Three Simple Tips for Fun Phone Banking

With less than two months until the commencement of early voting, Get-Out-to-Vote efforts are about to kick into high gear!

Although phone banking isn't exactly the gold standard of modern voter mobilization, the activity still plays an integral role in reaching key demographics, especially rural voters and senior citizens.

Volunteering to host a phone bank for your candidate of choice is still an excellent way to contribute. Phone banks are a unique form of political engagement, in that they can take place anywhere (even from your own home), and with any number of participants. Hosting a phone banking event has never been easier, given the widespread use of automated dialer systems and publicly available voter lists.

How to host a phone bank:

Method 1: Connecting with the campaign
I highly recommend coordinating your phone bank directly with the campaign of your choosing. This is the best option for you if you don’t mind having people outside your direct social circle over for your phone bank. In my experience, people who care enough to attend a phone bank are usually respectful and fun individuals, who care greatly about the state of American democracy. This is a great way to make new friends and meet new people, who share your love of the political process!

To get started: contact the campaign of your choice. For example, I will walk you through how to connect with Beto O’Rourke’s campaign for U.S. Senate. Sign up to host a phone bank for Beto here. Enter your information, select “phone bank,” then provide a few details about the space you’ll be hosting in, the maximum number of volunteers you would like to participate, the date and time of your phone bank, and you’re in business! Beto’s distributed organizing team will contact you with further instructions, and provide you with the information you need to train new volunteers to talk to voters.

Method 2: Hosting independent of the campaign
Everything in life is better with friends! Phone banking is no different. Most campaigns allow their volunteers to make calls from home, so if you know how to use the dialer system that your favorite candidate’s campaign utilizes, you can hop on that dialer any time you please!

Getting started is easy! First, I recommend attending a phone bank captain training, hosted by the campaign of your choosing. With Beto’s campaign, training times can be found here.

After you’ve learned how to be an effective caller, invite a few friends over for happy hour (5:30-9:00), and log in to the dialer! You’re all set!

Now for the fun part! Hosting with flair:

A. Make up dialer games!
My personal favorite phone bank pastime is drawing. This activity can easily be adapted into a cute game of caricature, by having each volunteer draw their mental image of the most memorable voters they connect with during the phone bank, then sharing these doodles with the group at the end of the night! Get creative!

B. Up your snack game.
We’ve all been to lame parties where the snacks left us feeling underwhelmed. Phone banking is your chance to show off your pancake-making skills, and really surprise the volunteers with some creative and funny snacks.

C. Remember to keep it light-hearted.
Sometimes, phone banking can get heated, especially when a volunteer encounters a particularly hostile voter. Just make sure to encourage all participants to keep dialing, even though some people want to bring you down, because every supporter you connect is worth a dozen negative calls. Keeping morale up is a must!