Title: Meetings & Speaking Engagements
Original CoS Document (slug): meetings-speaking-engagements
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Attached File: Meetings___Speaking_Engagements.pdf
Created: 2018-05-15 14:31:14
Updated: 2019-08-15 19:35:38
Published: 2018-05-14 18:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T19:32:20.817086127
Meetings & Speaking Engagements
What you need to know
For the California Team
2018
**You always want to have others with you for a variety of reasons:**
**Materials for the Meeting Generally Include**
**Sharing the District Action Plan**
**District Volunteer Leadership Opportunities**
**Community Announcements / Media Relations**
**Sample District / Joint-District Launch Meeting Agenda**
**Greetings and Personal Introductions**
**Sample Introduction Voice Mail / E-mail**
EVENTS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Making a presentation at a community event or in an organization that allows you to come and
speak is a rare and welcome opportunity. It is always recommended that you bring someone
with you. First you want to always be teaching or mentoring someone else who can do the job if
for some reason you can’t. Or it allows another one to be trained and equipped to double the
effort.
When you make a presentation, you definitely want to be prepared. You want to be familiar with
your material on the Article V project and be prepared to handle objections. All of this
information is on the website under the Resource ab. Plan your talk to be no longer than 30-45
minutes with 15 minutes for Q & A. Start on time and end on time. If they give you less time,
alter your presentation to accommodate their schedule. You can use a power point presentation
that is available on our website as well.
There is no substitution for preparation. Your confidence level will rise when you are prepared.
Part of that preparation can include practicing your presentation - and timing it. Hosting a
Booth - When hosting a booth it is great if you have a COS shirt to wear. Otherwise, it is
recommended that you dress in business casual.
Finding opportunities to host a table at a fair, gun show, home shows - anything where you can
set up a booth is a win-win. Many times, you can get the spot with no or little charge. If you
coordinate with your state director, there are times when the cost for a booth can be paid by
COS.
The Details
●
Three weeks lead time is necessary
●
Do not pay in advance as we cannot reimburse
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Let your State Director know what printed material you will need that you want to have
on hand in your booth:
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Palm Cards
●
Jefferson Statement
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Objections
●
Petitions
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Business cards
●
Pocket Constitutions It is never recommended that you host a booth by yourself.
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Get there early to have your booth properly set up before the event begins.
●
Don’t leave until the event is over.
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Keep a record of number of visitors to your booth.
●
Complete the California Event Reporting Form at least three weeks prior to your event.
●
Convert your petition signers to a google spreadsheet to be uploaded to the website (your
State Director will help you with this).
You always want to have others with you for a variety of reasons:
●
You always want to be mentoring someone else to do what you do
●
You will need to leave your booth for taking care of bathroom breaks and lunch and you
never want to leave the booth unattended
●
You always need a backup for when there is more than one interested party
Meeting Logistics
Arrange for a place to meet as a group (room size based on anticipated / RSVP attendance):
●
Restaurant with a meeting room
●
Community room (city, county, community)
●
Local Lodge (Moose, Elk, Eagles)
●
Fire Department meeting room Note:
○
Chairs in a semi-circle or tables with chairs if feasible
Materials for the Meeting Generally Include
●
COS banner (hang in room if feasible
●
COS table cover for main table
●
DC COS Business cards
●
“Hello” blank name tags and pen
●
Palm Cards
●
US Constitution booklets
●
Volunteer questionnaire (see sample in reference section)
●
COS Quarterly Planning Calendar (blanks)
●
Refreshments (if not held at a restaurant) o Snacks / Drinks o Cups / plates / napkins
●
COS Donation Can (to help offset meetup expenses)
●
Mark Levin’s book the Liberty Amendments (door prize)
●
Raffle tickets or entry forms
●
PC with Digital Petition ready
●
Video / presentation equipment. See COS Speaker’s Tool Kit
Meet & Greet
To build your grassroots team you will want to get to know them, and them
to meet fellow volunteers. Holding a “Meet & Greet” is an excellent way to
start. The meet and greet event will provide an important opportunity to:
●
Establish a sense of community among your volunteers
●
Share the current state of the COS Project
●
Share ideas for outreach activities
●
Learn of each attendee’s area of interest (activities)
●
Collect petitions (digitally) from those who have not yet done so
●
Establish an agenda as next steps following the meeting
You may have only a half-dozen volunteers attend your meet and greet,
which can be held over breakfast, lunch or dinner at a local restaurant, but
from that core group you can begin building your grassroots army.
Meet & Greet Invitations
Move forward with the email invitations once the meeting space
arrangements have been made.
