CitizenBuilder FAQ

Following are Frequently Asked Questions about CitizenBuilder:

Transition to CitizenBuilder

1. Can I begin updating people's profile information and processing followups now?
   
   Yes, you may proceed with updating profile data in CitizenBuilder and performing Followups. All the data syncing with NationBuilder is complete.
   
   
2. What exactly was the problem with the Followup Tool?
   
   The Tool itself was not the primary issue. When the data was brought over from NationBuilder, there were way too many supporters being shown, and we believe many of the supporters had already received a followup email. We tried but were unable to update the data as we had hoped, so instead we made a fresh start by re-loading only the new supporters from December 1 and after.
   
   
3. What about updating leader Roles and Assignments?
   
   It's fine and encouraged to check and update leader Roles and Assignments. In fact we particularly need the state leaders to check and update as apprioriate the District Captains who are assigned, in connection with proceeding to process Followups (refer to Instructions for review of Followup Tool Templates for further details).

Your CitizenBuilder Account

1. I did not receive an Invite email; how do I sign in on the website?
   
   An Invite email may still be used if you have one, though you need to go to conventionofstates.com instead of using the "production site" link in the email. If you received your Invite email after Wed morning (Dec 6), the link in the email will work fine. If you don't have an Invite email, just go to the Signin page and click on the Sign Up Now link to create a new account. As long as you use an email address that was already on your NationBuilder account, it will get matched up with your existing CitizenBuilder profile, your account will be created, and a confirmation email will be sent to you for activating the account.
   
   If you try to create an account and one already exists, you will see the message "User With This Email Already Exists. Try To Sign In". In this case, use the Forgot your password? link to request a password reset, and an email will be sent to you with a reset link. If you get the message "Not Found", that means the email address you used is not the Login Email, so try another email address that is on your profile. If this is still not working, contact one of your state leaders and they should be able to check your profile and let you know which email address is set as your Login Email.
   
   For more comprehensive help in getting signed in, go to CitizenBuilder Sign In. 
   
   
2. I'm not able to get to the new website. What's wrong?
   
   You may encounter conflicts with information from the old site still in your browser data. If this sounds like it might be your problem, try these steps:
   
   1. Reboot your computer. You may try skipping this step the first time, as it may not be needed, but if you're still having trouble, try again with the reboot.
   
   2. Shutdown your browser (if you didn't reboot). Wait until all browser processes have terminated before continuing - this could take a minute or two.
   
   3. Delete all temporary Internet files. The specifics for this will vary depending upon what platform and OS version you're running. If you're not sure how to do this, a Google search should yield some help for you.
   
   4. Clear your browser cache - specifics will vary by browser.
   
   5. Delete all cookies related to conventionofstates.com.
   
   6. Now try to access the site again at conventionofstates.com.
   
   
3. When I try to go to the Dashboard, I am taken to a page telling me I must sign the Volunteer Agreement. Why is this happening?
   
   All of our leaders must sign the Volunteer Agreement before gaining access to our tools and supporter data. This should have been taken care of when you were first assigned as a leader, but with NationBuilder, there was no automated means to ensure this. So either this step was overlooked when you were originally assigned, or the previous agreement has not gotten properly associated with your CitizenBuilder account. Either way, you just need to sign the Volunteer Agreement at this point, and once completed, you will then be able to access the Dashboard.
   
   
4. As a state leader, I was using the Leaders account to access the entire state and to process leadership applicants. How do I get access to the Leaders account for my state in CitizenBuilder?
   
   CitizenBuilder allows each leader to be assigned with the proper role and access permissions, so the shared Leaders account is no longer needed, and none exist. If you do not have access with your account for something you believe is needed, please post a message in the CB Preview Slack team, or submit a ticket to the COS Help Center.

