Introduction

Goals for this session:

• To learn the importance of house meetings in community building
• To practice Story of Self, Us and Now, 1-to-1, Facilitation and Recruitment skills

One tactic for recruiting and developing volunteer leadership is house meetings. Building a house meeting requires that a host invite his or her social network to participate in a discussion about our country, the challenge we face, and our place in the solution.

House meetings are a powerful way to build community. They often engage infrequent voters and undecided voters, because participants get to know other people and have conversations about their own stories and values and our shared values as Americans.

House meetings lay out our overall campaign and challenge participants to take specific action steps that will help us build capacity to win the election, like registering voters, or contacting infrequent voters.
House meetings are also a good testing opportunity for volunteer leadership, because anyone who succeeds at turning out 20 people to a single meeting is someone capable of organizing other volunteers.
As organizers it is your job to find volunteers willing to host House Meetings. Making these meetings successful takes a great deal of work and follow through.

Building a House Meeting

Goals

 Host Goals
o 20 people in attendance
 Campaign Goals
o Mobilize attendees and volunteers to participate in voter registration events
o Encourage attendees to hold their own house meeting.
Organiziner Duties
 Call prospective hosts to invite them to do a one on one with you
 Conduct the one on one. Get to know the potential host and share your own story. Ask this
person to host a house meeting with a goal of getting 20 people there.
 If they say yes, review the 50 person brainstorm sheet.
 Sit there and help them brainstorm through the sheet (friends, family, school friends,
church friends, etc.)
 Help them practice making the first call
 If they say no, try to understand why. Find another way to get them involved.
 Follow up with a committed host several times before the meeting and support the host.
 Lead the meeting
Host Duties

 Before
o Brainstorm a list of 50 friends, family supporters and potential supporters to invite
to the meeting. You will need to invite 50 to actually get 15-20 there.
o Make calls to the 50 people on your list to invite them to the meeting using the
brainstorming sheet.
o Work with the Organizing /Staffer to get lists of others you can call to invite in your
neighborhood
o Work with Organizing /Staffer on logistics and needs
 During
o Have all flyers, sign-in and sign-up sheets printed
o Introduce the Organizing /Staffer
o Be prepared to give a short explanation of why you became involved/what inspired
you
 After
o Help the Organizing /Staffer do any necessary follow up
o Attend another house meeting
o Attend or lead a voter registration activity, a phone bank or a canvass
Preparing for the meeting

• Recruit Online:
  Advertise your event through e-mail, over twitter, on Facebook and/or any other social
  networking sites that you are a member of.
• Invite your friends and neighbors:
  Use the “House Meeting Planner” to brainstorm fifty people you can invite to your event. Think
  about friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and acquaintances who might be interested in
  learning more about the program. Aim to invite at least 50 people to ensure you have 10-15
  people in attendance.
• Get your materials in order:
  There are some things you should have ready before your house meeting. The “House Meeting
  Planner,” sign-in sheets, any videos you might want to show, flyers, the agenda, and voter
  registration forms. You may want to provide snacks and beverages for your guests.
  
  During the Meeting
• Agenda belowAfter the Meeting
• Capture Information:
  Enter your sign-in sheets in the VAN
• Thank your guests:
  Send individual thank you emails to all of your guests. Follow up with those who committed to
  participate in the July 4th weekend voter registration drive. For those who didn’t sign up to
  volunteer, thank them for coming and make sure to let them know about your next event.

House Meeting Planner
Our goal for a successful house meeting on _______ is to have 20 people attend your meeting. To actually
have 20 people there, however, will mean inviting at least 50 of your friends, family and acquaintances. Use
this brainstorm sheet to think of those you want to invite ________, including who are likely to ________.

Name: Please print the invitee’s full name.
Invite: Please mark yes, no, maybe or left message (LM). This will help you track who you need to contact and
who you should be calling for confirmation. The only real invitations are when you speak with someone
directly.
Commit: Please mark yes, no or maybe.
Confirm: Please mark yes, no or left message (LM). You’ll need to call every invitee who said yes or maybe,
and every invitee who only got a left message. Please do not assume that anybody will come without a
confirmation the day before your meeting. It can’t hurt to give people a quick reminder, and we need to know
how many people will be at a meeting to make that meeting as effective and enjoyable as possible.
Notes: If the invitee cannot come to your house meeting, please write why.

Recruiting for your House Meeting – Example Call Scripts for Host

Call No. 1

The purpose of this call is to invite friends/family to your event. This script is not meant to be
followed verbatim – feel free to take liberties with it, this is merely a conversation between you
and your friends.
Make sure that you have the “House Meeting Planner” handy so you can jot notes down during
each call.
Hi ___________, it’s ___________, how are you?
I’m calling you because I’ve committed to hosting a House Meeting for the Civic Engagement
Organizing Project. The CEO project is committed to engaging volunteer communities to
increase civic participation in our neighborhood. Are you interested in participating in the CEO
project?

