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Organizing Rapid Response, Town Hall Meetings and Free Standing Events. Persuadables – whose votes in Congress can be changed. Supporters – whose back bones can be strengthened. Examples – who can be used to drive the national narrative. Three Types of Targets.
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Organizing Rapid Response, Town Hall Meetings and Free Standing Events
Persuadables – whose votes in Congress can be changed. • Supporters – whose back bones can be strengthened. • Examples – who can be used to drive the national narrative. Three Types of Targets
Different Events are Appropriate for Different Types of Targets.
Strong Town Meeting Presence • Meetings with Grass Tops Persuadables
Bank Shots – Go After “Examples” or “Persuadables” in their turf to strengthen their spines. • Respectful Town Meetings. • Grass Tops Meetings. Supporters
Confrontations where ever you find them. • Town Meeting with an edge. Examples
We Use “Examples” to Change the Narrative. The Key is Confrontation.
Target • Angry Constituents • Camera Three Key Elements:
When and Where can you find the target? • Is He/She planning a town meeting? • Is He/She planning a fundraising event? • Is He/She doing neighborhood office hours? • Do you need to plan an event at His/Her office? Phase I -- Intel
Target Web Page • Calls to Congressional Office – from within District • Announcements in Local Paper • Americans United Grid Sources of Intel
Organizer to take point (unless you yourself will advance the event) • Spokespeople – trained and prepped. • Turn Out. Once Time, Date and Location of Event are Set Need:
Where is the event? Will it be held on public or private property? Is the surrounding area rural, urban, or suburban? Census data? Previous election results? What is the current political climate there? • How much organizational support can you expect in this area? • Where can you work? Is there a local union hall or will you be in a hotel room or coffee shop with WiFi? Know the Turf and Manage Time Efficiently
How active is the other side in this area? If they find out about your efforts, will they plan a counter effort? • Preferred total organizing time: 14 – 21 days • Preferred time on the ground: 3 days • Map out your time: Make a To Do list every night for the next day. Schedule out your time in a Google calendar.
The first thing you should do after researching your turf and planning out your time? Make a list of every organizational contact in the state that can potentially help you, and start calling and emailing them (keeping track of who you’ve contacted and how). Always call if you have a phone number. Email should be supplemental to the call. See Allies List at end of Memo. • Create a PDF with info on the event that you can email out to all of your contacts. It will save you a lot of time you might otherwise spend typing. Reach Out to Allies Via Phone and Email
AFL-CIO • SEIU • AFSCME • UAW • IBEW • CWA • Sheet Metal Workers • IAM (Machinists Union) • NALC (Letter Carriers) • MoveOn • Social Security Works • Education Association • Union Retirees Groups Potential Allies
Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) • USAction • Center for Community Change • Progress Now • NCLR • NAACP • Nurse’s Association • Federation of Teachers • Urban League • People for the American Way • AARP (if event is centered on senior issues) • Statewide and/or Citywide Progressive Groups • OFA (esp. for VAN Access & Volunteer Leaders in your area) • Doctors for America
Veterans’ Groups • Local Democratic Committees (Township, County) • Council on Aging & Local Senior Action Council (if event is centered on senior issues) • Young Democrats & College Democrats • Field directors, organizers, interns from previous Democratic campaigns (usually have the best volunteer leader contacts) • Interfaith Worker Justice, Faith in Public Life (& local progressive churches, synagogues, etc.) • PFLAG, Equality Now, and other GLBT groups
When possible, get VAN access as soon as you can. See if you can get set up with 10 VPB logins so volunteers from anywhere can call to help you crowd-build. Hopefully all you’ll need to do is send a friend a script and a search radius. • Getting access to Quick Look Up is also helpful, as some people will give you names of contacts but will not have their phone numbers. Get Good Lists
If you can’t get VAN access, ask the unions for lists of their members to call through. Ask the staff of the local reps and state senators if they have lists of volunteers/supporters/yard-sign-requests they’d allow you to call. • Contact NCPSSM and Social Security Works leads. • Get in touch with field staffers from recent Democratic campaigns. They often have lists of canvass and phone bank volunteers that you can call. They also tend to have the most up-to-date information on local activists (who will deliver results and who won’t, etc.).
