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Untitled Document

Evergreen House Party Guide

[Click here for a large-text version of this guide]

Thanks again for being a host! By hosting a house party, you're taking action along with hundreds of groups around the country that have already formed Councils and are taking action in their communities. Together, we’re building local strength all over the nation to help win real reform on health care, clean energy, and more.

This guide will provide you with everything you need to know to run a successful party, step by step. If after reading it, you still can’t find the answer to your question, check with your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator, or you can email us at councilparty@moveon.org. 

This guide in divided into three simple sections:     

  • Before the party
  • During the party
  • After the party

The whole process is straightforward, but reading through the guide carefully will help you avoid the most common pitfalls. You should also print out this guide, and have a copy on hand for your party.

Before your party

1. Invite friends and co-workers

The best way to invite folks is to send them an invite email and then make a follow-up phone call.

  • 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.

You should also call people to invite them to your party. Think about other events in your life – would you organize a party without picking up the phone? Asking personally is the single best way to get folks to attend your event. So once you’ve sent out invite emails, a follow-up call will help ensure they received and understood the email. (And of course, it’s fine to just call someone to invite them even if you don’t have an email address for them.) This is a vital step in order to have good attendance at your event.

2. Prepare the program for your event

 

Depending on what you're going to do at your event, you'll need different preparation!

Talk to your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator about what you'll do at your house party -- whether it's watching a movie, making phone calls, having a planning meeting, or just socializing.

You should make sure you find out from your Organizer or Regional Coordinator what the next public-facing action is that MoveOn Councils are organizing so you can share that information at the party.

3. Participate in a prep call with an organizer or Regional Coordinator

Before your party, we'll help you get ready on a prep call. Make sure you've talked with your Field Organizer or Regional Coordinator before the party. (If you don't know how to contact your Regional Coordinator or Field Organizer, you can email councilorganizer@moveon.org.

4. Think through the party

As the party host, you should start planning for some of the issues that might come up.   Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

Logistics:

  • When guests arrive: Where will they park? Should you have a greeter at the door? Do you need to buzz them in? Is your address clearly marked and your house easy to find?
  • Snacks: Are you going to use paper plates and cups? Do you have extra serving utensils? Do you want some folks to bring drinks or ice?
  • Seating: Do you have enough chairs for your guests? 
  • Seeing/hearing any audiovisual program: Will folks be able to see and hear, if you're watching or listening to something?
  • Please remember that you cannot hold these parties in cooperation with any political campaign. Please do not post your party on any campaign blog. If you have questions about a venue, email councilparty@moveon.org.

5.  Remind your guests about the party

 

Your guests will expect to hear from you in the 24 hours leading up to the party.  This is critical because it’s 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 email to everyone who is signed up, reminding them what time you are starting and how to get to your house. You should also give them a reminder call. If they listed their phone numbers, that information will show up on your host tools page.

You also want to remind them to bring any quick and easy snacks to share, and to invite their own friends and family.

6. Final Preparations

Preparation is key. Make sure you’re ready for your house party. Read all your materials, re-read this guide once more, and talk to your organizer or Regional Coordinator with any questions.

At the Party

This section of the Guide will take you step by step through the Party Agenda. But first here are some quick facilitation tips:

  • Stick to your agenda. Follow the agenda that you’ve laid out, and while you can always take questions, you shouldn’t be shy about keeping the meeting moving.
  • Involve other people. Have specific roles for people to play, so you’re not running the whole show by yourself! Everyone will enjoy the party more if you’re not the only one talking.
  • Be positive and constructive. Keep the tone upbeat – this is an exciting, fun, and participatory event.  

Agenda for the Party:

One way of thinking of the agenda for your party could be within the frame we call "the four C's": Connect, Context, Commitment, Catapult. Here's what that means in practice:

    • Connect
      • Even though some people may arrive late, we recommend starting the party within a few minutes of the time you said your party would begin. Make sure your potluck is laid out, and invite people to eat as they get settled!
      • As people come in, encourage them to introduce themselves to someone they’ve never met (or make introductions yourself). You can also ask them to take on a helper role, including:
        • Greeter: Welcome people who come in late, and get them oriented.
        • Clean-up crew: Help clean up afterwards.
        • Note-taker: Take detailed notes during the brainstorm
        • Set-up crew: Get the house ready for guests to arrive.
        • Sign-In person: One person can pass around the sign-in sheet and make sure everyone signs in.
        • Tech team: Help set up and manage any tech equipment you may have. (This person should be sure to arrive a bit early.)
      • When you're ready to officially begin, take a quick moment to let your guests know why you're hosting and what personally motivated you to get involved. Then ask everyone else to BRIEFLY introduce themselves. You may want to answer the following kinds of questions:
        • What brought them to the party.
        • What (if anything) they have done with MoveOn before.
      • Then, you may want to preview the agenda for your group, and go over what you hope to accomplish. (Make sure the agenda is either written up on a piece of butcher paper, or pass out printed copies.)

    • Context
      • This is where you'll give people information or ask them to take action with you -- by watching a movie, making phone calls, etc.

    • Commit
      • Make sure you ask people to come to the next public-facing action that MoveOn members around the country are organizing.
      • Ask everyone: 1) if they can come, and 2) if they can join a planning meeting scheduled within the next week (either by phone or in-person).  Let them know that the best way to keep up on planning events like this is to join the local Council, and ask people to sign up then and there.

    • Catapult [If you're not yet an active Council]

      • 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.
      • Closing
        • Thank everyone for coming! If there’s time and you think people have the energy, you can ask folks to share one thing they’re inspired about as they leave.
        • Make sure that everyone has the date and place for the next event written down, and you have a plan for yourself or someone else to register your new Council and sign up for your first event.
        • Also, make sure you got everyone’s contact information before they leave.

           

After the Party

1. Sign up or build your MoveOn Council!

If this party helped form a new Council, sign up your new MoveOn Council, or give this link to the person who agreed to sign up the Party! If you have an existing Council, add people who attended to your Council roster! You can register your new Council and/or add new members here:

www.moveon.org/council

Once you've set up your new Council page, the easiest way to invite people to join your Council is to go through your host tools page. From there, you can add all your attendees to your Council.

2. Fill out a post-party survey

You will usually receive a survey in an email the night of the party, and we really hope you will take the time to share your thoughts and experience with us.  This is really important, because it’s the only way we get everyone’s feedback.  We’ll share the national results of our events with you and all other new Councils.

3. Thank your attendees -- and send in photos/videos from your event

To send attendees an email, just log on to your host tool and send your thank you email from there. Please encourage folks to send in photos and video from the event.

  • Photo submissions: You and your guests can send digital photos to councilpartyphoto@moveon.org. (Please be sure to send the photos as attachments, not pasted into the body of the email.)

Now is the time to celebrate!  You’ve thrown a successful house party, and helped kick off a local campaign to help win real health care reform. Thank you for all your great work!

-------------------

Special Note on finding a venue for your party

• First, please try to find a venue for free. The best location is 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.