- Riding Updates
- WRGreens goals to 9 May 2018
- Goals 9 May to 7 June 2018
- Event Ideas
- Advertising
- Getting volunteers
- Campaign Office
- Event Planning Meeting
WR Greens Monthly Meeting
- Date
- Thursday, 15 February 2018
- Location
- Re/Max office, 720 Westmount Road, Kitchener
- Participants
- Laurel Russwurm, David Weber, Matt Piggott, Sam Nabi, Zdravko Gunjevic, David Dolson, Trevor (Meyer?), Marcia Fukudome, Teresa Cornwel, Stacey Danckert, Tess McDonald, Nicole (McCallum?), Bob Jonkman
Meeting started at 7:01
Action items are highlighted
Riding Updates
Kitchener Centre
- Has chosen affordable housing as their key campaign issue
- Door-to-door, postcards
- Solution: “Unlock the existing housing”
- rent basements
- tiny houses
- use existing spaces
- This is more sustainable than new development
- Legislation will require municipalities to conform
- Provincial governments have downloaded housing onto municipalities
- This is a policy that doesn’t impose new taxes on residents
- As a target to build riding, KitCen will get personalized, local postcards from GPO head office for this
- 2018 election goal: 5,000 votes
Kitchener–Conestoga
- Having the CA and EDA Annual General Meeting on 15 March 2018
- Meeting notice on KitCon blog
- Bob: Resign as President of the CA so he can run as a candidate
- Nomination meeting to be held early April, pending approval of date from GPO
- KitCon has only 18 Green Party members in the riding
- Need to make phone calls to supporters, encourage membership
Kitchener South — Hespeler
- No CA formed yet
- Got some new volunteers and members
- Campaigning on three issues: People, Jobs, Planet
- Jobs get the most attention
- Deals with minimum wage issue
- Green policy is to increase the exemption level for the Employer Health Tax in payroll
- Bob asks: What about a progressive tax for business? A: Not in GPO policy yet
- There are grants for business, but small businesses don’t have the resources to pursue them
- There is also the Green Economy to boost jobs
- Jobs get the most attention
- Employer Health Tax exemption hasn’t been increased since 1995
Waterloo
- Tammy is Zdravko’s Campaign Manager
- Marcia is Zdravko’s Fundraising and Events Coordinator
- Key campaign issues: Housing, small (Local) business, healthcare, transit
- need for a single school system – The Hamilton Spectator (appeared in TheRecord 12 July 2017)
- The elephant in the room on school closures – TheRecord (12 May 2017)
- St. Agatha Catholic school closure in Kitchener–Conestoga?
- Fundraising goal: $5,000 firm, $10,000 stretch
- 2018 Election goal: 15% of votes
Cambridge riding not present. Michele Braniff is a nominee for candidate in Cambridge.
Mike Schreiner is coming to town on Thursday, 22 March 2018
WRGreens goals between now and 9 May 2018 (writ drop)
- Fundraising!
- Donation limits:
- $1,200 personal donation to the GPO
- $1,200 personal donation to the Constituents Association
- $1.200 personal donation to the campaign (but candidates can contribute up to $5,000)
- Get 75% back on first $400 donated, so $400 for the campaign only costs $100
- Donation limits:
- Events (be cautious about over-planning and return on investment)
- Events with Mike Schreiner for fundraising
- Call all Green supporters for a “vote pledge”
- Every potential volunteer needs to receive one phone call
- Matt, Kris, Bob, David: Identify all potential volunteer names and work with your exec to call them.
- If you need assistance contact Sam/Julia for volunteers who can help you with phone calls
- One personal phone call from the Candidate to every donor
- Matt, Kris, Bob, David: Identify list of donors
- During both phone canvasses: ask each person if they would like a sign. That way we’ll be ready on the day the writ drops to flood lawns with signs
- Sam: Find CampaignZone scripts for signs
- Sam: Get in touch with Jesse to see if he want to manage sign logistics
- Set up Social Media strategy
- Instagram and Snapchat are preferred by young people
- Twitter and Facebook are used primarily by the over-40 crowd
- Earned Media
- The Communications Manager for Mike Schreiner lives in Kitchener
- Promote FairDebates.ca in our channels
- Send regular newsletter updates
Goals 9 May to 7 June 2018
- Help with Mike’s campaign: Stacey is spending every weekend in Guelph and can take a carload of people with her
- Canvass the top 5 polls in your riding
- Budget ~ 3 hours per poll for this
- Be first out of the gate for signs
- Keep track of mileage when putting up signs!