If you don’t reach an important contact on the first try, call back again, and again, and again until you do. Each contact gets three calls on the first day before you leave a message, and a call each day after that until you get a hold of him/her. Be Persistent
Recruit volunteers to phone bank. Finding reliable local volunteers to reach out to their networks and make a few hundred calls using VPB is your best building tactic. • Who are your leaders on the ground? If you treat local activists like organizers, they’ll act like organizers. Give people specific responsibilities and goals. (Ex: “Will you recruit 3 friends to make 200 calls each over the weekend to crowd-build for the event?”) • Recruit mood captains—people who are willing to get vocal and control the mood inside and people who are willing to take the megaphone to fire up the crowd outside. Organize Yourself Out of a Job
Know the space. Check it out at least one day in advance. • Know the recording equipment (video camera, tape recorder, etc.). • Have a back up. • Get there at least1.5 hours early. • Confirm, confirm, confirm. • As you build for your event, you should be keeping a list (in VAN, or an excel spreadsheet, preferably both) with all “Maybes” and “Yeses” and their phone numbers. Every “Yes” and “Maybe” needs to be called through for confirmation the night before the event. If you leave messages, call again the day of the event. People are much more likely to show up if they have spoken to you. Be Prepared
Keep a running hard-count of attendees, and anticipate a 25-50% flake rate on average. The better your confirmation process, the smaller the flake rate. • Keep names and numbers of “real people” (folks willing to talk to the media) with you at the event. • Make sure your phone, camera, etc. is charged prior to the event. • Is it going to rain? You’ll need ponchos. • Are volunteers bringing their own signs, or will you be providing those? • Are you signing people in? Bring a pen and a clipboard. • Are there handouts or fact sheets you need to print?
Organize a Pre-Event Call or Meeting. • Do a run through of potential meeting – or event with your leadership team. • Make sure roles are clearly assigned. • Role play potential scenarios. • Go over talking points – and “yelling” points. • Where appropriate plan on forcing the issue – that may require repeated follow up questions. Pre-Event Run Through
Why do you support cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to give more tax breaks to millionaires? • Isn’t it true that if we made wealthy people pay payroll taxes like ordinary Americans Social Security would be solvent for 75 years? • Why should Social Security recipients who make $14,000 a year give up benefits when you’re not willing to end tax breaks for big oil companies or CEO’s who fly corporate jets? Questions – always involve a choice –Example:
Isn’t it true that the premiums for private health insurance have gone up twice as fast as Medicare over the last 2 decades – let’s cut their big profits, not Medicare benefits. • Let’s make millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share – not cut Social Security, Medicare – and the Medicaid that pays for home care and nursing homes.
Town Meeting Where our goal is to persuade or make an example. • Town Meeting of Champion where Member attends. • Town Meeting hosted by NCPSSM where Member attends. • Town Meeting hosted by NCPSSM where Member does not attend (“empty chair”). • Free Standing action. Potential Scenarios:
The desired tone. • How the event will look. • The number and type of people needed. • The materials needed. In each case must consider:
The importance of the floor team. • The importance of the leaders spokesperson. • The importance of good press work. • The importance of sound. • The importance of the picture – the visual. • When it comes to turnout – 25% rule. Other Key Points:
That May Require a forceful intervention. Some target Members of Congress may try to prevent your questions.
With the entire group. • With the floor team and leaders. • Follow up with press. • Capture emails, phones and cell phones of all participants. Phase IV -- Debrief
Rapid Response Coordinator is a person who has agreed to take point in each district to do whatever is necessary to respond to events by target Members. • In Each District find and work with current Rapid Response Coordinator – or recruit one. • Collect E-mail address and cell phone numbers of all contacts. Developing Your Rapid Response Network…
Between now and November 23 our goal is to prevent Super Committee from including cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in its report. • So members of the committee and “Examples” that can drive our narrative have top priority. • We must constantly look for the best targets of opportunity to drive our narrative among possible “Examples”. Target Priorities
If there is a bad Committee proposal, we will retarget to focus on votes we can swing to try to stop passage. After November 23rd
That which is not measured, is not done. • Regular reports on all operations. • Regular conference calls to discuss progress. Reporting
This kind of organizing is very Mission Oriented….you organize around accomplishing the mission… nothing stops you. Attitude
Newspaper Clipping are Nice • But What Really Matters is What Gets on TV Remember
Who will help you? • Who are the 5-10 key volunteers and organizational partners? • What are the next tier of lists/contact that can be used to turnout supporters? • What NCPSSM resources are available? • How can the grassroots and communications departments help? Summary Questions to ask yourself…
