Any advice on planning a 1st time precinct get together?

[wildeyed]

My precinct is basically unorganized. I am precinct captain, and I did a little canvassing on my own last year, but this is my first effort at recruiting additional volunteers. I have a list of register dems who voted in the last local election. I asked for primary records, but somehow those were unavailable, so last year's low turnout election is the best I have to go on.

My first question, what type of gathering should this be? Would an afternoon get together on the weekend with coffee and snacks be best, or should I go all out and try to do a meal? Maybe an after dinner event on a weeknight? I dunno. I am hesitant to do a full meal, and I wonder if people want to dedicate that much time to a new organization.

Second, what type of invite should I do? The advice in another thread specified hand written notes, but I have over 200 people on the list, so that will be onerous. I was thinking maybe postcards with a hand written hello if I have time.

How should I word the invites? Hi, come over and I will make you do work and try to get your money, or would something about talking about local politics be better? Should I try to get a few candidates to speak?

Finally, once I succeed in entice a few brave souls into my den of local politics, how should I word my pitch? What I really want is to recruit block captains. My second goal would be to raise some money for the local party.

I know this is a lot to answer, but I figure that any number of you have done this before and can give me the 411. Thanks in advance!

[NMDemDist2]

1. why not do an open house style thing on a weekend day

with hours from 1-4 or whatever. that way folks can just drop in while running errands.

I'd have munchies and info on the local candidates, party HQ and sign up sheets

have a couple folks come help you from another precinct or from HQ to answer questions

give them a contact phone number in case they can't make it but have questions

on the sign up sheets have them give contact info and the amount of time they think they can spare and also if they are interested in the "Block Captain" position

also if they are more interested in giving time or $$. some folks just would rather throw money at it and they are helpful too

i'd be sure not to have too much structure but if you can get a candidate, give specific hours like

Open House "meet the candidates" 1-4

Joe Blow city council candidate from 1-2Pm
Sue Z Homemaker school board candidtate 2-3PM
Adam Ansteve county commision candidate 3-4PM

as for invites, do em mechanically, but do more than one. send reminders and that way you can personalize each one but only have to do a portion of each mailing to insure everyone gets a personalized card

PS my Dem Women's lucheon was cancelled this month :shrug:

[Kixel]

2. I LOVE this idea!

We are talking about doing a "get to know you" get together for three precincts in my area (I am the captain of the three). Basically, we want to do a casual get together to find out what local people want to do to help and to have a chance to interact prior to hitting them up to volunteer.

One more question-I live in a condo with not a lot of room. Do you think a casual garage party would be okay?

I know our local candidates would be game to swing in. This is a wonderful plan. Thanks so much for posting!

[NMDemDist2]

4. garage parties are even better cuz it's open to the street and folks

are funny about knocking on doors of strangers :shrug:

but a garage is like going to a yard sale and folks will be likely to stop AND you may get walkups that you haven't contacted by mail :bounce:

put BIG signage just like you were having a yard sale and do some Voter Reg too :woohoo:

[Kixel]

7. Great point!

We have a large section of people who aren't active politically-condos and town homes, voter registration is minimal. I love the way you think!!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. I love this idea...

If I don't have time to organize one this fall, it's definitely on the agenda for next year. I think people will be far more comfortable with showing up on your front lawn for a beer or a lemonaide then they would be going into your house -- they don't feel "trapped" by strangers with a political agenda.

If you have one of these, please post how it went and how you planned for it. Lessons Learned and all that -- I sure many of us would like to hear.

[wildeyed]

3. I posted this in GD, too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1773801

The sense there is that calls and mail don't work so well, and that a door to door canvass might be the way to go.

There is a woman in my precinct, she is technically the precinct vice-chair, who is a big dem party supporter and has lived here 30 years. She has great contacts in the neighborhood, much better than mine since I have only lived here three years. I may put the screws to her, tell her that she needs to recruit some party attendees for me if we are going to make this thing work. Then get them signed up as block captains and recruit additional volunteers through that avenue.

