment & financial). Here are some possible ways for faculty/administration to support your EAT: Make a classroom announcement about the training Include an announcement in a newsletter Put up a poster in their classroom/center/office Recommend students who might be interested Send an email announcement to students Encourage students they know to attend Offer extra credit for attending Allow the EAT to count towards required volunteer/praticum hours Offer the EAT (and a write-up of the experience) as an alternative assignment Encourage other faculty/administration to support the training 6. Point person and List-keeping: Identify one person on the host committee whose major responsibility is to direct and keep tabs on recruitment efforts—including holding everybody responsible for the numbers they have committed to. This person will also be responsible for managing the sign-up list. Use a standard sign up sheet that tracks name, phone, email, level of commitment (interested, vs. definitely attending), organizational affiliations, and any dietary restrictions. This list will be submitted to the EAT Training Organizer once a week before the check-in phone call. 7. Confirmation Phone calls: It is CRITICAL that every single person who signs up to attend the camp receive 2 confirmation calls—one shortly after signing up, and another in the week before the training. Each person can be responsible for following up with their own contacts, or this task can be assigned to other folks who have offered to help. A personal phone call significantly increases the chance that a student who signed up will actually attend! Fundraising Everything you need to know to get Money! Appendix B The cost of an EAT The cost to bring EAT to your campus is $0.00 All of the logistical expenses for each EAT is covered by the partner organizations— including stipends, travel and accommodation for trainers, and materials. However, you are responsible for obtaining the funds/covering one logistical item. The student host committee is expected to cover the cost of 2 light breakfasts and 2 lunches. Often students get food donated, or work through their school’s food service so that food costs are reduced. 1. How to Fundraise for an EAT - Start early: The earlier you start fundraising for the EAT, the earlier you get that out of your way and can focus on recruitment. Even better, fundraising can double as an early recruitment tool, by generating excitement and awareness about the training. 2. Know Your “Ask”: In order to convince potential funders they should support the EAT, you need to be clear about why YOU think it will be valuable to the campus—to students, student organizations and the community as a whole. Know your goals for the training. Think about how the training will contribute to furthering the school’s mission. And make sure to emphasize that the training is non-partisan, interactive and inclusive. 3. Get Co-sponsors: Besides the fact that getting wide co-sponsorship for the training brings in a wide group of participants, it also helps you fundraise. Cosponsorship demonstrates a broad interest in the training. Also, you can ask cosponsoring groups to kick in some of their student org money (if five student organizations each contribute $100, the food for the training will be paid for!) 4. Fundraise On Campus: Identify and go after on-campus sources of funding. These may include: Student Government and Student Activities Fees, the Office of Student Life, the Multicultural Center, academic departments, and student organizations. Figure out how and when they make funding decisions—and be there with a strong proposal. 5. Fundraise Off Campus: Other potential funding sources include local businesses, off campus progressive organizations, and alumni. 6. Delegate: Identify one person on the host committee whose major responsibility is to direct and keep tabs on fundraising efforts. 7. IF ALL ELSE FAILS: You may choose to have a participant fee to cover a portion of the cost (you will still have to have money for food and other things prior to the training). HOWEVER, beware that this should be a last resort, because it can often hinder recruitment! Fundraising Template Try using this template to brainstorm people or organizations to approach on campus as part of your fundraising. Organization Ask Amount Contact Person How contacting Amount Collected Women’s Center $50.00 Jane Doe, Student Pres. 555-555-5555 jdoe@school.edu Phone call, Meeting next week GOAL: $500.00 (+/-) for Food (+/- Logistics Everything you need to know to make the camp run smoothly! Appendix C Room Reservations ROOM 1: We will need one large room, equipped with 3 flip-charts or easel paper, colored post-it notes, tape and markers. The room should seat 50-70 people HINT: A full, smaller room is ALWAYS better than a big empty one—so stay away from lecture halls that seat over 100 people. Breakout Space: We will also need 1-2 additional spaces near Room 1 for breakout sessions/ exercises—this can be an additional room or even a large hallway. Food RESPONSIBILITY: You are in charge of providing breakfast on Saturday and Sunday as well as lunch on Saturday and Sunday. HINT: It’s also nice to have drinks, snacks, and coffee on hand throughout the weekend. And don’t forget plates, silverware, and napkins. REMEMBER: That student from other campuses will be attending, so don’t forget to include those students in your budget for your food costs, when making your fundraising asks.