Title: District Captain Training Resources
Original CoS Document (slug): michigan-district-captain-training-resources
Login Required to view? No
Created: 2020-12-21 20:54:40
Updated: 2023-01-16 22:57:40
Published: 2021-01-04 00:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T20:25:30.907859595
Welcome to the Michigan District Captain Page. Below are helpful links to training videos as well as useful information for all District Captains.
Responsibilities
As a District Captain (DC) you will help recruit, welcome, and educate other volunteers in your local area as well as be proactive in raising grassroots support. In your DC role you will have the following responsibilities:
- Welcome new volunteers in your district and act as point person as they join the COS family.
- Educate friends and others locally about Article V and COS.
- Stay in touch with your team by participating in conference calls at the state and national levels.
- Inform your volunteers when they can be in attendance and have their voices heard with state legislators.
- Call and develop a relationship with your state house of Reps. and Senator calling them at least once a month and attend their local town halls.
- Calling you volunteers at least once a month. develop a relationship with them encouraging them to become more involved with the grassroots army.
- Calling all new volunteers within 1 day of them signing the petition or, 5 days of them signing up to be volunteers in the LMT(see instructions below for Leadership management tool).
- If there is a Telepatriot Mission encourage your volunteers to be engaged.
As your become more familiar with COS terminology please see the list of COS acronyms.
As a District Captain you will have many tools at your disposal, below is further detail of the tools along with useful videos and tips.
Citizen Builder
Citizen Builder is a suite of tools that are available to our volunteers that are used for communication with our supporters as well as a tracking tool for volunteer activity.
Introduction to Citizen Builder
Follow Up Tool
The Follow Up Tool (FUT) is used to communicate with new petition signers or individuals that have asked for email updates from COS. Below are a series of videos and decision flow charts that will help get you started with the tool.
To help you complete the follow-up process please see the below document containing scripts for the various scenarios you will encounter.
Follow Up Communication Script
Leadership Management Tool
The Leadership Management Tool (LMT) is a critical tool that is used for recruiting and onboarding new volunteers into leadership positions.
Introduction to the LMT Tool Video
When an individual in your district has applied for “Volunteer” in the LMT a follow-up phone call is required within two (2) days. If there has not been successful communication after Five (5) days follow up with an email and reject them from the position and remove them as a volunteer. District Captains or Regional Captains (where there is no DC) should follow up with a phone call to every individual that has applied for a volunteer role. Please Note: the State Director (SD) or State Grassroots Coordinator (SGC) will process all positions other than volunteer & District Captains (DC). Regional Captains (RC) are responsible for processing District Captains (DC) & overseeing the process of volunteer Activists in the LMT.
Onboarding a Volunteer
When a volunteer candidate enters the LMT the District Captain should call to introduce themselves to the individual. During the initial call, the DC will inquire about the person's talents/skills to find a suitable position for them. If they remain at the volunteer level the DC will complete the onboarding of the volunteer and begin to develop a relationship by contacting the volunteer monthly. If the DC has determined that a candidate might be able to fill a state-level position, they should communicate with the State Director (SD) or State Grassroots Coordinator (SGC) so they can follow up with the individual. For example, the DC can email the candidate outlining their conversation about filling a state-level position and should copy the SD/SGC immediately following the phone call. All DC and above leadership positions will be trained by SD/SGC or individuals designated by SD/SGC.
How to make a list to monitor volunteers and potential volunteers
Lists are helpful when monitoring volunteers, but more importantly when tracking new leads for volunteers. When an individual signs the petition and does not check the volunteer box at that time, but does so at a later date there is no system notification created for a follow-up. Utilizing a dynamic list that systematically includes these records ensures that these potential volunteers are contacted. The video below contains a step-by-step process on how to create these lists followed by the written instructions.
Instructions for Potential Volunteer and Assigned Volunteer Filters
People
The People section within Citizen Builder contains the Convention of States database of supporters. All individuals that have either signed our petition or asked to receive email communication from us have a Citizen Builder profile. There are many ways to filter the data to retrieve lists that are helpful as a District Captain.
Slack
Slack is a channel-based messaging platform. Think of instant messaging with various “channels” where different topics are discussed. All District Captains should be on the following two workspaces:
- Michigan COS (micos.slack.com) - Michigan Team discussions
- COSDC (cosdc.slack.com) - National District Captain discussions
If you are not on both of the above workspaces please contact Bill Pacey to get an invite sent to you.
Click on the link below to watch a quick introduction to Slack Video.
COSAction App for your mobile phone
COSAction provides information and tools to COS Volunteers. Users can read current news, provide reports on work done outside of Citizen Builder, participate in Telepatriot call missions, receive calls for action, and connect with state leaders and team members all within the app.
Access an introduction video for the COSAction App HERE
Download NOW: iPhone or Android
Telepatriot is used for national and state-call missions. Once an individual is set up as a telepatriot volunteer (in Citizen Builder) they will access all necessary information to complete calls for a mission from the COS Action App.
Please follow the below links to learn more about how to utilize the Telepatriot module within the COS Action Mobile App.
National Telepatriot Training Video
Michigan Team Telepatriot Mission Training
Michigan Legislator Lookup and Maps
Follow the below links to find your legislators in the House and Senate as well as maps of your districts.
Michigan District Captain List
For a complete list of all District Captains on the Michigan Team click HERE.