Guide for April 16th Events:
"Small Businesses Speak Out" Deliveries

Right now, MoveOn Councils are reaching out to thousands of small business owners around the country. These business voices are very powerful in calling for a shift to a new, clean energy economy. So our goal is to gather letters from as many small business owners as possible--and then to start making their voices heard by delivering those letters to members of Congress.

On April 16, we'll deliver the first round of small business letters to our target members of Congress. This guide will help you to organize a successful event, but exactly how your event looks depends on your council and your community. Make sure you're working closely with your organizer or Regional Coordinator to plan an event that's best for your council!

Goals for this event

The April 16th event is fundamentally focused on delivering the small business letters that we've gathered. You also want to make sure media knows about our campaign. So, there are two key goals for this event:

1) You want to make sure that your target receives the small business letters that we collected so far.
2) You want to make local media aware of the small business letters, and give them the tools to write a story about our campaign, either now or in the future.

How to plan your event

You want to make sure you're delivering letters to the target and giving local media a heads-up. Most councils will have a small group of people from the Council go to your target's closest office to deliver the signed letters, and have someone contact the media to let them know about our campaign. You'll do this by sending in a press release and making follow-up phone calls using the media materials MoveOn provides.

A few councils may decide to be ambitious and organize a bigger delivery event -- a "speak-out" with speakers and signs -- and invite the media to attend. You should talk with your Regional Coordinator or organizer if you think this makes sense for you.

The focus is on delivering the letters to your target, so you should just make sure that whatever you do, accomplishes that!

First, make sure you know who your target is by talking to your organizer or Regional Coordinator. Then, find out where their closest office is.

Once you've done that, here are some tips to help you plan an event that's right for you:

• If you live close to an office of your target:

You should get together a group of Council members (or even just one person) to go to your target's office and deliver the letters during business hours. You also want to make sure someone reaches out to the media by phone and email or fax. You'll want to tell the media about our campaign -- for instance, how many signatures we collected, and any prominent business owners that signed on -- and encourage them to write about it either now or in the future! We'll provide talking points and a media guide to help with this.

If your Council is really excited about organizing a more involved event, not just a simple delivery, you can organize something like a "speak-out" event outside your target's office, and invite the media to attend. To do this, you'll need a team that's committed to doing recruitment calls. You'll want to plan carefully on who will speak and what they'll say; who will make the signs; who will reach out to the media; and more. Check with your Organizer or Regional Coordinator to make a plan if you think your council may want to go down this path.

• If you don't live close to the office of your target:

You should fax or mail the letters you collected to your target's closest field office.

Additionally, you should do one of a few things to amplify your message:

a) Do media outreach to your local media about the letter-gathering you did, and introduce them to your campaign. (This is your best bet. You want local media to know what you're doing, and pave the way for a story the next time you do a big public media event locally!)

b) Organize a delivery at your closest congressional office, even if it's not your target.

c) Buddy up with another council in an area of your state where your target does have an office. You can travel with them or send your letters to their event. (Check with your Regional Coordinator or organizer if this is what you want to do.)

d) Travel to an area of the state where there is no council - and do a delivery there.

What to do before your event

* Have a planning call or meeting with core members of your council. Make sure you are in touch with other members of your MoveOn Council as you make your delivery plan. You can contact other members of your council through your council page: http://www.moveon.org/team

* Know where you're delivering to. Make your plan on where you want to do the delivery, and who's going to come. Think about not only the target's office that you're going to deliver to, but also the local media outlets where you want to drop off a press release.

* Make a plan to reach out to the media. This means adapting the press release template that MoveOn provides, sending it out to local reporters, and making follow up calls to make sure it was received and answer any questions they may have.

* Register your delivery event in our online system. (Link is coming soon!)

* Gather small business sign-on letters! Everything you need to know is posted here: http://www.moveon.org/smallbusiness

* Download the letters that people fill out online. These are linked from your host tools page, which was in the email you received when you first registered your event.

* If you're interested in organizing a bigger "speak out" type event, check with your organizer to make a plan on how to recruit speakers and attendees.

What to do at your event

Here are a few tips on what to do at your event:

(Make sure you have a copy of the speaker's script on hand to help with your delivery remarks.)

1. Welcome everyone.
You want to gather the group that's participating in the delivery outside the target office. Have everyone introduce themselves briefly (if they don't already know each other) and say one reason they're excited to be part of this campaign! Then, have someone (either yourself or a speaker you designate) make brief remarks about what you're doing with this delivery. Review the talking points and plan in case you get a chance to sit down with the member of congress (unlikely!) or a staffer (more likely).

2. Deliver the letters.
Once you've welcomed everyone, you want to go inside the target's office. Ask if the member of congress is available. If not, present the letters to the receptionist or another staffer. When you do, you should make brief remarks (using the speaker's script) explaining our campaign and the significance of the small business letters. The speaker's script will have up-to-date tips on what is most important for us to push for, given the legislative news from Washington.

3. Deliver press releases to local media outlets.
After you deliver the letters, make sure that someone is delivering the press release to local media outlets that may want to cover the story.

4. Make a debrief plan.
Make a plan with everyone who attended to have a debrief and next steps call or meeting to plan the next steps of our campaign.

What to do after your event

* Send in your photos! Send event photos to smallbizdeliveryphoto@moveon.org, and photos of individual small business owners to smallbusinessowner@moveon.org.

* Fill out a survey! We'll email it to you as long as you registered your event in our online system.

* Keep organizing the small business owners you recruited through the letter drive. Here are a few ideas of how to get them involved: Ask them to write a letter to the editor or an op-ed; help plan our next event; or join the council core. Talk with your organizer or Regional Coordinator about how they can take a leadership role on this campaign.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I'm not sure if we can organize a big event or not. Will MoveOn send a central recruitment email to help with attendance?
A: In most cases, no. If you're interested in having a speak-out, you should be ready to get people to come out using the old-fashioned methods of hitting the phones! If you're not confident, it's probably better to plan a delivery event that is more focused on the delivery part, and not shoot to have a speak-out.

Q: What materials will be available for this event?
A: We'll provide this guide; signatures that we gather online; a speakers' script; a sample sign (if you're having a bigger "speak-out" event), and media materials to aid in your media outreach.