Getting the public on board

13 January 2010

Resources to help your street campainging

See the 2010 action guide as your first port of call on street campaigning on Get Serious About CO2. Check out the key messages in the appendix for short and snappy ways to talk about the campaign.

The photography guide tells you how to use the frame to get the best 'serious faces' for your campaign.

Plus, check out the Local Group News pages to see what's worked for other groups.

This advice taken from the 2009 action guide has more detail getting the public to sign up to Get Serious About CO2.

Resources to help your online campainging

You each have a local webpage specifically on the campaign. Members of the public see this by putting in their postcode on the Get Serious Website.

Your page:

• Has space for news, event listings, and photos.
• Shows photos of people that signed up nationally to support the campaign in your area.

The postcards are the main mechanism for the public to support the campaign. They have been updated for 2010. Switch to using the new postcards from now on.

If you have old postcards that you've already got filled in, just send them to us as soon as possible, and start using the new ones from now on.

The postcard is in two parts. The top green postcard is addressed to the ward councillor - the councillor who represents them directly. Watch out though, people can have up to three ward councillors each!

The bottom white postcard is to the council leader.

Putting pressure on the ward councillor uses people's democratic power to build support for the campaign among individual councillors.

Collecting cards for the leader of the council shows the leadership how much support in total there is.

• Get the member of the public to fill out both postcards - Dear Councillor (the ward councillor) and Dear Council Leader (the leader of the council).
• Get them to fill in the name of their ward councillor(s) and the council leader. If they don't know, tell them not to worry, you'll add that in later.
  Tip! If you're likely to get lots of people from one council area, you might want to fill in the council leader on a few cards in advance.
• If people are in a hurry and only sign one half, explain to them we can fill in the other half (so it doesn't look like we are taking liberties).
• For cards with no councillor filled in, look these up by postcode on http://www.writetothem.com/
• If they have more than one councillor, you can choose to address the card to one councillor, or to all three, depending on which councillors you have prioritised targeting.
• From now on, please send both postcards to the address on the card - Friends of the Earth's Luton office.
• Make sure you put them in an envelope clearly marked with the name of your group and where you want them sent back to.
• We will then send them back to you so you can present them to your councillors at a time that is most strategic for your own campaign.
• If you've collected any postcards for a council you're not targeting, send them in (both parts) to the address on the postcard and we'll pass them on to the relevant group, or send them straight to the council.