- Donate gas money to the campaign, get re-imbursed
- Cost-effective advertising
- Princess Cinema / Apollo Cinema advertising
- Radio ads
- MARCIA: explore affordable office space options
Event Ideas
Fundraising
- Provincial changes?
- Paid-at-the-door fundraising cannot have the candidate present
- Better to ask for donations
- Cost recovery is OK, but makes the finances complicated, so don’t do that
- $20 cash donation is the maximum
- $10+ donations need a receipt
- Local Beer event
- Addresses the barriers to craft breweries selling product
- ION train and Mike Schreiner?
- There are many rules concerning access
- eg. photos at GRT and schools
- Other Fundraising ideas
- Get ideas from other successful campaigns
- Ottawa, Barrie, Muskoka
- Get monthly donations
- Selling plants
- Canoeing down the Grand River
- Fun, but not lucrative
- Maybe in September?
- Donated items and sales?
- Receipts are needed for portion of payment above fair market value
- Setting values for auctions is tough, recommend to avoid
- For any auction/sales event, call Elections Ontario first
- Get ideas from other successful campaigns
Other activities
- Waterloo is holding a Board Games night
- Ride the transit system, meet people
- Befriend other groups
- Alliance Against Poverty (AAP) is organizing a Free Transit campaign, Bob will be involved
- Berlin Cafe owner Graham Roe
- Tree planting events around Earth Day (21 April 2018)
- Community Gardens?
- They need volunteers
- Meet the Candidate, earned media
- Adopt-A-Garden!
- Maple Syrup Festival
- KitCon looking for a vendor spot; GPO button-making activities
- Get Mike Schreiner in the Celebrity Pancake Flipping Contest
- Make stickers for laptops, bumper stickers
- Province — Green Belt
- Consultation on 22 February 2018
- Kitchener Open House – Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation
-
Fair Debates
- If Mike Schreiner is in the debates then he gets votes
- Put the https://fairdebates.ca/ links on campaign and CA web sites
- GPO gets per-vote funding, so must be included in debates (otherwise, what are people paying for?)
- Fill seats at local debates early
- Other parties will try to occupy front seats to disrupt other candidates
- Show up at other events rather than organizing your own
- But be sure to have your own fundraising!
- Debate Watching Night
- Everyone gets together to watch the leaders debate
- Builds campaign spirit
- Have shared events when possible
- Share costs
- Each CA organizes one large event
- Kitchener Centre will take the 22 March 2018 event with Mike Schreiner
- Kitchener Conestoga will look at getting Mike in the Maple Syrup Festival
Advertising
- Pre-roll at Princess Theatre ($300?)
- The Record: $1000 for 1/8 page ad (?)
- Lower rates for community papers (Kitchener Post, Wateroo Chronicle)
- Facebook ads? Are they effective?
- Get better analytics on digital advertising
- 570AM: $200/ad?
- Signs from GPO?
- Some will be available
- Target-To-Build ridings will get more support (Kitchener Centre)
Getting volunteers
- What can they do?
- Create newsletter
- Phone calls from scripts
- Canvassing
- Debate support
- Sign putting up and taking down
- Volunteer coordination will be Region-wide
- Sam Nabi and Julia Gogoleva are the volunteer coordinators
- Volunteer appreciation night?
- Not high on list
- Link what volunteers do to the Big Picture
- Monthly volunteer potlucks
- Get volunteers involved immediately
- Provide training
- Volunteer T-shirts (from GPO?)
Campaign Office
- Need to rent at “market value”
- We can give a value-add of cleaning up, painting
- Is the old LCBO office available again?
- The CA files a separate return for expenses like this
Event Planning Meeting
- Stacey will set up 2 polls:
- Event Planning Date
- Selecting preferred fundraising ideas
Notes taken by Sam Nabi and Bob Jonkman