It’s another Saturday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic Campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up anytime: Just visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about, and with the help of other campaign workers and notes, we tackle subjects about how to improve and build better campaigns.
Campaigns will have a lot of big expenses. Printing, advertising, mail, even radio and television, depending on the size of the campaign. These big ticket items get a lot of attention, and small expenditures are treated as the kind of thing you just run out and do spur of the moment—oh, you need to spend $20, fine, send someone to a store.
If you step back and think about it, though, small campaigns can waste a lot of time running out for little basics here and there when you run low, and even ordering online can mean you have to wait for something basic to come your way. Sure, it would be easy to say something like: stock up on paper and ink or standard office supplies, but there are some items that have become essentials.
Campaigns run on digital. Battery packs and charging cables? Priceless.
Every campaign in America uses some form of digital data. If you are running for state house or U.S. president, you’ll find that having a useful phone or tablet for your workers is the difference between getting work done and getting nothing done at all. Battery charging packs are cheap and available everywhere, and good ones can give you enough extra charge to get through the day.
Your volunteers and others are likely to have a variety of different phones and devices. Having USB power plugs available to them, along with a few cables that can charge various devices—Android & iPhone—is a great way to keep things working around you.
Pay for online file storage
Not everything you do will be just through one specific platform. You’ll have artwork, written documents, spreadsheets, notes and other content you may want to share with a small group. Several cloud team services are out there and can be cheap—just a few bucks a month—but they allow you to share data among users. Free services exist, however, I’ve found this small expense can pay off in allowing your team to keep track of changes, document who has access when, and keep copies of backups just in case someone makes a mistake.
Password management services
You can use LastPass, Dashlane, or any of the other services out there that work to help provide password security. As you run for office, you will find that you are going to set up a lot of new accounts. A new login at ActBlue, maybe Square or Paypal, email accounts, and so on. So many new accounts! Don’t get into the bad habit of using the same password over and over. A password manager can help make sure you have complex passwords and protect your data.
Water bottles
You can go through a lot of bottled water on a campaign. That’s fine. But walking with a refillable water bottle is not only better for the environment—a good statement to make—but it also means you are less likely to carry around trash with nowhere to dispose of it, or ask a voter to take a bottle from you to recycle or not. If you’re doing a lot of canvassing, invest in a reusable water bottle.
Small expenses. Good rewards. It’s good to pre-plan.
Next Nuts & Bolts: Telling a story