Notes from Ben Brown Meeting 4/17

Public education campaign and presentation:

$200 budget- both the presentation and planning the tour (print out, gas, etc.)

• Have event with it
• Use it to print/get materials for tabling at an upcoming event
• A one-pager to the legislatures
• To communicate with them in a tangible way
• They have mailboxes at the state house
• 180 legislatures- 200 could cover 50%
• Money toward website for infographic?
• Fivrr ??
• Outsourced services
• You put the specks/project out there and then people message you and say I can do this

Deliverable two

• Organizing state-wide civic engagement tour
• Public education tour
• List of all the schools (college and HS) and all the community areas
• Target effort to more 45-below because engagement statistics go in favor of older demographic
• Target the interested bystanders
• Create outline of presentation
• Nancy Duarte who analyzed all the most powerful speeches over history
• Created a skeletal structure of how all these major stories work
• From what is to what could be
• Then end with “ask” or “call to action”
• Need to figure out what the ask should be (between awareness, persuasion, and action)
• Will be doing this outside the legislative session
• Identify the key modules of the presentation- 20-30 min.
• Introduction
• What the problem is
• What his solution
• Why this is the solution and why am i choosing to solve the problem
• Why does the problem matter to them
• Laying out the theory of change- a necessary component of political things
• How a bill becomes a law- understanding the context on how it works
• If you try and call your legislature right now, how it works
• Convince people how are we going to change what we want to change
• Use specific examples- Montgomery bus boycott
• Participatory democracy case for example- Taiwan
• Invoke emotion
• Educate in a way where you're meeting people where they're at
• Be cognizant that you're talking to people who aren't talking about this all the time
• Give people examples of what to say when they do call through NGR
• Have some fascinating news cases of people- can reach out to some people using NGR and play some of their messages
• “Congress is in shambles and to ask the country to have a revolution on a national level you need to start closer to home”
• Political parties are the part of the problem
• If you paint someone into a corner and say “you're a racist” then you can't be persuasive
• “The hero's journey”
• An archetype where you come from humble beginnings, hear call of action, face the dragon, think the hero will fail or die, then they overcome it and return back to the humble beginnings with this new outcome
• Keep in mind that the hero is the audience
• Don't base on yourself because theoretically ben will be the form of mentor in the narrative
• Slaying the dragon is beating some of the psychological barriers in dealing with the political system
• Analogies and anecdotes
• Basketball- going back to how our current system works, no data behind how these legislatures work- covered up scoreboard  
• Resource- Common Good Vermont
• Not a nonprofit
• Layout a letter to reach out to the institutions- letters of support
• Getting letters of recommendation
• Coordinate a list of places to tour to

DELIVERABLE 2: List of places to tour & presentation

Colleges

High schools

Organizations (even Elks)

40 and below

Interested bystanders

Send list from social media

Common Good Vermont – mission is to help all other non-profits in Vermont

Libraries

Compile class organization

WHAT IS THE ASK?

·      Not contact your legislators right now

·      Awareness, persuasion, & action

·      Sept – January (interim legislative session)

Ben getting letters to establish credibility

Go in with an hour time slot: 20 min in modules – 1-3 min about this, 1-3 min about this

        TED Talks

Must demonstrate urgency

        Identify key modules

        Description of problem

·      Pink slips or “catch all inbox”

        Ben’s solution

        Why am I personally choosing to solve this problem?

        Ben’s theory of change in a concise way

        USE CASE https://civichall.org/civicist/vtaiwan-democracy-frontier/

        Basic language – layman’s

        How a bill becomes a law

        Couple examples of how you can be concise on the platform

        Basketball analogy—covered up score board

Nancy Dorsi Ted Talk

The Hero’s Journey

        THE HERO IS THE AUDIENCE

We need to streamline modules

Somewhat of a script—elevator pitch

Continuity across that narrative

Honing in on a genre

Dr. W’s video

Infographic

Canva

Fivrr → outsourced services

“Bringing customer service to democracy”

Monies

Dwelling on money for now