Recruitment Guide

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The biggest key to taking action this spring is to get as many people to our trainings as possible. We want to make sure that we are recruiting everyone in our community to attend 99% Spring action trainings during the week of April 9-15. This means that we need to make a strong recruitment plan. This guide is designed to help you develop a recruitment strategy and increase your turnout.

	Organize a call party! Call parties are a fun way to get to know other people. Organize a call party by doing the following: Invite a group of people who all have cell phones to your home for a party. Create a list of people you want to call. Make sure that everyone has a recruitment script and that you take 5 minutes to practice making a strong ask. Divide the calling list among all the people who attend the call party. Call everyone on the list and invite them to your training. Here is a sample recruitment script that you can use.

Here are four simple tips for a strong recruitment plan:

• Increase your event maximum. Go into your Host Tools Page to increase the maximum attendee limit on your event. As organizers we know that only 50% of the people who RSVP will actually show up, so if you want 25 people to attend your event, you should increase your maximum event size to 50.

• Set a recruitment goal. You should plan to recruit at least 25 people to a half-day training and 100 people to a full-day training. Set your recruitment goal by doubling the actual number of people you want to show up to your training. Remember, typically only 50% of RSVP’s will show.

• Find a Recruitment Coordinator. The Recruitment Coordinator will be the point person to make sure that recruitment is happening. They should plan to find a few people who can help them out. When attendees sign up to attend the training, they can indicate whether or not they would like to help out before the event. Usually you can find a few attendees who will help with recruitment.

• Make reminder calls the day before your event. Nothing increases the number of attendees like a reminder call. You can find your attendees' phone numbers in your Host Tools Page.

Here are a few suggestions on how to recruit people to your training:

• Invite everyone everyone you know and all of their friends.
• Create a flyer and post to facebook, twitter, email your peers, call your family, knock on your neighbors doors, make an announcement at your church, attend local community events, online boards, etc.
• Ask each registered attendee to bring 3 friends. You can call and email your attendees from your Host Tools Page.
• Reach out to allies: invite them to attend and ask them to invite their members. Don’t know any allies? Google progressive groups and unions in your city. This is a great list to start with.

 

The following organizations have called for a 99% Spring: Jobs With Justice, United Auto Workers, National Peoples Action, National Domestic Workers Alliance, MoveOn.org Civic Action, New Organizing Institute, Movement Strategy Center, The Other 98%, Service Employees International Union, Rebuild the Dream, UNITE-HERE, Greenpeace, Institute for Policy Studies, PICO National Network, New Bottom Line, United Steel Workers, Working Families Party, Communications Workers of America, United States Student Association, Rainforest Action Network, American Federation of Teachers, Leadership Center for the Common Good, UNITY, National Guestworker Alliance, 350.org, The Ruckus Society, Citizen Engagement Lab, smartMeme Strategy & Training Project, Right to the City Alliance, Pushback Network, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Progressive Democrats of America, Change to Win, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Campaign for America’s Future, Fuse Washington, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, Citizen Action of New York, Engage, United Electrical Workers Union, National Day Laborers Organizing Network, Alliance for a Just Society, The Partnership for Working Families, United Students Against Sweatshops, Presente.org

MoveOn.org Civic Action is hosting the online event registration process but is not responsible for the content or programming of the trainings or for the planning or organization of any specific actions. The 99% Spring is a collaborative effort between many organizations to train over 100,000 Americans in the basics of nonviolent direct action--not an electoral campaign.