Learn From Past Events
To help others, organizers are asked to fill out a survey after the registration events they organize.
Below is a list of feedback we’ve received:
What others did to organize the event:
Working with my college's student government team, I put on a series of voting workshops in the fall prior to my event with the LWV. The co-president of my local LWV chapter, Dennis Godden, saw a flier for my event and reached out to work with me on a collaborative event with the LWV in February. From then, I worked with Dennis, Julie Dunkle, and fellow student government members to reach out to potential guest speakers, build an itinerary, purchase or borrow goodies for guests, and secure the forms necessary to register students to vote.----
We received the registration forms from the LWV, as well as the training on how to register voters and the steps needed to fill in the form correctly, that we then relayed to MSJ's senior class. Our group included a tech team, a presentation creation team, and a presenter team. I was on the latter two teams, creating and presenting our slide deck on voting trivia and how to register.----
I contacted my friends and school leadership to gain support. I also used GenerationUp Fremont for the majority of support both physically and in the preparation beforehand.----
I am in my Associated Student Government Leadership class, one full of people that are very much experienced in organizing events like these. I put together an Ad-Hoc committee and asked any who were interested in helping out with the event to join the group. We had a team of around 20 students who were eager to help in a bunch of different capacities to host our registration assembly here at Irvington.----
Our team was built with members of Generation-Up. We have chapters at all the high schools. The Fremont, Newark, Union City League of Women Voters helped us as well. They provided many adult volunteers and even some local elected officials volunteered.----
Our team was built originally from members of the non-profit Generation Up and then we added a few other interested students. Our local League of Women Voters helped us tremendously with training and adult volunteers. Our Social Science chairperson helped to organize all the social science classes to participate. We held the event in our school theater as we have lots of seats there. We also spread out over two days so we could spread students out (to be cautious with Covid).----
We had student volunteers communicate with both the school and the LWV to logistically decide the days and plan for each voter registration drive.----
We planned pretty last minute, but basically we got a list of everything that had to be finished or approved. We split up this list among the responsible parties(students, YVM, or school administration). We requested speakers, microphone, projector, computer, tables, chairs, cafeteria, excused absences for volunteers, and someone to unlock the cafeteria 30 minutes before school starts from the school administration. We had the students publicize and be trained. To help YVM with organization, I made a spreadsheet and group chat. The spreadsheet contained contact info, periods they would help, shirt size and color, and whether they were trained or not. Lastly, the YVM brought the forms, pens, and shirts. During the actual event, Julie from WLV presented first and slowly the students took over some parts until by around 3rd period we were running the entire assembly. It is better for students to run it because it makes it more likely for others to want to preregister.----
Being one of the primary assets in collecting team members and coordinating with the high school activity director required diligence and urgency. Although it was initially difficult brainstorming passionate patriots in my pool of friends and catching the activity director at school when his responses had paused, the process was all worth it when the stars finally aligned.----
The League of Women Voters provided our organization (ALECT Political) with adult volunteers, presentation logistics, and training for the actual drive. From here, we contacted teachers and ran zoom registration drives during class periods.----
This was a Youth Voter Movement project. We built upon the connections with faculty and students we had from the Primary registration events that we conducted in Jan 2020.----
This was a Youth Voter Movement project. We built upon the connections with faculty and students we had from the Primary registration events that we conducted in Jan 2020.----
We were contacted by a student who was coordinating a civic engagement event at the school and asked us to present to the students. We normally present to Juniors and Seniors in US History and Government classes but she had coordinated a school wide event and asked us to speak for 25-30 minutes to the entire school with the support of some of the faculty.----
We are the new Youth Voter Program of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Monterey County. A small group of 5 made cold calls and sent emails to local colleges and high schools offering information on more than registering and pre-registering—including working at the polls, encouraging others to register and vote, getting involved in the election process, and using the LWV’s election tools---Easy Voter and Voters Edge. Everything was virtual, using Zoom in most cases, and Google Classroom in a few. We also called on all the organizations we were associated with to get connections to the schools. (NAACP, Girls Inc, National Coalition Building Institute, etc.)----
Gunn offered to have us come to their online "Gunn Together Time" for seniors. Students were asked to complete our asynchronous assignment ahead of time. I think about 240 students attended. We don't know how many registered as a result of the lesson. Two adults and one student presented. The student is one who had approached us earlier in the summer looking for things he could do to promote voting.----
