Grassroots Tips

How to Create a Campaign Plan

April 2, 2024 by Drew McKissick in Grassroots Tips | Leave a comment

Before you get started on any campaign – whether it’s an election campaign or an issue based campaign – you NEED to have a plan. But just as the plan is important, so is the planning process itself. As former President (and General) Eisenhower once said, “Plans are useless, but planning in indispensable”.

Over 2,000 years ago, Chinese General Sun Tzu described what he called the “Five Elements of the Art of War” as follows:

  • Measurement of space
  • Estimation of quantities
  • Calculations
  • Comparison
  • Chances of victory

He stated that: “Measurement of space is derived from the ground. Quantities derive from measurement, calculations from quantities, comparisons from calculations and victory from comparisons.” To put that in political terms, you need to evaluate the environment, research the numbers, determine what’s needed to win, compare yourself and the opposition and then realistically estimate if you can win.

In other words, YOU NEED TO PLAN.

Planning forces you to think things through, weigh the options and see potential opportunities and problems. Once you’ve got a plan it’s much easier to know “what’s next” on a day to day basis, and you’ll know “why” it’s better to do things a certain way and not just guess or roll with the flow.

This section will give you a good thumbnail guide on how to plan a campaign, and how to do the research and make the evaluations needed in order to decide what kind of strategy and tactics you should use.

The Basics of Campaign Planning are:

    1. Evaluation: Identify all of the factors (current or possible) that can have an impact on being successful.
    2. Research & Targeting: Analyze what’s needed to achieve the results you want – and how you stack up. Do you have what you need? Can you get it?
    3. Strategy: Develop a strategy that maximizes your strengths and the opposition’s weaknesses. How can you make the most of your likely resources and opportunities?
    4. Tactics & Implementation: Determine what tactics you should use to implement your strategy – and when to use them.
    5. Timeline: Start with Election Day (or another critical day, such as a key vote you are lobbying) and work backwards, building in enough time to get the things done that need doing.
    6. Budget and Finance: How much money will it take…and how will you raise it?
    7. Review: Evaluate and review the plan and your progress on a regular basis – then make adjustments.

A good plan is a collection of answers to a series of good questions. Pull all of those answers together and organize them in one place. Then write out a formal plan. And to get the most out of any planning process, make sure that all of the key players who will be involved in carrying out the plan are part of the process. If they don’t “buy in”, they will be less likely to help.

Don’t try to plan in a hurry. If the purpose is to develop a good plan, then you need to respect the process and take the time to do it right. Depending on how much time you have available, or who else may be helping you, (or how big your campaign is), you could spend a few weeks on doing it right. At the same time, you want to avoid “analysis paralysis”. As Patton put it, “a good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week”.

Don’t expect what you do to be perfect. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy. Or as Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. Things change.

Your plan has to be flexible and able to adapt to circumstances – which means the “planning” doesn’t end with the first draft. It’s an ongoing process. So once a plan has been implemented, schedule regular meetings of all the key players and review the situation. Have things changed? Does any element of the plan or the timeline need to be altered to deal with those changes?

Evaluate, research, plan, implement and adjust. Then repeat!

If you do the planning that you need to do on the front end, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and headache later, not to mention increase your chances of being successful. So take your time and don’t take shortcuts. You’ll be glad you did it right.

Remember, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.

Choosing the Right Grassroots Lobbying Methods

March 15, 2024 by Drew McKissick in Grassroots Tips | Leave a comment

Grassroots Lobbying MethodsAs the old saying goes, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat”. So it is with trying to have an impact on your government. There are lots of ways to go about it, but there are tradeoffs between different grassroots lobbying methods that you should be aware of.

Generally, the more personal and spontaneous the action the more influential it can be, but the harder it can be to generate big numbers. For example, it’s easier to get thirty people to sign a pre-printed postcard than it is to get them to write their own letters.

The type of lobbying that you should choose to do depends on your situation.

Before deciding which methods you’ll use, give some thought to the resources (current and likely) that you, your group or your cause can bring to bear. Make a list.  This will give you a better idea of your strengths. Choose those that you’re best equipped for and that everyone is most comfortable with.

Don’t try to do everything. Focus. It’s better to do a few things really well than attempt to do a lot and only manage a half-way job. This can make you look weak.

As a guideline, here is a list of lobbying techniques in a general ascending order of effectiveness:

  • Petitions: either printed versions that you distribute to get signed, then collect and deliver to your targets, or online versions (so long as you can print a list of those who have signed).
  • Pre-printed post cards: cards that you’ve had pre-printed with a message about your issue and pre-addressed to targeted officials…needing only a signature from a supporter.
  • Personal letters: sent from supporters to targeted officials based on some pre-written “talking points” on the issue that you’ve provided, (encouraging people to put things in their own words).
  • Phone calls: made by supporters to targeted officials, working from pre-written “talking points” on the issue.
  • Town-hall meetings: holding a meeting in your area on the issue and inviting targeted officials to attend and answer questions.
  • Personal meetings: individual supporters go meet personally with targeted officials.
  • “Lobby day” at the legislature: large groups of supporters go to meet with targeted officials on the same day.
  • “Grasstops” lobbying: any of the same personal types of contact, but made by individual supporters who are also very influential or well known in the community.

Also, don’t forget one of the most often overlooked lobbying techniques: saying “thank-you”. Meaning, remember to thank those who are helpful or “vote right” when you need them. It will be that much easier for you to go back to that well the next time if you didn’t poison it this time by being rude or forgetful.

Remember that you can use online “groups” from services such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook or Ning to coordinate your activities. And don’t forget to leverage your efforts by focusing your time on officials where you can have the greatest impact and not to waste time on “hopeless” elected officials.

In the end you want to use the methods that you have the resources to use well. And focus them where they will have the greatest impact.

How to Plan Grassroots Organization

March 12, 2024 by Drew McKissick in Grassroots Tips | Leave a comment

grassroots organizationSo just how DO you get started with creating a local grassroots organization?  It’s simple and doesn’t take a lot of time, but action is critical.

We all know the hardest part of “doing” anything is getting started.  Having a plan makes it possible.

Fail to plan, plan to fail

Map out a plan of action that’s appropriate for your neighborhood, precinct or area you want to organize.  Use it to spell out exactly what sort of impact you want to have and what activities you’ll focus on to make it happen…(along with “who” can do “what”, “when”, “where” and “how”, etc).

Keep upcoming events on the political calendar in mind when making these decisions, (such as pending elections, important issues to lobby with local government, Republican Party organizational meetings, etc.).

Evaluate these items in coordination with other like-minded people that you plan to work with.

Three steps to planning grassroots organization

1) Decide “what” you want to accomplish

List the major changes you would like to help make happen in your area.  Why do you want to get involved?  What do you want to change?  Be focused and specific – but realistic.

2) Decide “how” you want to do it

Choose the kind of activities that will help you bring about the changes you listed above.  Play to your strengths and make sure they’re the kind of things you have the resources to accomplish.  Then list the action steps you’ll need to take to complete each activity.

3) Decide “who” else you want to work with

Multiply your efforts by involving and coordinating with others.  Remember, many hands make light work.

Planning in this way gives you a a better shot at creating a grassroots organization that can truly impact the things you care about – and help you avoid getting burned out in the process.

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You can find out much more about political organization in precincts, churches and online in my “Beginner’s Guide to Grassroots Politics“!

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