March for Peace, Justice and Democracy: Organizer's Checklist

Phone bank:

Activate a phone bank to sell bus tickets, recruit more marchers, start new delegations, and call for volunteers and contributors.

Prepare a phone bank by collecting phone numbers, either from petition-signing drives, membership lists, or sign-in sheets. Start a spreadsheet or use index cards that list each individual's name, phone, and address. Callers should note the date and results of each conversation on the spreadsheet or the cards.
Brief all volunteer callers before putting them on the phones. Read through the script and clarify any questions. Touch base with callers occasionally to answer questions and check results.
At the end of the session, collect all spreadsheets or index cards from callers. Separate the "YES" from the "NO". People who are not reached should be set aside for the next session in the "TO CALL" category. As you get new names, add them to the spreadsheet or the call box to make sure you are not duplicating your efforts.
Plan on re-contacting people in the "YES" category as the action approaches to recruit volunteers and finalize travel arrangements.

E-mail messages:

Gather e-mail lists from chapter members, friends, etc. and announce March plans and details.
Use e-mail to follow up on members/supporters that haven’t committed to attending the March and/or organizing meetings.
Send updates to those who have registered to be part of your delegation and continue asking them to recruit others.

Leaflets, postering, and tabling:

Handout leaflets at malls, to lunch time business crowds, and at grocery stores, post offices, concerts, movie theatres, conferences, bars and political events—especially liberal and progressive ones.
Put leaflets in drop boxes in liberal neighborhoods, offices, and clubs, etc.
Poster schools, grocery stores, laundromats, libraries, and public bulletin boards.
Set up tables at shopping centers, downtown shopping crossings, meetings, political events, and town hall meetings to raise awareness about the March.
Petition with sign-up sheets for bus reservations.
Print bus tickets and sell them whenever you are leafleting, tabling or spreading the word on the March.

Outreach – Organizations and groups:

Announce the March in their newsletters.
Allow you to speak at their meetings and ask them to announce the March at their own meetings and events.
Sponsor a bus, or at least a delegation of 20, so that they have their own delegation and can march with their own banner.
Activate their phone tree.
Activate their e-mail alerts.
Do a special mailing to their members.
Donate money to defray costs.
Volunteer to help in your recruitment efforts.
Tell them how to sign up online to volunteer for the March.
Find a committed person in the organization to take on the responsibility of recruiting within the group for a delegation and offer to work closely with that person.

Outreach – Colleges and universities

Set up tables on campuses.
Leaflet/poster campus bulletin boards, dormitories, clubs, etc.
Announce in school papers, calendars, bulletins.
Leaflet at student unions, libraries and places where crowds gather—especially near food.
Announce at meetings, campus events, athletic events, and dining halls.
Contact NOW and CAN members on campus among the faculty, staff, and students.
Contact campus groups and individuals and ask them to take the same action listed above for other groups. Be sure to reach the following groups:

Women's studies departments and women's centers
Student government
Environmental Clubs
Sociology, History, Political Science, Environmental Studies, and Science Departments
Pan Hellenic councils and individual sororities and fraternities
Campus political organizations
Faculty union and sympathetic members
Clerical and service workers unions on campus
Campus churches and synagogues

Outreach—Public figures

Ask the mayor, the city and county commissioners, and the school board to form a special delegation to send to the March.
Ask influential people in business, social, and religious communities to participate in both creating publicity for the March and in recruitment participants.

Publicity and media

Newspapers
Send letters to the editor with March information.
List the March in community calendars in local and neighborhood newspapers.
Use self-supporting signature ads to help raise money to send a delegation to the March.

Visuals

Put signs in downtown business windows and mall store windows.
Place banners on buildings, bridges and across streets.
Get March information on digital signs.
Get a speaker system in a van or car and drive around announcing the March.
Have volunteers wear sandwich boards and pass out flyers at special events on busy sidewalks.

Fundraising

Phone Bank or dial for dollars.
Solicit donations from other organizations/supporters.
Solicit donations from members/supporters who can't come to the March (but don't let people use this as a substitute for not coming!).

Transportation

Rent or borrow buses – commercial, school, or church.
Rent or borrow vans from colleges, senior citizen centers, community organizations, or car rental agencies.
Charter trains, busses (if you can not borrow one), or planes to Washington.
Organize a car caravan and travel together.