Benjamin Brown: Founder
- What does this most recent election (both federal, state, and local winning candidates) mean to you and your company? Have you seen a spike in interest because of it? (Dylan)
- focusing on state politics
- 1 min VMs constituents to legislators
- Contacting city alderman, congressman -> product road map
- Focused on elected officials
- Advocacy world = very active
- Sgt of arms office if you want to call legislators -- if you don't get through to contact someone, you can leave general message or you talk to them, give info, they take hand written note
- Legislative Page Program: work with 7th graders
- Note goes to Page, is handed to legislator
- Political power is in your own district
- No math kept behind how many constituents have called legislators -- have to ask legislator
- NGR out in 2015
- Customer service technology for democracy
- Email is considered spam for legislators
- Using data visualization models
3. What is your current plan for reaching, and inspiring the public to use NGR to reach their legislators? (Izzie)
- Full public education and action campaign
- Prove that your voice will be heard and this is worth it
4. Is there a more accessible way to reach information on NGR and the platform you provide? (webpage doesn’t provide basic information) Would an “issues page” (with current state issues) help inform the public of what kind of conversations they could be having with their legislators?
- Will feature issues page
- Nonpartisan platform
- Careful of directing people toward particular perspectives -- wants to be totally inclusive
- Website: openstates.org
5. Is there a particular age group you’re seeking to connect with more closely, or do you think that is platform is something that can be navigated regardless of age? (OSH)
- Focusing on young people/Millennials
- Public narrative: young people have to step up to the plate
- 40 years of age and less
6. At this moment, what do you see as NGR’s greatest strengths and areas for improvement? How can we help mitigate those road blocks? (OSH)
- Cultural problem --> preventing adoption
- Advocacy organizations are gatekeepers
- Option: going directly to the people over next 12-18 months
- How do you get meaningful civic engagement connected with popular culture?
7. Do you plan to incorporate video messages into your system of reaching legislators, or staying with audio messages? (EES)
- Voice messages are the best means of communication for this purpose
- Email, although a means of communication that is prevalent and used mostly in today's society, is obsolete in the eyes of legislators
8. How do you plan to educate people about this service? Do you have a marketing campaign or a means of generating exposure planned? (EES)
- Planning public education campaign (between now and election of 2018) -- planning presentation
- Attach to bill
- Inspiring, convincing people that this issue is worth five minutes to make a phone call
DELIVERABLE #1 for early MARCH is a communications asset report or equivalent
- Starting a crowd funding page --> general funds for organization/features
- Marketing/product validation
- Feedback & parameters for organization and its goals
- Content planning
DELIVERABLE #2 for late APRIL is a FINAL PROJECT your CAT partner will identify
- Spreading the message of this organization
- Generating content -- narrative
- Breaking up into bite sized pieces = telling the story
- BLOG POSTS
- Fitting narrative into social media rollout
- Planning videos in conjunction with blog posts
Great interview notes! Think about how you can further develop your deliverables (especially #2) to be more clear and actionable. Define how you plan to "spread the message" in more detail.
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