And so it was that during the first Weekend of Action, on July 26, 100 days out from Election Day, Oregon phonebankers, led by Jordan, squared off in a friendly competition against their Sister District East Bay counterparts, led by Shelly W. And the Phonebank Battle was born.
It was a smashing success with some excellent trash talk (read on!) but before we get to the numbers, let’s look at how they did it:
Planning
Jordan and Shelly worked out the particulars of the contest—what prizes would be given for which accomplishments—over email 3 weeks out. The beauty of their design from an organizing standpoint was that neither team had to create a new phonebank—they just hyped their own recurring phonebanks in a new way to drive attendance.
Promotion
- Emails—Editors on the teams involved sent announcement/hype/reminder emails in the lead-up and an email to celebrate success following the event.
- Recruiting Creativity—The East Bay team promoted the Phonebank Battle in the run-up to and on their fundraiser with Aleta Borrud July 26. Jordan sent special emails out to his list of phonebank registrants. All leaders were engaged in recruiting friends & family.
- Social Media—Christina R. in the East Bay and Al D. in Portland promoted on social media using graphics found in our Asset Library
- Volunteer Recruitment by Phone—Organizing Fellows assigned to recruit for the Borrud fundraiser had as their secondary ask an invitation to the Phonebank Battle, and leaders in Oregon recruited by phone and text
Success!
- 3,557 combined Total Dials
- Oregon’s 35-person Attendance was up from their previous high of 18 (big shout out to a fired up Eugene contingent!), and their Dial Efficiency was an excellent 1.32 minutes/dial (we want to average between 1-2mins/dial, the lower the number the better)
- East Bay’s Attendance of 19 was higher than usual and their Dial Efficiency hit 1.93 minutes/dial
Prizes were awarded for Dial Efficiency, Total Dials, Total Attendees, Individual Best Dial Total, and Funniest Call. Highlights included:
- Oregon callers exhausted the phonebank lists for both of their candidates, so with 15 minutes left to go, they started dialing for East Bay candidate Cindy Polo.
- Rick in Oregon had an elderly voter tell him she loved him. Twice!
- The Funniest Call was reported by Liz in Oregon. Liz posted in the chat: “I had a guy say, “Hey girl I told you to stop calling me—you know I got a wife…” Then he hung up on me! :)”
- There was some great (friendly!) trash-talking. While “Our tattoos are better than yours” seemed to really sting the East Bay folks, Salil in the East Bay dropped the mic: “Our farms are closer to our tables!”
If you want to arrange a Phonebank Battle, contact your Organizing Department staffer! Maybe for the next Week of Action?
