Materials and Resources *New* Call script *New* Slideshow to play at your party Event registration page for your event House party evergreen organizing guide Legal guidelines on choosing a venue Event sign-in sheet One-stop-shop for health care campaign organizing materials Handout: "What is a MoveOn Council?" *New*: Talking Points for media inquiries Need help? Check with your Organizer or Regional Coordinator, or email Support Corps at: holidayparty09@moveon.org

MoveOn Council Holiday Party Guide

At these Holiday Parties, we'll look back on an incredible year—from Clean Energy Jobs Days, our first-ever season of "Camp MoveOn", and over 5,000 local and strategic actions organized by MoveOn Councils —and we'll celebrate together. We'll provide an audio-visual slideshow of images and stories from the past year that you can play from your computer during the party. Some parties will make phone calls into strategically critical states to help recruit for other MoveOn Councils' events. And we'll get ready for any rapid response that might be needed around the final Senate health care votes in the waning days of this year.

You can use the evergreen house party organizing guide for many of the standard organizing tips and techniques -- so this guide will mostly just walk you through what you need to know for our December 2009 holiday parties.

Special instructions for scheduling your party

The suggested date/time for your party is Sunday, December 13th at 3pm local time. Here are a few things you need to know about registering your event:

• Location: The best location is a private home that can accommodate 25 or more attendees. If you want to find a bigger venue, make sure you review the legal guidelines (in the FAQ below). You'll want access to a computer to play a photo slideshow with optional audio.


• Date: The suggested date for Holiday Parties is Sunday, December 13th. Because of everything happening in December, MoveOn can ONLY do central recruitment and enable member-to-member calling for parties on Saturday or Sunday, December 12th or 13th.


• Time: If you're planning to do member-to-member calling at your party, you may start calling no earlier than 1pm ET (10am PT), and you must end your calling by 8:30 ET (5:30 pm PT).

Here is the schedule of deadlines related to the Holiday Parties:

• Mon 12/7 - Bob & Vetting Deadline #1 for Holiday Parties
  • This is the final deadline to post Holiday Parties in Bob to get access to call lists
• (Tues 12/8 - VIGILS)
• Wed 12/9 - Holiday party attend recruit #1
• Wed 12/9 - Final holiday party materials posted
• Thurs 12/10 - Vetting Deadline #2 only for non-calling Holiday Parties
  • Note: Events posted after Mon 12/7 can't get lists to make phone calls at their party.
• Fri 12/11 - Holiday party attend recruit kicker
• Sun 12/13 - Holiday parties

The most important date to notice is that your Holiday Party must be posted in Bob by Monday 12/7 in order to get access to call lists. (Check out the one-stop-shop for the full schedule of upcoming vetting deadlines and materials and mailings.)

What to do at your party

 

What happens at your party, and the order you do it in, is up to you, but we suggest that you incorporate three basic elements into your party:

• CONNECT with each other. Share stories from the past year of organizing, get to know someone new, eat, drink, and be merry!
  
  
  • Update (12/8/09): On Tuesday, December 8th, Senate Democrats reportedly agreed on a compromise deal. The public option may have been stripped out of the Senate bill, or at least significantly watered down. As we determine our organizational response, MoveOn staff especially need to hear from Council leaders -- so we'll be surveying all Council members in the coming days. So, at the party, folks could take some time to share how they feel about this moment in the health care fight. What do you think MoveOn should do now?
  
  
• ACT. There are two important things that you can do at your party to make a difference in this key moment on health care. You can do one or both of these:
  
  
  • Make phone calls. Hit the phones to recruit MoveOn members in key swing senate states to attend an important upcoming event. You can get your call lists via your Council page -- just click on "Print your call lists" under "Holiday Party". You should plan to make calls for at least 30 minutes. For more tips on maximizing the calling part of your party, read this old call party guide, and read the FAQ below.
  
  
  • Prepare for rapid response. We're entering the last stages of Senate debate on its version of the health care reform bill. The fate of the public option -- the key to bringing down costs and expanding coverage to millions of Americans -- hangs in the balance. So we're going to need to be ready to take rapid response action nationally in the weeks after our holiday party. (We'll also do a full member decision-making process around our stance on the bill.) Here's one way you can organize your rapid response discussion:
    
    
    • Start with a political update. You may have more recent information from your Regional Coordinator or Organizer, but the basic update could be:
      
      

      	Sample Political Update After months of organizing, and after the health care reform bill passed the House, we're in the middle of the health care debate in the Senate. While the bill includes a version of the public option, it's in serious danger. Four Democratic senators whose votes are needed to pass the bill out of the Senate -- Lincoln of Arkansas, Lieberman of Connecticut, Landrieu of Louisiana, and Nelson of Nebraska -- have said that they don't support it as-is. So, Senators are in round-the-clock negotiations right now over potential ways to solve this impasse. It's expected that the debate will last until nearly Christmas in the Senate, and soon there will be two huge votes -- one on the final amendment, offered by the Majority Leader; and then one to pass the bill out of the Senate. The moments around those votes will be crucial, and there will be other key moments -- for instance, if a pivotal senator speaks out strongly for or against a real public option. We'll know more about which moment demands rapid response action when we're closer. MoveOn will be monitoring the news and sending alerts to Council leaders when we need to leap into action.

