Pick a date... some things to consider:

• What days of the week are good?

  • Depends on where you want to canvass. Think of religious observance days (ex: Don't canvass Jewish areas on Fridays and Saturdays, don't canvass Christian areas on Sunday mornings). 

• Who is free to lead the canvass? (see "Roles for Canvass" section)

  • Ideally the Electoral Committee chair should be able to attend

• What times are good?

  • What people are you trying to reach (Older folks over 55 might be at home on the weekdays, but working families will only be reachable between 5-8pm and on the weekends)

• Avoid collisions with other events.

  • Do not schedule a canvass when there is another Nassau DSA event occurring.

• Location

  • Make sure canvass is in line with Electoral Committee strategy, talk to the chair for more information

Make the RSVP Page

• Use this guide to get your DSA for Bernie event on the Events Map! For help contact: [email protected]

• Use Action Network event link when advertising the event — an Action Network RSVP is better than a Facebook Event RSVP because it will automatically send them a reminder email 24 hours before the event, and you’ll get the volunteer’s email address to use for follow ups

Roles for Canvass

• Canvas Organizer: Responsible for location scouting, day-of logistics, and coordinating with everyone below. (This is YOU!)

• Canvas Leads: Responsible for supporting with the training at the beginning of the canvass and going out canvassing with 2 to 4 newer canvassers. This can be leadership or people that have been to more than 1 canvass

• Data Manager/Turf Coordinator: Responsible for establishing the required number of turfs and cutting/printing them. Responsible for post-canvass data entry and management.

Optional, but very helpful roles (if these are not designated it’s important that these responsibilities are carried out by the canvass organizer or canvas leads):

• Materials Coordinator: Responsible for preparing canvasser clipboards.

• Food/Water Coordinator: Responsible for arranging food/water the day of the canvass.

• Communications Coordinator: Responsible for phonebanking and media/social media hype. They are responsible for confirming attendees and posting updates on the Facebook event.

**You may have people serving in more than one of these roles, all responsibilities of roles must be covered by someone!**

Materials

• Flyers/Literature

  1. Nassau DSA literature (The link to this is in pinned to the #chairs Slack channel, you can ask a member of Steering Committee to send it to you if you don't have access)

  2. Candidate specific literature

• Copies of the script

• Copies of any FAQ

• Pens

• Clipboards or folders

• Sign-in sheet (The link to this is in pinned to the #chairs Slack channel, you can ask a member of Steering Committee to send it to you if you don't have access)

• Buttons

• Petitions (if you are petitioning)

• List of turfs or turfs

• Voter registration forms (if that applies)

• Table if you are doing a street event (like street petitioning or voter registration)

Missing any of the paper materials? You can find PDFs of most of them here: https://bernie.dsausa.org/resources

Set Up a Timeline

Two weeks before event starts:

• Make sure turf is cut (all turf requests will be done through Electoral Committee)

  • Make sure staging location is close or walking distance from turf

• Advertise as much as possible!!

  • List Action Network event link on chapter website and share action network event link on social media

  • At DSA meetings

  • Anywhere and everywhere you can think of

• If there is anything on the inventory list that you don’t have access to, make sure to arrange to get it before the night before!

• Advertising is good but direct contact is where it's at! Do one of the following things to ensure maximum turnout at the event:

  • Use Spoke to text the general membership and prospective member list

  • Phonebank through the membership list, or past canvassers to ask them to attend

  • Phonebank through the list of people who signed pledge cards for the canvass date

• If you’re going to have canvas leads (people who have canvassed before and can help new canvassers) make sure you know who they are and have confirmed that they are planning to attend and know what their role will be

A few days before event:

• Download RSVP list from Action Network

• Send reminder texts to everyone who has RSVP'd

• If people can’t be on time, have them meet you where you will be canvassing

The day before the event:

• Send reminder texts if possible

• Inventory check

• Review training agenda

• If you are not leading the event alone, make sure to communicate with other leads that you are working with and have them show up to the even early with you

  • For smaller events, you will be doing most of this yourself including canvassing with your team

  • For larger events, you will want leads to help get people out the door while you wait for stragglers before canvassing

• Confirm with your canvas leads!

At the event

At the staging location beforehand

• Identify inexperienced canvassers

• Quick training (simulate conversation at the doors)

  • include MiniVAN overview, or pair new MiniVAN users with experienced onees

• Pair canvassers by experience

• Take pictures (yes multiple) !!!

• Make sure everyone who shows up signs in

• Make sure you have everyone's cell phone number

During the canvass

• Keeping aware of everyone's status via slack/texts

• Make sure any late comers are given list #s

Debrief/Return to staging area

• Talk about what went well and what didn't

• Next steps for next canvass, date and time of next canvass, ask people to commit

• Take picture

Data Entry

• "MiniVAN Commit" in VAN

• Add new doors contacts and total knocks into "Turf tracker" doc

Follow-up with 1s & 2s

• Request from [email protected] on JotForm

• Plan a meeting/time to call thru to ask 1s to ask to volunteer