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When you're recruiting volunteers, you'll often find people who are interested in hearing more, but not quite ready to commit to volunteering. So how do you move them to the next step?
Organizational meetings are great ways for you to bring people into the fold without giving them the hard volunteer ask first. You want potential volunteers/supporters to feel connected with the campaign, and these meetings are a great way to do just that. Here are some important things to note:
- Have attendees share their story at the beginning of the meeting. This will show on a personal level why each volunteer is motivated to participate in your campaign. If your group is large, have them split into pairs or threes, then report back to the big group on one or two things they learned about each other.
- Share the big picture. Volunteers love to get insider information, so let them see a bigger picture of the work that they are doing and what we need to accomplish. (But don't go too far! Share only information that is appropriate to share.)
- Make the need clear. At the start of the meeting, set clear goals for what needs to be done in their community.
- Next steps. Remember, these meetings are a tool to recruit volunteers for your campaign. You want to have clear next steps and asks for all volunteers. Have an activity planned, so you can invite attendees to volunteer at a specific event, and get a real commitment.
- Follow-up. Call everyone who attended, and get them to commit to a volunteer activity.
Organizational meetings can help move someone who's on the fence into the active volunteers category, and help you build a network to win your campaign!
What are your best organizational meeting strategies? Share in the comments!
Megan Simpson is an NOI community member, and formerly Field Director for the Montana Democratic Party
Photo from Barack Obama, via Creative Commons
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