Thank you everyone who attended the precinct chair training on May 7. Turn-out was great. We're very excited about our precinct teams moving forward. This email will re-cap what we covered for those who attended and those who did not. We'll be repeating the training session on May 31, 2008, at 9:00 AM. Location TBD. If you did not attend May 7, please plan to be there. IF you did attend, you're still welcome to attend and learn more.
We will also be having our kick-off Door Knock/phone bank event "Meet the Senate District" to kick off the election season and our project I.D. It will start at 11:30. Location TBD Please try to attend and recruit your neighbors. Email rsvp@sd64dfl.org if you can attend. We have a limited number of phone lines, so if you'd rather call people than door knock please indicate that in your email.
Topics covered:
- Overview of the role of the precinct team role
- The List – Who is in your precinct
- Making the Ask – how to ask neighbors, friends and people you don't know to get involved
- PCR Program – Importance of asking for contributions
- Communications
- Voter File
- Next Steps
Overview of the precinct leader role
- Precinct leaders are the precinct chair, associate chairs, plus other neighbors who step up to take a leadership role in their precinct.
- Precinct leaders are the building blocks for organizing within the DFL/Democratic Party.
- Your job is to connect with your neighbors and help get others involved by encouraging people to get involved:
- To vote
- To volunteer,
- To donate money, and
- To engage in advocacy & public policy outside elections
- The best method to connect and stay in touch is person-to-person contact. Meet people face-to-face, then follow-up in a variety of ways – email, phone, more face-to-face contact, parties, etc.
- Your first steps are to connect with your precinct chairs/associate chairs. Make sure you know each other, so you can divide and conquer (or better yet, get together and plan)
- Then, connect with known DFLers – Convention Delegates/Alternates, Precinct Caucus Attendees, and other strong DFLers in your neighborhood. Try to reach out to a subset of that group this month.
- Find out about their interests
- Tell them about upcoming events
- Ask them if to volunteer
- If you want a copy of our newsletter or volunteer forms, you can download them at http://www.sd64dfl.org/Communications/May2008
The list
- You can get a list of known DFLers in your precinct in several ways:
- Request it from our secretary Kat at secretary@sd64dfl.org. If you attended last week, you should be receiving them automatically.
- Voter File. The DFL's database with voter information for your precinct – an amazingly powerful tool.
- Please attend at Voterfile training which are held every Wednesday at 6 pm and Friday at noon at the Coordinated Campaign office. 2233 University Ave., Suite 342, Saint Paul, MN 55114. Email info@sd64dfl.org & we'll get you signed up.
- If you attended on May 7, and would like your ID, you don't need to attend the in-depth training but we still encourage it. Please email chair@sd64dfl.org.
Making the ask - talking to people and getting them involved
- The most important part of asking to people to get involved is establishing common interests. For a sample script visit http://www.sd64dfl.org/Communications/May2008
- Attend our training on May 31 for more practice.
PCR program
- If you donate $50 to SD64DFL, the State of Minnesota will give it back to you through the PCR program. We encourage you and your neighbors to make this easy donation and help fund our activities.
- To learn more about making the ask attend our next training or contact Rick at treasurer@SD64DFL.org or Sonja at bling@sd64dfl.org
Communications
- Our Precinct Teams list serve will be the main method of communications. We'll send out notices and other information on the list serve. We'll try to limit our communications to 1X per week You're automatically on the list as long as we have your email.
- You can share information or ask questions to other precinct leaders by emailing precincts@sd64dfl.org
- We will also be posting information from our meetings on our website at www.sd64dfl.org Subscribe to the RSS feed to make sure you get the latest updates
- We also hope to get an electronic bulletin board up and running within the next month. If you'd like to check it out, visit http://talk.sd64dfl.org/
Voter file
- As mentioned above, the Voter File is a database that helps us connect with DFL activists.
- Please attend at Voterfile training which are held every Wednesday at 6 pm and Friday at noon at the Coordinated Campaign office. 2233 University Ave., Suite 342, Saint Paul, MN 55114. Email info@sd64dfl.org & we'll get you signed up for training.
Next steps
- Get out there and talk to your precinct. Set a goal for yourself – connect with 15, 20, or more people on your list by May 30.
- Sign up to attend and recruit your neighbors for our May 31 event.