Best Practices:Phone Banking

Michelle Taube (Denmark), Rebecca Glazer (Spain), Connie Borde (France)

Best Practices:Phone Banking

(small country committee)

September 2012

Oh no, we’re supposed to phone bank!

surveymonkey opt-out

phone bank script

modified one from Munich (on leadership, now on wiki)

created phone bank member list

chose phone banking time

we called together (was it legal to use the office phones?)

several callers plus a coordinator

result is hard copy that can be referred to later

changes need to be entered into the database...

Reflections many people say “thank you” at the end of the call

some people call back right away

can get a bit confusing if you’re on to the next call

some people will need more help over the next week(s)

really rewarding when you hear that they’ve received ballots and voted

Modifications this year some on our ExCom want to make calls on their own time

experience with that during database clean-up in January not encouraging

maybe a combination of calling together and calling alone?

might set up a dropbox (instead of emailing)

some protection for the information, but we can all access it

member verification

indicate opt-outs on the call sheet -> try to get them to opt back in to our mailings (or drop their membership...?)

Creating a phone bank member list CC database coordinator downloads current member info

sort name (last name, first name)

all phone numbers

voting city, state

voting ZIP

email address, address abroad (for db verification)

sort data by voting state and ZIP

resulting list not in alphabetical order, but members who vote at the same address (families) are together

Make call sheets rows high enough for notes and new information

color-code

surveymonkey opt-outs

swing states

40 pages in all for DK

Actual call sheet

Actual call sheet

color codingsurveymonkey

opt-outswing state (call first) db phone numbers

often the same number several

times but...

Best Practices:Phone Banking

(medium-sized country committee)

DA Spain Phone Banking

Country membership is located in two large chapters (Barcelona and Madrid) and the rest of the country – identified as At Large

Approximately one third in each area (Madrid, Barcelona, At Large)

Barcelona and Madrid organize their volunteers to contact their own members and Spain helps to coordinate and cover At Large members

Since Madrid and Barcelona organize themselves separately they often do not do things the same way

Madrid has gathered volunteers at a single location

Barcelona sends lists to volunteers for them to call members on their own – this requires more follow-up but allows them to engage more volunteers

Reflections Try to follow-up each call with an email

Serves as a written reminder of deadlines, etc.

Provides member an easy point of contact for questions and future assistance

Usually ask volunteers how many calls they are willing to make – always send them more names than they as some phone numbers do not work

Try to ask more additional help if needed

Often use phone banking to recruit additional volunteers

Coordination, support and resources from DA have been extremely useful

Challenges Large student population still in database with working emails and

or phones, need to confirm if they are still in Spain

Rarely indicated that they are in Spain temporarily

Sometimes stay or return to Spain after graduation

In non-Presidential elections years, more difficult to engage volunteers

Focus on importance of swing state elections

Need to develop strategy for member verification as it may be difficult to reach all members with phone banking – need more volunteers

Can use phone banking as an opportunity to engage At Large members as volunteers

Best Practices:Phone Banking

(large country committee)

Useful phone banking tips or questions from the

floor?