Ecanvasser is primarily a canvassing app that ensures a high value data return on your in-field operations. However, you may also use some of its versatile features to help with organizational aspects of your campaign.
Your Campaign Team Members are also voters, and as such, should be kept in your Voter Database alongside the rest of your Voter Universe! You can then use many of the features of Ecanvasser, primarily geared towards Voter engagement, to help organize your Campaign.
Marking your Team Members as Volunteers
The first step in beginning to organize your campaign through Ecanvasser is to mark those Voter who are willing to help out on the Campaign as Volunteers:
Select a person from the Voter tab. You may review their current Volunteer status
Click on Edit Status
In the opened popup window, change the current Volunteer Status
Select Save
Custom Fields for Volunteers
Particularly if you have a large team of Volunteers it may be useful to use Ecanvasser to keep track of their skills, or interests, or willingness to Volunteer.
For example, you may wish to create a Custom Field with the following Multiple Choice answers:
Canvass
Leaflets
Lawn-Sign Delivery
Postering
Graphic Design
Review your Campaign Team's Strength
You can now Filter for your Volunteers, and even by the above Custom Fields, to see how many Volunteers you have willing to engage in each task. You can even do so via the Map tab to see the geographic distribution of these skills or interests.
Create Teams & Lists
Creating Teams based off the results of the above actions will make assigning Team Members to a task as straightforward as possible.
You may wish to create Teams based upon task, geography or a combination of both. When you next create a List to be canvassed, or that requires lawn-signs delivered, a premade List will exist allowing you to determine who is best suited to the job!
Similarly, creating a List will make the information below regarding Contact much more efficient, as well as being another way to track your Team!
Communicate with your Team
Talking Points
These are short policy positions that ensure that your Canvassers stay on message while on the doors. That said, though it is advisable to keep to actual policy positions, you could consider including short, brief, instructions to your Canvassers within a single Talking Point, for example:
Canvasses should not begin before X in the morning
Canvassed should end by X in the evening
Ensure to leave leaflet if door is not answered
Contact
The primary purpose of the Contact tab is to perform an Email Blast to segments of your Voter Database. However, it may also be used to keep in contact with, and update your Team. For example, you might want to email your team to:
Provide more extensive policy documents
Advise them of upcoming events such as fundraisers or rallies
You should use Ecanvasser to its maximum benefit for your specific needs - some aspects of the above will definitely work for your campaign, particularly when used in tandem.
For example, having marked your Team as Volunteers, assign them a new Survey to answer which task they are willing to perform - you can now use the the Survey Results to review your Team!