    
    
    • Brainstorm some ways you could take rapid response action in your community. MoveOn will send out an alert with a suggested action you can take along with other Councils, so you won't be going it alone in the moment of rapid response. But you know your community best, so spend a few minutes brainstorming good locations where you could quickly gather a large crowd, and get media to attend. Also think about one or two rapid-response actions you think would work in your community, to draw attention to the urgency of passing real health care reform.
    
    
    • Identify people to be rapid response coordinators or co-coordinators. Ask who will be in town for the coming weeks, who is able to take a leading role in helping coordinate any rapid response that might be needed. Ask everyone if they can commit to help in the case of a rapid response action, even if they can't coordinate it. You can post a calendar on the wall and ask people to sign up for specific dates when they can be point on rapid response. You can also create a "phone tree" so it's clear who will contact whom if rapid response does happen.
  
  

• CELEBRATE. We'll have a slideshow of photos and victories from the past year, for you to watch/listen to. You can either gather together to watch it together, or have it on in the background as you mingle and connect. You can also "Celebrate" at your party in a number of other ways. Everyone could each share one moment you were really proud of in the past year. Or your Council could recognize individual members of your Council that have gone above and beyond in the past 12 months. For instance, you could give an award to the most tenacious Core member, the best Recruiter, the Calling King, etc.

Other things your Council can do at your party:

• Watch an end-of-year slide-show of your Council's activities
• Take a "Group Photo," including a sign that says the name of your Council, and later email it to your RC or field organizer so we can share it with other councils around the country
• Hold one-to-one conversations among folks at the party to learn about what motivates the other people in your council to take action, and to share successes and challenges from the Council's organizing
• Separate out calling from the rest of the program -- i.e. ask people who want to make calls to come an hour early, but start the "party" part an hour later
• Local awards program -- ie give an award to the most tenacious Core member, the best Recruiter, the Calling Queen or King, etc (or calling guru / recruitment guru)
  

FAQ

Q: How will we get names to call at our party? What do I need to know to make calls?

A: To obtain your lists, go to your Council page, click on "Print your call lists" under "Holiday Party" -- but first, make sure you know which target state event you're recruiting into! Check with your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator for that information.

More detail:

Please use the directions below and print your lists. Please print them as early as possible before your event so we can resolve any problems you may encounter.

In order to print their lists, you should go to your Council page, www.moveon.org/team. There is a button in the top left of the front page to ‘print your lists’ for the holiday party. Starting Wednesday at 6pm, this will link to the recruitment calling tool, which is where the lists will be for you to print.

Under ‘Get New Names To Call’ you should click the link that says ‘click here to get started’.

On the next page, you will see every Roadblock rally in the country. Your organizer will tell you which event to select. (Once you select your event, there may be a few minute wait while the system is generating the best names still available near the event.)

The final step before printing your lists is to select the number of names you want to print. As a host of a holiday party, you should be able to print up to 500 names (that’s 25 pages with 20 names each). Hopefully each attendee will be able to call all the names on 1-2 pages. If you expect fewer than 10 people at your party, please print no more than 300 names.

If you expect to have a very large party, you may need additional names. Please contact your organizer and they’ll make sure you have enough names to call.

Here, again, are some key tips for printing out names to call:

• Your organizer will tell you which event (or events) you can recruit into.
• You should plan to do your printing between Wednesday night and first-thing Friday morning.
• You should aim to print one page per attendee. If you don't know how many attendees you're going to have, just guess.
• Your call script will be posted at the top of this guide.
• Note that the event information -- the date, time, and place -- is included on your call sheets, so refer to them when you're making your calls.

Q: What's this compromise I've heard so much about?

A: Earlier this week, Senate Democrats announced a tentative health care deal that doesn't appear to include a real public health insurance option. Details are still emerging about this new deal and it is awaiting a "score", or estimate of its total cost, from the Congressional Budget Office. But, according to published reports the public option would be "replaced with a program that would create several national insurance policies administered by private companies" and some people between the ages of 55 and 64 would also be allowed to purchase health care coverage from Medicare. Details are slowly being released but to learn more you can read a couple views on this proposed compromise from Igor Volsky and Jonathan Cohn.

Q: Isn't the public option dead?

A: It's definitely not. The public option's been declared dead half a dozen times—and each time, together, we put it back in play. But it's never been easy, and it's in part because of the dedication, strategy, and creativity of MoveOn members that we've gotten as far as we have.The health care legislation passed by the House includes a strong, national public option. The public option is also supported by a decisive majority of Americans—including 86% of Democrats. It'd only take one or two senators to unravel the proposed compromise in the Senate--and because it's the core to injecting competition into the market, Big Insurance is fighting it tooth and nail. But we, along with our allies like House Progressives, still have a chance to stand up for a real public option, and will fight for it in the upcoming conference committee where they are expected to merge the House and Senate versions of the bill. So, this fight isn't over yet.

Q: What rules should I know about if we want to hold our party in a location other than a private home?

A: First, please try to find a venue for free.

The best location is usually your own home or someone else's home.

• If you want to hold your event in another location, it's best to find a space that's free of charge and open to the public, that can seat at least 20 people. A library meeting room or community center are perfect. Some restaurants and bars have back rooms that they allow groups to use for free.
• You'll need a place where you have access to a DVD player, or a laptop and projector.
• The ideal venue will allow you to bring potluck food in, or buy it there. Food makes every event better! Look first for resources that are free to all organizations/groups -- like a library community room.

If you must pay for a venue, you must make absolutely certain that you're not getting a special deal that wouldn't be offered to other users of that same space just because you are a MoveOn member. That could be counted as a corporate in-kind contribution to MoveOn, and we are not set up to track or account for that.

If you must pay, we ask that you pay out of pocket. MoveOn has limited resources, so whatever your council can cover on its own helps our campaigns stretch our resources further. If you need to share the expense between multiple people on your council, for legal reasons please *don't* pass the hat -- but you can each write separate checks made out to the vendor for whatever you are paying for. For instance, if the venue costs $100, Joe can write a check for $40, and Jane and John can each write checks for $30, and give them straight to the vendor. The key thing is, members can't collect money from other members.

• Always report out-of-pocket expenses. Then, always make sure the individuals who spent money go to http://pol.moveon.org/poweruplaunch/inkind1.html to report these expenses.
• If you have a necessary expense that your Council can't cover, talk to your organizer. We have a small budget for venue and other large event-related expenses that you can tap into. This help is available for some limited circumstances.
• You must pay for venue expenses, if you do, from your personal account, not from a business account.
• Note that you can contribute no more than $5,000 to MoveOn PAC in a calendar year, including direct and in-kind contributions combined.
  

Can I hold my event at a church, business, or nonprofit organization?

• Events hosted at or by a business, nonprofit, church, or other corporate entities must follow these strict rules:
• They must be held in a space which is given out FREE OF CHARGE to ANYONE -- any group or individuals -- who request it.
• OR, you can rent a space at a private corporate entity like this on your own dime, IF they offer it at that rate to anyone who asks. But you must make sure that they are not offering you the space at a reduced rate -- you must pay the same as anyone else, again so that this doesn't get counted as a corporate donation.
• Note that churches and other 501c3's may have their own concerns about IRS regulations and political activities taking place in their space; you can check with them to see if they have those concerns.

Can I hold my event at a Democratic or other party headquarters? No. That could be an in-kind corporate contribution to MoveOn, and isn't allowed.

Can I hold my event at a university? University spaces ARE allowed if the university would allow any student to use that space free of charge, or if you are renting a publicly-available space.

What else do I need to know about having my event at a venue outside of my own home? You should know that MoveOn is not responsible in any way, shape, or form for what takes place at the venue that you procure, whether you rent it or find a place for free.

Q: What should I do specially if I'm a start-up Council?

A: Make sure you're talking with your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator beforehand. You'll want to spend some extra time at the end talking about your Council. Here's what you might say:

• Explain to people what a Council is & why tonight is a Council-formation night. You can say: “A Council is a team of folks in our area who work together to hold MoveOn events approximately once a month. There currently isn’t a Council in our area. [Or: "The Council in our area needs to be re-built -- it hasn't been very active recently.] That’s one reason we’re here tonight: to form one!”

• Ask people to talk in pairs for a few minutes with someone they didn't know before tonight. Ask folks to share with their partner what particular type of event interests them the most, or what issues they think will matter most in your community. They can also discuss why they’re excited to form a Council, or what questions they have about it. Talking about the work of other Councils is a good place to start.

• Then, gather folks back together in the big group. Ask people to go around and opt-in to participate in this Council—“Amy, will you help build our new MoveOn Council?"

• Find someone to set up the Council webpage. The first step in officially creating our Council is to set up our Council webpage.  Ask: "Is there anyone here who would like to set up our page?  I’ll get you the information on how to set it up at the end of the Party."

• Celebrate! Tell folks: "We’re now a Council. Congratulations! In forming our Council, we’ll all need to take on different roles so that we can get all of our important work done. So as we plan our first event, we'll need people to take on some key roles, like recruitment and media coordinating. Most of those are roles that we need to fill for the long-term -- not just for our first event."

• Be sure to nail down the date, time and location (or conference line) for your next organizing meeting.