Thank you for signing up to host a community event with us! Community events are a great way to meet voters where they are, in the places they’re naturally congregating, to make sure they know about James!
Important Resources & Quick Links
| Resource | Link |
| Community Event Host Training | TAP HERE |
| Community Event Script | TAP HERE |
| Reach Guide | TAP HERE |
| Questions? How to get in touch. | Joseph Krenek – DFW Folasade Fashina – Travis County Laura Silvia – San Antonio Coby Nguyen – Houston Dalia Zamora – RGV Ashley Chacon – Everywhere Else |
Step 1: Identifying Your Community Event Location, Date + Time
Location Scouting
To identify a good location, ask yourself where people in your community naturally gather. Have fun, and get creative! Some of the locations we recommend include:
- Flea Markets
- Farmers Markets
- Polling Sites
- Community Festivals
- Libraries
- Transit Hubs
- Football Games
Essentially, the focus should be on spaces that will have large groups of folks we can spread the word to about James. Remember: your goal is to find Texans who likely vote – so canvassing in areas with high tourist traffic may not make the most sense for your effort!
Deciding on a Time
Consider when the most people will actually be at your selected location and what timings match your goal. Achieving deep conversations tends to happen when your event is at less crowded times for your location, whereas high-visibility events occur at peak traffic times (like a farmer’s market on Saturday or Sunday morning!).
2. Plan & Create Your Event
Creating Your Event
We host community events on Mobilize, an event hosting platform, which makes it simple for other people to sign up to attend events all over Texas. When you’re ready, follow these steps to create your event on Mobilize:
1. Event Creation Page: Tap the button below to be directed to our event creation page.
2. Event Details: The following details will be required for your event:
- Title: Team Talarico: Volunteer at [Community Event]
- Photo: This is provided automatically.
- Description: We provide a default event description for you.
- Visibility:
- Public: Listed on our public feed and on select partner feeds. Anyone can view the event page.
- Private: Only people with a link can view the event page.
- Location: Select “In Person”
- Add a location to help supporters find this event: Type in the address for the launch location for your block walk.
- Only attendees can see this location: Check this box so only those who sign up can access the full address.
- Date and time: Enter a single timeslot of 3 hours. If you wish to host another block walk, please create another Mobilize event.
- Capacity: If you’d like to limit the number of people who can attend your event, set a maximum capacity after each date and time. This is optional, and more typical for in-person events with limited space. But remember: there is always a “flake rate” of people who RSVP but don’t show up, so consider setting your capacity limit a little higher than it actually is!
- Communications:
- Phone Number: Allows us to contact you about this event. This number is NOT shown publicly, only to our campaign.
- Sent to supporters in the event confirmation email: These are the private details you want to send to people who sign up, such as links, arrival instructions, and more. We provide some default information on what to bring and expect, but please edit this section to include anything useful specific to your event.
- Let attendees know if the space is ADA compliant, and/or describe the location’s accommodations. It’s OK if you don’t know the answer to the question – you can leave the box unchecked.
- Group chat: The group chat feature will be automatically toggled off. We recommend you keep this disabled and find other means to communicate, such as a group chat, Slack channel, or direct Mobilize email. Group chats can clutter your volunteers’ inboxes and make important information hard to find. However, you may still enable it if you find the feature useful.
- Who else is hosting this event with you?: Will someone be supporting you with the management of the event? Add them here, if so!
- Click “host this event”!
3. Our team will then review your event, and you will be notified once the event is published on Mobilize. You won’t need to worry about turf cutting, script building, or anything like that – we’ll handle it all for you! But if you would like to help our turf cutting team, please let us know on Slack.
Permissions
Public sidewalks tend to be fair game for political activity, but private property usually requires that you ask first, or stay on the public right-of-way. When in doubt, ask for permission or position yourself on adjacent public property.
If you have someone in your town or city who you know is a James supporter, or has been a supporter in democratic campaign spaces, you can ask their permission to canvass at their business! Please note that if you don’t ask, and place yourself in non-aligned businesses, you run the risk of yourself and your vols being asked to leave. In instances like that, we’d recommend having a public space (even a sidewalk!) nearby as a back up place to be positioned. If they continue to ask you to leave, or threaten to call the police, please find another location!
Supplies to Have at Your Event
Here are the essentials:
- Campaign literature — Lit pieces, talking points quarter-pagers
- Clipboards — for sign-up sheets
- Pens — bring extras
- Sign-up sheets — printed from campaign
- QR codes — for volunteer sign-ups & to download Reach
- Phone with Reach app downloaded — for data entry
And a list of things that are “nice to have:”
- Water bottles
- Snacks
- Sunscreen (especially for outdoor events)
- Portable chargers (in the event that someone’s phone dies)
- QR codes that link to our Volunteer Sign Up page!
Step 3: Managing Your Event
You’ve successfully created your event on Mobilize. Now what? An important next step is knowing how to manage your event, track who is signing up, and communicating with signups.
Your Mobilize Account & Events Dashboard
- Mobilize uses “Magic Links” to log into your account (no password!)
- Use this link to log into your account (and bookmark it!): https://www.mobilize.us/dashboard/talaricofortexas/events/
- If you are logged out, type in the email you used to create the event. You’ll be sent an email with a link (check spam). Click it and you’ll be logged in.
- Co-hosts can log in the same way.