Our League of Women Voters "Youth Vote Team" reached out to the school to see if they would be interested in having us virtually visit the senior social studies classes. The teachers agreed and helped to arrange this. Our team included four students. In each classroom, we paired an adult and teen presenter. The students in the classes were asked to do an asynchronous assignment beforehand (which included checking their voter registration and registering). We spent most of the class just talking about voting and having some breakout sessions for discussion.----
Most of my friends were part of the larger event that was happening at the place where I was registering people My mother helped while.I was giving my speech. . So, I didn't have a lot of help and it was a bit chaotic. On the one hand it gave a lot.of visibility to be at this large event. On the downside,, it seemed that people were so engages in conversations and dinner and speeches inside of the main venue, not many people were interested in my booth.----
How they promoted their registration event:
The event was approved for funding purposes by my school's student government. I wrote a bill asking for a few hundred dollars to contribute towards food and decor, which was approved unanimously. I was also given permission by the school to promote using online announcements, emails, and in-person fliers.----
We built the team by spreading the word and getting more kids at MSJ involved. This included word-of-mouth, emails from teachers (which is how I first touched base with the registration drive), and some recruitment from the school's Civics Club, which I founded. One surefire incentive for a lot of my peers was the chance to get service hours!----
The administration at my school are very accommodating and approval was not an issue. We used posts, announcements, and school news to build engagement.----
Representatives from YVM and LWV reached out to our school's administration and social studies staff and got approval. We encouraged youth to volunteer because they were in the ASG. The social studies teachers made it mandatory for their classes to attend. We promoted it through the teachers and social media.----
Our principal approved the event and out Social Science department chair, Ms. Mattingly, helped lead the other SS teachers to participate. We promoted our event with social media and school flyers.----
Our principal approved the event and he encouraged the social science teachers to participate. We promoted the event by creating and posting a flyer in each social science classroom. We also used social media to hype up the students.----
We promoted the event through school announcements as well as through social media.----
I was constantly in contact with everybody involved, including the social sciences head and my principle to obtain everything necessary. We had the public relations committee create two different flyers that were mass posted and also had an announcement on the daily bulletin. Getting people to volunteer was easy because it meant that you could miss class.----
Getting permission from my high school principal activity director wasn’t as challenging as recruiting students willing to miss classes for an event affiliated with voting, a concept that not many students are passionate about in the coming of age. The point of approval was particularly easy since I have a close relationship with my principal and have organized events and workarounds in the past. In recruiting my friends, I drafted a text that suggested that this event would of course give them volunteer hours and a free shirt but also enable them to gain knowledge ahead of our schedules pre-registration time as juniors and seniors.----
We went through social science teachers to gain approval for our event. We asked them to bring their class to our zoom where we would run the presentation with their students. After emailing around 10 teachers, 4 came back to us with interest.----
Made contact with faculty and students we had worked with previously at the school. Since there has been such a disruption to schools due to COVID our efforts at contacting education staff and faculty was more difficult, time consuming than previously and limited our scope of events, compared to Jan. 2020, before COVID. Due to classes being conducted online in our District, all presentations had to take place during the teacher’s assigned “Zoom” class time. Registration event then took place as an in-class activity.----
Made contact with faculty and students we had worked with previously at the school.Due to classes being conducted online in our District, al presentations had to take place during the teacher’s assigned “Zoom” class time. Registration event then took place as an in-class activity.----
The student and the school took care of the promotion.----
From the Associated Students advisors, principals, or individual teachers.----
We attended a meeting of the school district's social studies team early in the semester. The Gunn Social Studies teachers proposed this alternative to having us visit all of their classes.----
We didn't promote the event. We got permission from the teachers.----
I asked the organizers if I could have a table. They then invited me to speak as well. The event was a fundraiser for my high school so I knew there would be lots of youth. I did not get press involved because I think it would have taken away from the larger event.----
Advice from organizers (things to watch out for, lessons learned):
I learned the importance of time-management and planning ahead when it comes to events. Most things went smoothly except for our guest speaker being 20 minutes late, so in the future I would make sure to schedule a guest speaker well in advance before their time to speak.----