The Meet and Greet is for all supporters and volunteers in the district.
The email invitations, with RSVP request, should be sent:
●
two weeks prior to the event
●
then one week before as a reminder
●
and finally the day prior to the meeting as a final reminder.
The message should include
●
what/where/when
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A map of the meeting location (embedded as a jpg, or map link)
●
District Captain(s) email address and phone number
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DC’s picture so they have a smiling face to go with the name
●
RSVP request so it is known how many will attend
●
Establish a regular meeting place and time
●
E-mail both supporters and volunteers
Then:
●
Hold the meeting - jointly with other districts as feasible.
●
Brief attendees on the progress of the COS nationally and statewide
●
Discuss action items and opportunities in the district
●
Present a District Action Calendar (draft, proposed)
●
Identify those who will take on action item responsibilities
●
Have those with like interest form planning groups to develop an
action plan and schedule using a district action calendar.
●
Determine what will be needed to complete the action items and help
secure the materials (palm cards, exhibit kit, petitions, etc.).
●
Execute the plans, evaluate results, update, revise and expand the
plans – and lead your volunteers to execute the plans.
●
Repeat the process and keep your Regional Captain or State Director informed by filling
out the California Event Reporting Form, located on the Team page at least two to three
weeks prior to the meeting. This is a must do.
Sharing the District Action Plan
●
Brief group on its mission and short and long term agenda
●
Describe the overall action plan for the District; provide a Volunteer
check list to each attendee.
●
Provide quarterly action item list to group with blank calendars.
●
Have those with like interests gather in groups to take up an action
item, develop the action details and schedule on calendar.
●
As appropriate, have groups set a follow up meeting date to further
refine/set the action item schedule.
●
Collect a copy of the group’s action details and calendar
District Volunteer Leadership Opportunities
●
Assistant District Captain
●
Greeters / Call Team (meetings, new supporters, volunteers)
●
Event Coordinator
●
Community Outreach Coordinator – Speaking engagements, Postings
●
Media Relations Coordinator – Letters to editors, event notices
●
Radio / Talk Show Call Team
●
District Speaker(s) – Clubs, civic groups
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Facebook / Meetup Editor (if provisioned)
Post Meeting
●
Post a summary of the results of the meeting (with pictures of the meeting if
you have them) to the group’s Meetup page.
●
Compile the calendars into one calendar and provide via email to the group.
●
Set the next group meetup date, post to group Meetup page and remind
them via email.
●
Contact new volunteers in your district and bring them into your volunteer team.
●
Help them find their place of service based on their interests and time available to
contribute to the COS cause.
●
Report the group action item progress to the group and your Regional
Captain or State Director. Use the Post Event Form for this.
●
Repeat the process.
Community Announcements / Media Relations
This is an important function which you, which is the responsibility of the SCC and the SML.
With input from the other district leaders when operating jointly, the SCC or SML will prepare
a “press release / announcement” concerning the upcoming event to be provided to the media,
and post to the facebook page.
Sample District / Joint-District Launch Meeting Agenda
Greetings and Personal Introductions
●
Introduce yourself
●
Ask attendees to introduce themselves, and why they chose to attend
the meeting
●
Play COS videos if included in program
●
Potential Videos to air
○
Prager U Video
○
Simulated COS Overview
○
COS in 3 Minutes
●
Present District Action Plan
●
Ask Volunteers to fill out the Questionnaire
●
Explain what will occur at future meetings
●
Give a brief state update
●
Q & A
●
Conclude the Meeting by informing the group of the next meetings date and time and
location.
Remember, this is just to get you started
Volunteer Questionnaire
Sample Introduction Voice Mail / E-mail
Hello X,
Just a quick note to say “Hello” and thank you for being a supporter of the
Convention of States Project.
You should know that because of support by patriots such as yourself, twelve
states have passed and submitted their Application to Congress for calling a
Convention of States: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Alaska,
Indiana, Oklahoma and Louisiana, North Dakota, Texas, Missouri. And a resolution to make
Application
is underway in all other states.
That’s good news, but we need to pull together as a team here in House
District XX to help keep our state on track and share the word about the
Convention of States.
To we can get to know each other, we will be holding a Meet & Greet on
Xday, (date) at (location). (insert link to meeting facility web page or map)
Come meeting fellow patriots and learn what we are doing in our area to
support the Convention of States Project.
Please RSVP check one box below, then reply to this email to let me know:
[ ] Count me in - I’ll be there!.
[ ] Sorry, I can’t help right now, but don’t count me out.
Thanks for being a Patriot!
Yours in Liberty!
Name
District Captain, State House District XX
Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX