With local elections around the corner for many of us, it is a great time to ensure that communications with your members, volunteers, and supporters are set up and ready to go.
It is worth spending some time now to get the internal communication sorted. If done right, you can maximise volunteer capacity, increase fundraising and reduce stress during critical points in the campaign.
Who is in your team?
Every place differs, from a single ward/division campaign to a council-wide campaign to take or retain control. Here are some people who may form part of that winning team.
- Local party executive / key campaigners
- Candidates and agents
- Wider members and supporters
- Ward volunteers
- Candidates’ friends and family
- Neighbouring local parties with no elections this time.
Once you know who your team is, the next job is to set up the best way to communicate with each other. There are a few key things to do.
Set up a campaign Hub/HQ on WhatsApp/Facebook.
These are relatively easy to create and have the advantage of being interactive, which is a great way to build a strong team dynamic. If you have campaigned with the Liberal Democrats in the last few years, you will likely have been invited to these groups.
My local party recently adopted a WhatsApp community as our interactive communication tool for members and supporters. This has brought several groups together in one place, reduced duplication, stimulated more discussions between members, and improved the top-down campaign communications that dominated our interactions with members in previous years.
This is free to use, and if you want to know how to set them up, here are a couple of short videos that will help.
Add campaign emails and calls to action in your election plans.
By now, you will have nailed down a campaign plan with all the direct mail, leaflets, and emails to voters you need; you will have a canvassing plan and phone banks. Are your member communications, fundraising appeals, and activist activities part of these plans?
If member and volunteer engagement is missing from your campaign plan, add it in. Give someone the responsibility of ensuring emails and appeal letters go out. Set up a member phone bank and get your best recruiters to ring around regularly throughout the campaign.
In the heat of the campaign, it is easy to forget to keep people informed. When faced with a last-minute change in the day postal ballots arrive from the council or leaflets that need reworking, anything not in the plan can easily get missed.
Remember, Volunteers are more likely to help if they are kept in the loop and can see others getting involved.
- Regularly add new volunteers to the social media groups and email lists
- Write an election appeal and the key campaign emails now. you can set these to go out when they have the most impact later in the campaign.
- Remember to thank people regularly and share positive campaign messages with the team on social media daily.
- Ask people to share photos on What’s App of opposition mailings and local Facebook posts; members often overlook these, which is vital intelligence to those managing the campaign.
Team Activity
Many tasks are done individually throughout the campaign, but that doesn’t mean they have to be done alone. Think about how you can make every activity part of a team activity.
- Delivering – having an end-of-session meet-up for a drink or snack; coffee shops, cafes, and pubs work well for this. It is excellent for swapping information about opposition activity or pleasant voter contacts.
- Phone banking or clerical at home – set up a 20-30 Zoom break for everyone to check in and feel part of the team.
- Canvassing or surveying: Use a ‘brain download’ form to ‘mop up’ helpful information. This will help the core team understand issues gaining traction in the campaign (coffee/pint optional).
Adding these ideas to your campaign sessions helps maintain a sense of team strength, keeps the core team up to speed, and is an excellent opportunity for candidates to thank volunteers and sign up for help at future sessions.
ALDC now has a range of short video guides for various campaigning activities. These are perfect introductions to what we do and why during a campaign. You can find them here.
Finally… there is still time for a little social fun
Members and volunteers enjoy being part of a fun team, so if you regularly have a ‘pizza and politics’ nights or take part in the team quiz at the local pub, don’t stop during the campaign; an hour away from the campaign in the company of friends can work wonders in recharging the batteries.