The whole experience was very fulfilling and it was a great way to meet some local electeds and become more familiar with the democratic process. The only thing I might opt to change next time is to include a few different trivia facts, though that's a very minor fix.----
The handouts worked well. The presentation should be more engaging and we need more candy.----
The presentation went really well and we were able to get most students engaged. Next time we should for sure make sure that all our volunteers are excused ahead of time by checking in with the attendance office. Also, we should definitely practice the presentation more and have a run through with the whole volunteer team at least once.----
We tried to do an online registration this time. It went well as everyone had access; however, many students didn’t finish their applications. We were able to know this as the YVM registration is hooked up through Rock the Vote and so after registration we get immediate feedback on how many started and finished their registrations. We also had a problem in that one of our classmates died the previous day and teachers and students were just finding out. Because of this many senior classes did not attend the registration event.----
We should have double checked our technology needs well ahead of time, like make sure we had the school tech support person available. We created a Kahootz quiz for the civics portion of the presentation (history of voting) and it was really successful. Next time, we should have more student volunteers, including underclass students who can take the reigns in two years when the event is repeated.----
It went well overall! doing it over the span of a few days was helpful. However, I would prefer that we do the AP and non AP classes closer in proximity to each other because I lost my group of presentation a bit.----
I feel like everything went well. The only thing that could have been better is more people went to the training beforehand so the process would be more fluid and students could be leading from the start, first period.----
Looking back, I had no expectations for this event since I had never been an organizing member. However, I would definitely confirm every technical and logistic detail days in advance (tech equipment) so there’s no margin for error. Although the event was a smooth sail the majority of the duration, a few hiccups could be avoided in the future: having the tech set up the day before the event, having back up cables in case someone has to leave, and having a larger speaking group (students willing to speak) in case of an emergency.----
1. Instruction on POSTCARD addressing . Make it part of the VISUAL prevention. Students are not usually familiar with HOW to Address a postcard. Using the postcards with the blank square was a good idea! 2. Emphasize DON'T START before instructions and DON'T go ahead. Box 1 is essentially a "trick question". And if the students error on the Affidavit it is "spoiled" and has to be re-done or tossed. In the session I lead with the students at Logan, I announced that Box #1 was a "trick question" and ask students to see if they could discover the "trick" and raise their hand before writing an answer- and have them explain. We still had about 20 spoiled affidavits.----
Our drives definitely need a bit more energy and enagagement as many students lose interest in the registration process since the presentation can be quite boring.----
This presentation was with a new teacher at the school. He was referred to the project by a teacher who had coordinated the in-class presentations in the spring. Although I emailed personally with Mr. Kollen before the event, I wish I had called or zoomed with him before we set the dates for the presentation. It went well, but I think it could have been better, because this was the shortest class period that we had to work with.----
Due to the stellar work of our leader, Julie Dunkle and a core group of volunteers, our prior in-person presentation was crafted into a powerpoint for ZOOM presentation. Volunteers were trained for Zoom presentation technology. We made modifications during the three days of presentations based on student feedback. I would ask for feedback after the first session next time, we got great feedback from students!----
It went extremely well. We had several review sessions in advance to make sure the presentation was covering the material they were most interested in and that it was engaging. (lots of questions that student's answered via chat) At the end of the presentation we had an optional 10 minute session to register and pre-register interested students. Because it all happens online I don't have a specific number of students that completed the process. 371 students attended the presentation.----
Make sure we know the ages and interests of the students we are talking to. If virtual, be sure to test out the system ahead of time for bugs. Include interaction. Focus on the issues students are most passionate about to get them involved. Fewer than I expected were cynical about the voting process. In the future, keep better statistics and follow-up. Numbers below are just a guess because we did not ask for follow-up. The numbers below are only guesstimates----
We definitely like working with a student on our presenting team. They do a great job! We want to do that more often. We really don't have any idea how many students registered as a result of this activity.----
Teachers would make the out-of-class assignment mandatory in some way (perhaps a quiz on the content)? We had no good way to tally who had registered.----
I will definitely do it again. So many people in my Muslim community dont vote. So many did not know that 16 year olds can pre register. I was nervous but for more comfortable as time went on. Something I can do better is have a dedicated person to take pictures. I think I think I should.have more.giveaway items, even small.ones to get people to my table.----