Have you clipboarded at an event for CCL? If so, what did you learn? Share your experiences here!
Special thanks to CCL Fairfax County (Virginia)’s Group Leader and Clipboarding mastermind Sarah Karush for her support in creating the How To Clipboard An Event training and helpful story below:
“In the case of CCL Fairfax County, we began clipboarding to reach people heading from our area to the 2017 March for Science and People’s Climate March. Most people in Northern Virginia take the Washington Metro to such large-scale events. While Metro generally allows “free speech activities,” it has many restrictions, and you’re not allowed to set up a table. Our clipboarding that year was a huge success in terms of volume. At the two events, we collected more than 1,000 completed constituent letter forms. Since we made copies to deliver to each person’s representative and two senators, this equates to more than 3,000 letters to Congress!”
In Flagstaff we had 4-1 1/2 hour clipboarding sessions at an outdoor park/town park and 1-1 1/2 hr session at the farmer's market Saturday-Tuesday. The day before we began AZ had hit 227 out of the 400 goal. Tuesday 386 out of 400. 57% to 97% of goal.
In Albuquerque on August 5th we had hit 87 of our goal to get 100. Over the weekend we did a 3 hour clipboarding session and 2 farmer's markets. Monday 162 people. 87% of goal to 161% of goal.
Most of the time this outreach was done by two CCLers. Greater success comes from standing in front of your table (if you have one) and reaching out to people as they walk by-rather than sitting behind the table.
You have very little time to get the message across. A quick pitch is the best. Try for 30 seconds. We didn't talk about CCL or EICDA. Below geared to the House Push
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-Hi, my name is xxx xxx and I am with Citizens Climate Lobby, are you concerned about climate change?
-If they say no "Ok thanks, have a good day" and move on to another person.
-If they say yes, we say, "would you be willing to help us by reaching out to your Members of Congress and let them know that you would like to see a carbon price as part of the reconciliation package? It is a quick action that only takes a couple minutes of your time. (or familiarize yourself with the House R ask and use that ask for R's.)
-If they show any interest: "Can I ask you to do it right now? This way I can walk you through the process"
(probably 30 percent of the people do it right there)
-In some cases you may be asked to explain more
-"Do you have your phone with you? Carry a clipboard and have the 1/4 page flyer with you so that they can scan the QR code or if they don't have their phone or don't want to do the action right then, give them a flyer and ask them to commit to doing it when they get home. Tell them our deadline is August 31st (for the House Push) and ask them to take the action before then.
-While they scan the code say "This is a nationwide effort. Our goal is to have as many citizens as possible reach out to their House members by August 31. Initially we were aiming for having 10,000 people take this action across the country for our Senate Push that just ended and we blew past that goal to xxxx. We see this time as a critical time for action on climate and want to be sure a carbon price is included in the reconciliation process-knowing that a carbon price is the most powerful tool that could be used to reduce carbon emissions."
-When they open the tool, walk them through the process so that it expedites their experience while answering any questions they have.
"Thanks for taking the time to do this, we really appreciate it. If they are in any way supportive, offer them a flyer to take with them, and ask them to share this action with their friends, family or anyone else they think would be willing to help!"
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