• If yes, write “yes” in the “Support” column
• If no, write “no” in the “Support” column

If Yes
Great! I’d love to tell you more about the project and the types of events we’ll be hosting to
increase civic participation. I’m hosting a house meeting to bring our neighbors together and
plan how we’ll make sure the voices in our community are heard.
Next Saturday, June 28 th , I’ll be hosting a house meeting at me home. It’s going to be on
(day/date) at (time) , at (location) . Can I count on you to be there?
o Mark “Y” that you invited them in the “Invited” column
o Mark “Y” or “N” in the “Committed” column
Well, thanks again for your time – Please let me know if you have any questions and I’m
looking forward to seeing you next Saturday.
Call No. 2

The second call should be made no later than Friday, June 27 th .
Hi, is __________ there?
Hi __________, it’s ___________. How are you?
Great. I’m calling to remind you about the Civic Engagement Organizing event I’m hosting
tomorrow. You’re still coming, right?
(Please record answer in “House Meeting Planner” spreadsheet, under “Confirmed” column)
If Yes:
Ok, great – thanks a lot for your time, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
If No:
That’s too bad. There’s nothing I can do to convince you to come? It won’t last long,
and I’m committed to making a difference for this project. We can make a bigger
difference if we do this together.
(If still no…) Well, I understand, it’s okay. Thanks for your support.
 

House Meeting Agenda

0:00 Welcome & Introductions (host leads, 5 min)
0:05 Host’s Story (5 min)
o Why did you take leadership in this campaign? Where do you come from,
what one or two experiences in your life led you to decide to take
responsibility?
o Why are you hosting this meeting?
o Introduction of the Organizer
0:10 Organizer’s Story of Self, Campaign Story of Us and Now (5 min)
o Organizer shares personal Story of Self (2 min)
o Organizer shares campaign Story of Us and Now (3 min)
0:15 Pair and Share (organizer and host facilitate, 10 min)
o Have participants break into pairs and share their reasons for coming to the
meeting
0:25 Group Discussion (host and organizer facilitate, 20 min)
Why are you involved in civic action? How have you been active in your
community or our democracy? What inspired you to act and take responsibility?
0:45 Action Ask (host or organizer, 5 min)
o Sign up for a volunteer training
o Help get more Americans to vote: register voters July 4 th weekend
o Host a house meeting
0:50 Evaluation and Debrief (host or organizer, 5 min)
0:55 Thank you and Next Steps reminder (host, 5 min)
1:00 End meeting

Team Breakout Session: House Meeting Practice

GOALS
1) Brainstorm and debrief effective and ineffective facilitation as a group
2) Use those techniques to role play a house meeting
3) Debrief on your role play and take key lessons
4) Assign roles for tonight’s house meetings to divide facilitation for practice
Agenda
TOTAL TIME: 75 minutes.
1. Gather in your team. Nominate 1 person to be a timekeeper.
 Nominate a “Host.” Nominate an “Organizer”
5 min.
2. Brainstorm as a group: good and bad meeting facilitation (flipchart)
 What are effective methods of facilitation?
 What are ineffective methods of facilitation?
5 min.
3. Debrief as a group and discuss your brainstorm 10 min.
4. Role play house meeting
 Group sets meeting norms and nominates timekeeper (5 min)
 Host tells 2 minute Story of Self and introduces Organizer (3 min)
 Organizer tells Story of Self, Us and Now, asks participants to “pair
and share” (6 min)
 Participants exchange Stories of Self (6 min)
 Host facilitates group debrief (4 min)
 Organizer makes ACTION ASK (3 min)
 Host thanks group (3 min)
40 min
5. Group debriefs Role Play
 What was effective? What can be improved? Where did we get
off track?
6. Assign Team roles for tonight’s House Meeting
5 min
5 min
7. Write down key lessons learned 5 min

Worksheet: Assign Team Roles for House Meeting

Worksheet: House Meeting Facilitation

• The purpose of a House Meeting is to create a committed community and generate a shared
  action. House meetings are especially successful because they:
  1. Build local leadership by establishing hosts as leaders in their community
  2. Challenge hosts to take a larger role, and take part in recruitment
  3. Engage the social networks of hosts and bring in new people we might not find
  4. Energize supporters and provide a good venue for generating shared commitment
  The main difference between a productive house meeting and a disaster is effective facilitation.
  A well prepared, well trained facilitator can leverage a meeting for maximum commitment,
  whereas a poorly prepared or untrained facilitator will likely be unsuccessful and may actually
  turn potential supporters away. Use the space below after your role plays to identify and record
  effective and ineffective elements of facilitation
• What are elements of effective facilitation? What tools might aid a facilitator? What have you seen so far that helped create structure and can be used at a house meeting?
• What types of facilitation are counterproductive? What might cause a facilitator to miss important points? Have you seen any examples of unproductive or disorganized facilitation?
• What are the key takeaways from the role play? What tricks did the facilitator use effectively? Where do you see yourself struggling as a facilitator?

Access Resource

Creating Shared Structure: House Meetings