One way or another, I'ma get me some volunteers :evilgrin:

[NMDemDist2]

5. yes you will! and you only need 3-5 core people to get going

and don't over look teenagers. contact the local High School Civics Teacher and see if you can get some kids to help out!

[wildeyed]

6. Young people are fun to work with.

Way smarter than most people give them credit for, too. That is a good idea.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. Young legs and enthusiasm...

Both are critical components of a door-to-door campaign. Gotta love the kids -- and feed them. Don't forget to feed them!

[alfredo]

8. Wine, beer and snacks.

Get donation envelopes, a sign up sheet, name tags, and one good organizer from headquarters.

Before and after your house party, try to hit over parties in your county. You can widen your network of friends/allies, grab a volunteer or two, and learn some tricks along the way. Not only do you have to appeal to the voters, you have to appeal to your fellow activist. We've been able to pull in volunteers from other Legislative Districts because our candidate and his volunteers/staff have been everywhere Dem activist gather.

Have fun.

[wildeyed]

11. So here is what I decided to do.....

I am hosting a house party for my local democratic party. It is a statewide thing, and will feature a conference call with Howard Dean, plus several Congressional dem hopefuls. I have invited many of my political friends, the type who go to 1-3 meetings a week, but also all of my politically aware but less active friends and acquaintances. In addition, I have been cold calling neighborhood dems in hopes of recruiting a few precinct volunteers. So I will be raising money for the local party, and recruiting volunteers for both the local organizations and my precinct. My main goal is to field a canvassing team for one or two weekends in some key areas in my city.

I plan to serve finger type food, but substantial since it is around dinner time on a week night, and beer and wine. I will look for things that freeze or keep in case I get a poor turnout. Wish me luck!

[NMDemDist2]

12. good luck! and your new kitchen is perfect for that type of get together

PS how did you Labour Day BBQ come off?

[wildeyed]

13. The BBQ was great.

All the food turned out well and people seemed to have a good time. I did, too.

The new kitchen is perfect for entertaining. I plan to do more house parties and fund raisers to take advantage of it. Before I was a bit ashamed of my house so I didn't want strangers there. Not anymore! Besides, my area is somewhat right leaning. I didn't want to be know as the rabid democrat with the crappy democrat house. Now I can go head to head with those pubby houses any day :rofl:

[NMDemDist2]

14. ROFL!!! n/t

[wildeyed]

15. Done!

I contacted my activist list, worked personal connection, mostly from my daughter's preschool, and knocked on a few doors around the neighborhood. Eight people attended. Sigh. But we had fun, raised considerably more than I spent on food for the local dems and hopefully got some enthusiasm going for the upcoming election. But I gotta say, this party building thing, it's hard work.

Now I will vent. Why why why are people so apathetic? Why do they talk smack all day long about GWB, but when you invite them to do something, something as simple as donate $15 to the local party, have a beer and listen to Howard Dean on the speaker phone, they get a deer in the headlight look?

Sorry, it really was a fun party, and I will probably do it again some time. But I get frustrated sometimes. I am particularly hurt that friends of mine who expect me to attend their volunteer cultural events regularly couldn't be bothered to attend my small political event, even though they are Democrats and I made it clear that it was important to me. Just needed to vent a little to folks who can understand.

[NMDemDist2]

16. the longest journey begins with a single step they say

now get your 8 people to have a party each with *their* friends and if they can get 8 people all of a sudden you have a pool of almost 50 people. if even half of them will work a few hours before the election you did good!

:hug:

[wildeyed]

17. It's a plan!

I usually don't get so frustrated. Yesterday I was down, having flash backs to 04. Today feels better. Thanks for the pep talk.

:hug:

[NMDemDist2]

18. anytime my dear

since you are (and have been for a long time) one of my favorite DUers

:hug: