This section provides a guide on how to get started with the organizing and planning of social and community events.
Establishing goals for the event in advance can help with preparation and planning.
Is the goal of this event simply to connect socially, or to accomplish work tasks?
Determine the goal before planning, determining a location, and assigning roles.
Social events are a great opportunity for getting campaign participants to contribute to necessary tasks that would otherwise take up a lot of organizers’ time (e.g. preparing petition packets).
If this is a regularly occurring event, schedule a recurring event time to make it easy for people to remember and attend.
Biweekly is a good cadence for keeping people engaged without overwhelming them.
It’s recommended to make the event drop-in so that people don’t avoid coming if they can’t make it on time or need to leave early.
For a drop-in schedule, 2.5-3 hours is a solid event time frame.
The event should be in the evenings (after 5pm) for best attendance.
Events should not run too late, in order to be respectful to the host (8:30-9pm is a good cutoff time).
Weekends should be avoided as people often have plans, or are out canvassing!
Share the general timing of dinner, any programming, and announcements.
Determining an event schedule and communicating it out in advance is important, especially with a drop-by event. This helps ensure people don’t miss important announcements, or dinner.
Find a location that is relatively centrally located to where the campaign is happening.
Find out who is open to hosting socials, and keep a list to rotate through.
Find public locations (e.g. parks) that are appropriate for sizable gatherings and allow reservations.
If the location is outside, make sure there is a nearby indoor space, covering, or backup plan in case the weather doesn’t cooperate.
Establishing a rough headcount in advance can be helpful, especially if food is involved or there is limited space at the event location.
Creating an RSVP link works well (Volunteer Sign Up link or an evite system).
Plan on having about 25% more attendees than the number of people that sign up.
Assume that at least a handful of people will show up that did not RSVP for the event (don’t expect most people to sign up for a casual social event!). Take this into consideration when planning food, location, and other event details. It’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared!
Last updated 1 year ago