- Once logged on, you will be able to view all of the events you have created on Mobilize from the dashboard. Click the event name link to view and manage an event.
- Within the event page, you can:
- Edit event details
- Email attendees with reminders, more event details, and thank you’s.
- Find a sharable link for attendees to sign up.
- See who’s signed up for your event. Scroll to the “shifts and sign-ups” section toward the bottom.
- Attendees are organized by event “statuses” that help keep track of who signed up, who confirmed, who canceled, and who attended. After your event is complete, you can update these statuses using the dropdown menu based on who showed up.
Step 4: Recruit Volunteers & Running Event
Once your event is live on Moblize, you’ll want to publicize your event link far and wide. The more people who join, the better! Consider recruiting people by:
- Sharing the mobilize link directly with friends
- Posting your event in Team Talarico Slack channels
- Texting/calling people who’ve volunteered with you before
- Inviting people at other campaign events
- Share on your neighborhood listserv
One day before your event: text, email and/or call attendees to confirm and let them know you look forward to seeing them on [Event Date & Time].
- Text, email and/or call attendees to confirm and let them know you look forward to seeing them on [Event Date & Time].
- Mobilize also sends out a confirmation message a few days before your event, but contacting attendees personally has been shown to increase attendance significantly!
On the day of your event:
- Arrive at your event location 20-30 minutes prior to your scheduled time to scout the location and make sure everything is ready for your participants.
- When your attendees arrive, do a temperature check! If your folks are nervous about cold approaching people at the event, have them pair up and go through a couple of scenarios. Remember: the most important thing is to share why you support James as a candidate, and making the hard ASK: Can we count on their vote?
- Try roleplaying these scenarios (see the full script below!):
- Practice Scenario 1: A friendly voter who’s already a James supporter
- Practice Scenario 2: A skeptical voter who doesn’t know who James is
- Practice Scenario 3: A voter who supports another candidate in the primary
- Practice Scenario 4: A voter in a hurry who only has 15 seconds
- Practice Scenario 5: A voter who wants to argue about a policy issue
- Make sure everyone has Reach downloaded, and do a brief walkthrough of how to use the app.
- Plan where and when to meet for debrief at the end of the shift.
Talking to Voters: Conversation Script
Here’s an example of an ideal conversation flow. Practice this with your volunteers a few times, until everyone is feeling comfortable:
- Introduction: “Hi! I’m [Name], a volunteer with James Talarico’s campaign for U.S. Senate.”
- Recommended openers:
- “Are you a Texas voter?”
- “Do you have 30 seconds to hear about the Senate race?”
- “Are you planning to vote in the March primary?”
- Recommended openers:
- Candidate Pitch: “James is a state rep who’s been fighting for [your favorite talking point about James]. He’s running to bring that same energy to Washington.”
- ID Question: “Have you heard of him? What do you think so far?”
- Reach Data Capture: “Can I get your name, phone number, and address to make sure you’re registered to vote, and to stay in touch?”
- The Ask: “The primary is March 3rd. Can we count on your vote?”
Important Things to Keep in Mind
- Remember to not give voters an option to say no until after you’ve made your ask! Giving them a chance to say no before they know what you’re up to means they’re saying no without all the information.
- Body language conveys a lot. For smoother conversations, try to:
- Stand with open posture
- Make eye contact and smile
- Don’t be on your phone!
- Also prioritize situational awareness:
- People in a hurry won’t stop
- People browsing, sitting, or waiting are more receptive
- Don’t chase people down
- Handling Rejection:
- It happens! Don’t take it personally.
- Just say: “No problem, have a great day!”
- Move on quickly – the great conversations make the rejection worth it!
- Secondary Responses:
- If they’re with us, a great follow-up ask is to bring them on board as a vol (use QR codes)
- If they’re supporting Jasmine, ask them what they like about her specifically – that’s valuable information for us, too!
Tracking Engagements With Voters
We will be using the Reach app to track your interactions. To get started on Reach, scan the QR code below and follow the following instructions (if you would like more information on using Reach, we have a guide for that, too!)
- Download the app by scanning the QR code OR join
our campaign using our campaign key (below) - Create your account!
- Join our Reach Campaign using our campaign key:
GXWR93 - Check the Home Screen to start taking action
If you already have Reach on your phone, you can search for the campaign and add the campaign key to get access. The campaign key is GXWR93.
Once you have Reach downloaded, you’ll be able to use it to add the voters you talk to to your network using the Search feature.
With this feature, you’ll be able to search for voters using their name and address! After you find them and add them to your network, shoot them a text so they can save your number for future check-ins. It’s really that easy!
Tips for Using Reach:
- Let the voter know that you’re searching for them on Reach to match them with their voter file
- Enter information actively during each conversation, so the voter can help you find them!
- Capture non-voters and unregistered voters in your Reach as well: just make sure to note their voter status, and the campaign will follow up with a VDR to get them registered!
Step 5: Reporting
- Debrief at the end of the shift with your Volunteers. Use our 1 Pager to guide you: How to: Ask for Feedback
- Summarize their feedback in our Host Feedback Form
- Upload a picture of your Sign in Sheet (if used) to the Folder linked on the QR code on the Sign In Sheet
- Update your Mobilize attendees to reflect attendance
- Ask volunteers to sign up for another event!
- Give any excess literature back to your Regional Organizing Manager