Specific Strategies and Tactics
Ready to start signing people up? Wondering where to start? Here are some ideas:
- Recruit Zombies. What's easier? Recruiting 500 people to come to your event, or recruiting 50 to commit to bring 10 apiece? If you picked the latter, we'd tend to agree. Start by recruiting Zombies, who can commit to "biting" 5 or 10 of their friends. Let them do the work for you. Send them home with a signup sheet, like this one
trick or vote sign up.doc, and be sure to get their signup information back so you can add it to your list. Emails and phone numbers are key. Zombies are also great people to try to recruit as Trick or Trainers, which you'll need, and which you can learn more about here.
- Email and Call Your Lists. Even if your'e not at a formal organization with a fancy database full of names and thousands of email addresses, we're guessing you probably have a list of people that you can call and email. Start calling and emailing them now. Let them know about the event, and sign them up. Don't forget to track them! Go for the lowhanging fruit, like your closest friends and colleagues, and work from there. Be disciplined about your calling. Do it regularly, and get through your lists.
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Partner Groups can be great volunteer recruitment resources. One of the best things about this event is its near-universal appeal and its ease of intergration with other groups' programs (like yours!). Get groups to commit to bring a specific number of people. Actually get the names and information of the people they sign up, both for your event check-in list and for honest tracking.Here in Oregon, we sent this ToV partnership request letter.doc to about 50 organizations, along with this spooky filmstrip. Go ahead and use this stuff!
Here are some good potential partners:
- Nonprofit organizations
- Labor unions
- HandsOn Network (We can help connect you)
- Teachers/ Schools
- High School and College Student Groups -- even Middle School isn't too young. We've seen a class of 8th graders do Trick or Vote as a field trip. Use the prexisting structures
- Church groups – a lil' something wholesome on a pagan day
- Have Fun! Maybe this sounds cheesy, but if you're having fun while you recruit volunteers, they'll want to be a part of what you're doing. Also, your attitude while talking to volunteers mirrors the attitude of the event, and people always want to come to a fun event. Some ideas?
- Costumes. People love costumes & they attract attention. A 'monster mob' in public could be fun.
- Spooooky Bar Crawls. Bar crawls in costume, talking up Trick or Vote & recruiting volunteers.