National Event Mobilize Tips

Introduction

As an organizer we must always think “how can we make the coming event succeed AND how can this event lead to even more successful future events”. Below are a few tips on how to succeed and build on national events like Handsoff2025 and NoKings.

Registration

When there is a national event, the national organizers like Indivisible or MoveOn set up a small team to vet the registrations. This is typically an overwhelmed volunteer/paid little team so we must be patient and understand that they just like us are trying their best.

Below are the general criteria the registrars typically apply to any event:

1. Time OR distance staggered from other events, so that events complement each other. In practice, events should be about 10 mi. from each other to attract different people OR be staggered in time so that people can select the one that best suits them or attend both.

2. Not be formally associated with the Democratic Party so that the events have a non-partisan message of democracy that attracts Democrats, Independents and Republicans fed up with Trump.

3. The name of the organizer seems legitimate. They usually want a person’s name.

In the Upper Charles area the following guidelines help us deal with national’s guidelines:

1. Use a registration email address that does not have the word “Democrats” or “Dems” in it. 

2. Name our organizing groups as “Democracy Activists” or Indivisible XXX.

3. Coordinate event times with each other through this action hub.

4. In our description write of our town’s unique character. For example, Milford is unique in our area because it is a large town with a vibrant multi-ethnic population. So it should have its own standout regardless of when nearby towns like Mendon, Medway, and Franklin have theirs.

5. If we get a rejection from national we contact the local Indivisible coordinator Judith Stadtman (judith@indivisible.org) and make the case as to why the general guidelines do not apply to our event. She will likely know who to contact at registration with your points. 

Unchangeable Mobilize Entries

Once submitted, we cannot change the entries below so we must get them right up front

1. Description usually has a suggested text, which you should not change much. But you can  

1. Add a phrase like “This event hosted by XXX Democracy Activists.”

2. 
   

2. The Private Event Details has the text that mobilize sends after registration. There is usually a suggested list of what to bring. To this add an entry that sets you up to add the person to an email list such as;
   “By registering you will get the weekly MNW Action Alerts that serve the Upper Charles region. Email host or click an Alert’s unsubscribe button to stop delivery.” 

3. The Image is usually provided by national.

 
The Mobilize entry is how we communicate with the attendees and how we recruit them. 

Changeable Mobilize Entries

Typically national allows the host to change the following fields after registration. 

1. The Times and Location are changeable 

2. The Accessibility notes are changeable and a great place to put parking information. 

3. The Contact Name is changeable and you may want to change it to anonymize your identity.

4. Usually the CoHost field is changeable and a means to have someone else have access to the mobilize records.

5. Put links to Automated Messaging section to your website, or Thank you for attending!!! As part of registering we will add you to the weekly MNW Action Alerts that publishes Upper Charles events. If it does serve you unsubscribe with one click.

Emailing Attendees

Mobilize provides the Email Attendees button by which you can send email. The host can send the email in either of two forms: simple text with no formatting and links and markdown text with formatting and links.

To send a message in simple text, you can compose the email directly in mobilize after clicking the “Email Attendees” button. The email will come out pretty much as it looks in Mobilize.

To send a message in markdown, you can include formatting and links. The markdown format is described in markdown guide.

The most important thing to remember is that Markdown merges lines into paragraphs and you must have a complete empty line after each paragraph and before each list.

The following markdown text
 

One 

two 

three

Four 

five

six 

1. Point 1

1. Point 2

1. Point 3

Appears in the received email as

One two three

Four five six

1. Point 1

2. Point 2

3. Point 3

The markdown cheat sheet provides tips on providing headings, bolding, italics, lists and links. Use the site http://markdownlive.com to create the text and see what it looks like. Use this actual NoKings note as an example in markdown and how it appears. 

Use a past event of which you have marked all attendees as “cancelled” to test your email as you will get a formatted copy of the message marked RECEIPT.

Getting Email Address

Mobilize provides the “Export Signups” button to get an .csv file of all the people that registered. You can open the .csv file in Excel and you can import the file into mailer tools like MailChimp or Google groups.

The button causes mobilize to send you an email with a download link.

Anonymizing Your Name and Email

Unfortunately, when a registered person clicks “Contact Organizer”, they will see the email and name that you used when submitting the event. You can change the name after registration, but you can’t change the host email. Therefore, in these troubled times, it is important to use an email address that cannot be easily related directly to you.

Below are three methods to hide your identity

1. Create a new Gmail address for your group or yourself that does not sound like the person that owns it. This is quite safe, although a nasty subpoena could cause your identity to be exposed..

2. Groups that have their own websites typically can provide forwarding emails like <firstname>@indivisiblexxx.org. Have one set up for yourself and use that for registering events. This is quite safe, although a nasty subpoena could cause your identity to be exposed.

3. Get an email address through a foreign identity protection service like protonmail.com, Those provide anonymous email and more. Likely, they will not comply with American subpoenas. However, they cost about $10/month.

Building on your Event 

Events build energy, energy that when converted into action can lead to results. These are some suggestions in order of work. Note that we encourage you to upload the email addresses and send them regular emails. You warned them and they can unsubscribe with one click.

1. Email people and ask for people to join you in organizing future events.

2. Provide the email addresses to the MNW Action Hub so that they will get weekly action alerts.

3. Find a local group such as a Democratic Town Committee, or Our Revolution group and provide the email addresses to them.

4. Organize a meeting and invite the attendees to it. At the meeting ask which people want to be leaders and which followers. With a little luck, a few will stand up and agree to form a steering committee. The rest will offer to take part in events. The group can be an Indivisible chapter or can reinvigorate a dormant group.