Guide for Organizing a Clean Energy Jobs Day

	Materials you'll need for your Clean Energy Jobs Day Event registration page for your Organizing Meeting ("Bob") Host Tools for your Organizing Meeting Host Tools for your Clean Energy Jobs Day Guide for Clean Energy Jobs Organizing Meeting Sign-in sheets Planning Worksheet 2-Week Check In Call Outline Speaker's script *New* Materials to help you invite your senator or representative: *New* Call script Sample letter Media materials: Media guide Talking points Advisory Reporter call script Signs

Thanks for helping organize this event!

On May 28, all over the country, we're organizing a Clean Energy Jobs Day -- a national day of action to turn up the heat on Congress by showing the promise of the clean energy economy to our senators and representatives, the media, and the public. We'll highlight the clean energy jobs and businesses that already exist in our communities, and we'll showcase the ways in which they could expand.

This guide will help you plan your Clean Energy Jobs Day, and it provides you the resources you'll need along the way. If you have questions, contact your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator, or email jobsday@moveon.org.

This guide is divided into a few simple sections:

1. What does the ideal Jobs Day look like?
2. Before the Jobs Day
3. During the Jobs Day
4. After the Jobs Day

1. What does the ideal Jobs Day look like?

The goal of the Clean Energy Jobs Day is to effectively pressure congress to strengthen and support clean energy jobs legislation. The ideal Jobs Day is an exciting, media-friendly event that showcases local clean energy businesses and speakers; gets media coverage; and gets noticed by your target member of congress.

The core of the Jobs Day is the clean energy jobs media tour. It's a real tour -- we're enabling the media and public to witness first-hand some local examples of the clean energy economy. Here are the basics of the tour:

• You'll invite members of the media, the public, and your targeted member of congress to attend.
• You'll start with a press conference at a local clean energy business, and then move to two or three other clean energy or other symbolically powerful sites.
• You'll have great visuals to appeal to cameras; well-prepped speakers; and a clear message for your member of congress.

This event is flexible. It's up to your Council to decide the best locations for the Jobs Day, the best speakers, and the best itinerary for the tour itself. It's up to you to make it work in your community.

Note: The end of this guide helps you think about some different versions of a successful Jobs Day -- including what to do if your Jobs Day is staying at one site instead of traveling to multiple sites.

2. Before Your Jobs Day

A) Hold an Organizing Meeting around May 1

**Click here for a start-to-finish Organizing Meeting Guide.**

At the Organizing Meeting, you will start brainstorming and planning for your Jobs Day -- specifically:

• What speakers and sites would best tell the local story of the clean energy economy
• How to recruit people to attend your event
• How to get great media for your Jobs Day

Use the Organizing Meeting Guide for instructions on how to cover each of these topics.

B) Nail down the key elements of your Jobs Day

Coming out of your Organizing Meeting, your Council's "core" should stay in touch as you make progress on a few key fronts. Here are some of the things your group needs to finalize. We also created a worksheet to help your group keep track of the various pieces. Feel free to print out a few copies for other folks at your meeting.

• Choose your sites and speakers.

  	Tips for Planning your Clean Energy Jobs Day Think creatively about your tour sites. Over 15,000 small businesses signed our small business sign-on letter; but it's fine to approach a business whether or not they've been previously involved in this campaign. Tour sites should be close together. You'll definitely want to minimize the travel time between tour locations! So look for sites that are as close together as possible. More than a 15 minute drive is probably too much. Have a plan to deal with elected officials showing up. If an elected person attends, they may only show up at the press conference and then they leave. Talk to your organizer or Regional Coordinator to make sure you know what you'll do if they ask for the microphone. Make this event your own! Each event will vary locally. It is important that the council develop your own outline that makes sense for your community.

Your sites and speakers are the linchpin of the media tour.

• Sites: You'll need one clean energy business as the site to launch the tour. You also ideally want between one and three other businesses that you'll travel to. (Depending on your community, three businesses may be the max that people can visit.)

• Speakers: You also need speakers who can share their expertise and experience with the clean energy opportunity in your area. Of course, some speakers will be tied to your tour sites. But you may want a few other speakers as well, especially at the press conference. In total, you probably want a handful of speakers for your Jobs Day -- between 3 to 5 speakers max.

To identify your sites and speakers, start by brainstorming and then do some research! At your Organizing Meeting, you should have some clean energy business leaders in attendance -- and they are great prospects to speak again at your Clean Energy Jobs Day. But if you still need to identify more sites and speakers after your Organizing Meeting, here are some other ideas:

• You can obtain a list of local businesses that signed MoveOn's small business petition -- just ask your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator.
• Check out a terrific, wide-ranging list of state-by-state resources on green businesses by clicking here.
• Here are some "clean energy jobs" you might find in your community, to help you brainstorm:
  • Building wind-turbines
  • Forging the steel to produce wind-turbines
  • Build the engine in the wind-turbines
  • Installing solar panels
  • Retrofitting buildings
  • Weatherizing homes & buildings
  • Manufacturing fuel-efficient cars
  • Public transit planning

Whenever you're ready to start reaching out to local clean energy businesses, make sure you have a clear plan on who's going to be making the calls from your Council. You can use our small business outreach script to help with those calls.

• Pick a start-time for your Jobs Day event.

In addition to choosing the starting location for your media tour, you need to decide on a start time.

The best time is around mid-day. That's a good time for reporters and elected officials to come. And if you can have your event around the lunch-hour, there's a good chance that some members of the general public can participate by coming on their lunch break.

(Of course, you'll need to consult your launch site to make sure that time works for them.)

• Register your event online.

Please make sure your Jobs Day is registered in MoveOn's online system by Thursday, May 14. MoveOn will then send an email to some active, nearby MoveOn members advertising your event.

When you're ready, click here to register your event: http://pol.moveon.org/event/jobsday

• Plan your route. Once you have nailed down the sites for your tour, plan the tour route! It's really important to have this precisely plotted out in advance. You'll want to provide your Jobs Day participants with a flier showing the addresses of the sites you're going to visit, and the route people should take between each site. So part of the prep work will include mapquesting the locations and planning the route.

One important note: take travel time into account when planning your tour, and try to cluster closer places together. One useful activity is to try plotting the businesses you brainstormed on a map. You don't want to plan a multi-site tour if the sites are 30 minutes apart -- no one will finish the tour! So, try plotting them out, and then figure out which sites work.

C) Hold a "2-Week Prep Call" around Thursday, May 14

Two weeks before your event, you'll have a check-in call with other MoveOn Council members who are helping you plan the Jobs Day. Click here for an outline you can use for this call: http://pol.moveon.org/jobsday/2weekcheckin.doc

D) Listen to our national organizing call recording

We held a national organizing call on Thursday, May 21, where we reviewed breaking news and went over some organizing tips. Here's how to listen to the call recording:

Click here: http://www.spiderphone.com/RealCast/9596771305/c_RAM.ram (You'll need RealPlayer)

Or:

Dial 212-812-2800, press #1 on your phone, and enter recording code 95967 71305

E) Prepare the materials you'll need

Make sure you're prepared with all the materials and resources you'll need. Here's the list of what you'll need:

• Sign-in sheets
• This guide (you'll want to have the agenda section on-hand)
• Green hard hats
  • This is a great prop to make our point visually. You can buy them online for less than $4 each, or check with your closest hardware or worksite supply store. We'll be using them more in the future as visuals for this campaign, so it's a good investment!
• Speaker's script
• Media materials:
  • Media guide
  • Talking points
  • Advisory
  • Reporter call script
• Handouts of the tour route (you'll make this)
• Signs: Here are some printable "Clean Energy Jobs Now' signs:
  • Letter-sized, color
  • Letter-sized, black and white
  • 11x17, color
  • 11x17, black and white

F) Recruit, recruit, recruit

If you have a recruitment team, now's the time for it to shine!

Hit the phones: The best thing to do is to have a recruitment call party -- or at least, to give out a list of names for your recruitment team to call. You can now get a list of names to call through your Council Page -- just go to http://www.moveon.org/team, and click on "Event Recruitment - Make Calls". Calls are the best way to get people to your event.

Emails: You can also invite people over email from your host tools page. Make sure you at least invite every Council member and everyone who recently attended a Council event! Here's how:

• To send the invite email, log in to your host tools page. From there, you can easily send invitations using the "Invite Others" tool. (This will automatically add the details of your event and a link to RSVP.)
• The personalized link to your host tools page was included in your confirmation email. If you can’t find that email, click here:

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/forgot.html?action_id=172

G) Reach out to the media.

The media is a really important part of this event. Use the media guide and other media outreach resources to contact members of the media and invite them to come to your event. Use our media materials (coming soon) to help you.

H) Hold a "run-through"-- or at least a final check-in call

Because this is a pretty complicated event, it is a great idea to actually hold a dry-run day a few days before the event, to make sure everyone knows their part.

Whether or not you can do a dry-run, though, you should definitely get all speakers and key volunteers to hold a final check-in call before the Jobs Day, to go over what's going to happen.

It's very important that you prepare your speakers well. Make sure you've had a "prep call" or meeting with every single speaker who's appearing at your Jobs Day.

I) Make final preparations, including reminder calls

In the last 24 hours before your event, make sure you’re ready! Read all your materials linked above, and re-read this guide once more. Then make sure you talk to your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator before the Jobs Day for final tips and prep. If you don't know how to contact your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator, you can email councilorganizer@moveon.org.

And, your registered guests should hear from you in the 24 hours leading up to the event.  This is by far the best way to help ensure that people show up, so that you can build a strong Council. You can log in to your host tools page to send an e-mail to everyone who is signed up, reminding them what time you are starting and how to get to your event location.  You should also give them a reminder call. If they listed their phone numbers, that information will show up on your host tools page.

And it's especially important that you make a reminder call to all the sites and all clean energy business owners that plan to speak.

 

3. During your Jobs Day

	Tips for transportation between sites In order to travel to the tour destinations in the most efficient way, your council can organize ahead of time. Some suggestions: 1. Ask for a volunteer to be transportation coordinator for the day. They can be in charge of mapping out the directions between tour stops, and bringing copies of directions to the tour. This person should also be the point-person for direction questions. He or she should be able to circulate his or her cell phone number to the drivers. 2. Before the event, be sure to find council members that are willing to drive their cars to the tour stops. You can even label these cars with a number on the side back seat window, so folks know which cars are driving to the next stop. If you have a specific number of cars that you know will be going on the tour, you will be able to know when everyone has arrived at the next stop. 3. The volunteer drivers can meet beforehand to review directions to ensure they know where they are going. 4. If you have any special guests attending the tour, be sure to discuss transportation beforehand. For instance, if your congressional target is attending and is going on the tour, find out how they intend to travel.

Make sure you've given out a copy of the speaker's script (linked at the top of this guide), and copies of the talking points (also linked at the top) to anyone who may be talking with media.

Here's a sample flow of events for your Jobs Day event:

• Press Conference at Tour Stop #1 (15 min)
  • You'll start the event with a press conference at a local clean energy business. This is the kick-off of your media tour! It's also likely that some reporters will only come to this stop on the tour, so you want it to be really powerful.
  • You'll have powerful visuals so we can convey our message to any cameras that are present. We recommend having everyone wear green hard hats, and bring signs.
  • You'll have a few speakers explain what the Clean Energy Jobs Day is all about. (Possible speakers: MoveOn members, clean energy businesses, coalition partners, and elected officials.)
  • Then you'll want a speaker to discuss what is unique and interesting about your current site. You might want to end this with a brief tour of the site, if it's particularly interesting visually -- for instance, if it's a windmill-making factory.
  • Someone from the council should hand out information explaining where the tour is going, including driving/transit directions and contact information for someone from the council.
  • Then, you'll invite everyone to transition to the next stop on the tour. You can lead a caravan, and/or just say something like: "We'll meet at Location B in 20 minutes, at 12:30pm."
• Travel (15 min max)
• Tour stop #2 (15 min)
  • You'll gather everyone at the Tour Stop #2 and hear a speaker discuss what is unique and interesting about this site. You might want to end this with a brief tour of the site.
• Travel (15 min max)
• Tour stop #3 (15 min)
  • Same as Tour Stop #2.
  • You'll want to add concluding remarks if this is the last stop.
• [Repeat if there are more Tour Stops]
• Travel back to press conference location so people can pick up their cars. (15 min)

Ideal time total: 1.5 hours

*UPDATED* What are the different options for how to run your Jobs Day?

Remember, the Clean Energy Jobs Tour is what your council makes it! You can have a successful Jobs Day whether you go to multiple stops -- that's the ideal -- or just stay at one clean energy jobs site. Here's some more detail on what the different options might look like.

A) Multi-stop tour

This is really the ideal event. That's because it’s different and interesting to local media. By letting reporters know that you’ll be running a tour to multiple locations, you’ll increase your chances that they will show up – even if they only attend the first stop.

It can be as simple or complicated as your council wants to make it. In some places, the multi-stop tour just means inviting MoveOn members, the press, and elected officials to come with you to stop by at a local clean energy business and one or two other sites that represent the job creation potential of clean energy (like a energy efficient home, or a building that just put in a new efficient heating system).

Don't be intimidated even if you haven't organized a multi-stop tour before. There are plenty of tips throughout our Host Guide about how to arrange transportation, recruit multiple site hosts, and handle other logistics. It can be really simple, and really powerful.

B) Single-stop tour

If your council really can’t organize a multiple-stop tour because of the layout of your community or other challenges, it’s possible to organize a great “single-stop” media tour. Here are some ideas on how to make a "single-stop tour" a compelling and exciting event:

• Feature diverse speakers. Even at a single-stop tour, you can and should have several speakers from different businesses in your area.
• Find ways to bring other businesses to you – even if only symbolically. Even if you can’t physically take the tour to several sites, you can make sure they’re represented at your press conference. For instance, you can bring blown-up photos, posters, or other visuals from other local clean energy businesses, and arrange them behind your speakers. Or you could make a big banner that includes the names and/or logos of other local clean energy businesses.
• Talk about the other tours happening in your region. You can check with your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator to find out where Jobs Days are happening elsewhere in your region, and mention that to reporters and attendees at your event. This helps demonstrate that you're part of a much broader multi-city "tour"!
• Announce a “by appointment only” tour. Before the Jobs Day, compile information from a few local clean energy businesses that are willing to open themselves up to media and the public by appointment. You can hand out the appointment information at your event. You can also show the locations of these special sites on a map – that could make for a great visual.
• Don’t over-focus on the fact that you’re a “one-stop tour”. Hundreds of businesses around the country are going to be toured; and if you’re holding your event at a clean energy site, you’re part of the excitement! You have nothing to apologize for. Celebrate your event!
• Bring green hard hats. This is a great visual, and it’ll make any tour look great!

4. After your Jobs Day

Send any press clippings into your target office.

Fill out the survey we send you, and send any photos from the event to jobsdayphoto@moveon.org.

Celebrate, and talk to your field organizer or Regional Coordinator to get ready for the next phase of the campaign!