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Event-planning made easy

By ROBERT ROUTELEDGE, Canadian Field Organizer with Obama for America

There have been several informative articles on greenpartystrategy.com about different kinds of events you can organize in your community to raise the profile of your local Green Party association. Below I have provided a template and a sample event-plan to help keep things organized.

But first, I think it’s worthwhile to ask: Why run these events at all? For me, the answer to this question lies in the reasons I was drawn into politics. Working on the Obama campaign in 2008 demonstrated to me the future of politics in North America: that it will be won by building personal relationships in our communities one person at a time.

Our communities wield incredible power. They can mobilize support for important causes; they can build capacity and motivate people to do more. They can also motivate people to expect more from public officials. When our communities are active and organized, we can accomplish incredible feats.

Unfortunately much of that potential goes unrealized because communities are not getting the attention they deserve.

The Green Party must become better community builders. And this can only happen between elections when supporters have time to develop personal relationships with other members of the community. Event-organizing is an excellent way to get to know local voters, identify supporters, and recruit new members and volunteers before election time.

As the summer winds down, I encourage you to organize an event in your riding. There is a multitude of event ideas out there. Erich Jacoby-Hawkins has outlined several outreach tips on this site. The federal and provincial parties also have materials that can help. In Guelph we recently held a movie night and a frisbee-golf tournament.

Below I have provided a sample event plan for download along with a template you can use to organize your own event. Go for it!

Robert Routledge managed a rural Albertan campaign for Reeve and the 2008 federal campaign in Edmonton Strathcona. Robert was consulted for the 2009 BC provincial election and worked as a Field Organizer with Obama for America in five states.

 

Attachment	Size
Sample Event.doc	62 KB
Template planner.doc	54.5 KB