Tools

1. As a District Captain, why do I see people in the District Dashboard who are not in my house district?
   
   With CitizenBuilder, there is more flexibility to define which supporters you are able to access. All leaders are assigned with access to their upper (senate) district supporters, in addition to whatever other lower (house) district(s) they had access to in NationBuilder. Thus, you will see all the supporters who reside in either of the two districts. If you only want to see the supporters in your house district as you had in NationBuilder, enter a filter in the Lower column, which should be just the number portion of the district name (e.g., 27 for FL-HD 27).
   
   Within the District Dashboard, there are three "filter" tabs in the upper left for By Lower Dist, By Upper Dist, and Both Districts. The By Lower Dist option is selected by default. What these do is to select whether you would like to display the supporters based upon the house district(s) in your assignments or upon the senate district(s), or both.
   
   
2. I am trying to filter for a specific district in the Followup Tool but when I enter a district, it just shows Not Found. What am I doing wrong?
   
   To filter on districts in the Followup Tool and the District Dashboard, you just enter the number, such as 26 for HD-NJ 26. For those states with districts that are names rather than numbers, such as MA, MN, NH and VT, you will need to enter the complete name of the district to filter. So for example, to filter on HD-MA SECOND ESSEX, you would enter SECOND ESSEX.
   
   
3. I'm in the Followup tool and don't see any of our state templates, what happened?
   
   Because many of the Followup email templates contain links that may now be outdated or broken due to the change to CitizenBuilder, and a change in how your recruiter ID is included in the links, all the templates have been temporarily deactivated, so they do not show in the drop-down list in the Followup Tool. To have them re-activated, each state needs to have someone review and correct their templates using these instructions; this typically will be your state's SIA.
   
   A new national template is available to use in the meantime, which is named US-US-National Thank you. Since this template references the supporter's District Captain, if your state's DC roster has not yet been verified in CitizenBuilder, you should instead use the US-US-National Thank you (No DC Mention) template.
   
   
4. So what changed with my recruiter ID, and where can I find it?
   
   Everyone now has a new CitizenBuilder recruiter ID (now called your referral ID), and you can find your Referral URL on the My Profile page, which you can pass around via social media and elsewhere. Unlike NationBuilder, this referral ID is not the same as your CitizenBuilder ID. The old recruiter ID was appended to a COS URL as "?recruiter_id=9999", whereas the new referral ID is appended as "?ref=9999". Although your NationBuilder recruiter ID will still be recognized as you, it must be on a conventionofstates.com URL. The old personalized supporter link was usually appended to a cosaction.com URL and unfortunately, that will not work since it's now a completely separate website (still a NationBuilder website). Even more importantly, you will want to direct everyone to the new conventionofstates.com website, not the old cosaction.com website.
   
   
5. Why was the link for the Volunteer Agreement in the LMT email template (Request Legal Signature) not working? Now Fixed
   
   The email template must interface with both CitizenBuilder and the esign system, and that interface was not working following the transition to CitizenBuilder. However, if you are bringing on new leaders, there is no urgent need to send them the request email, since CitizenBuilder automatically enforces that they sign before gaining access to the Dashboard. If you ever need to have someone sign the agreement who is not in LMT, they can use this generic form where they can enter their name and email address manually. However if they are in LMT, it is better to use the email template because the link is personalized so the form will already have their name and email address pre-filled.
   
   
6. Why are supporters shown in the Followup Tool or the District Dashboard with a Yes in the Volunteer column not shown in the Leadership Management Tool?
   
   A Yes in the Volunteer column of FUT and DD, as well as the Is Volunteer attribute on the profile, means that the supporter has stated they want to volunteer by clicking on the toggle-box in the petition signup form where it says Yes, I would like to get more involved with Convention of States Action! This is the same as in NationBuilder. In CitizenBuilder, there is a new leadership position called Volunteer, which is located in the lower-right corner of the available positions on the Take Action page. Supporters who apply for this position will show in LMT, so this is new. Although the questions asked of applicants are similar to what was on the Volunteer page of the old website, they were not included in LAPD.
   
   
7. Why don't I don't see any open applicants in the Leadership Management Tool?
   
   By default, LMT has a status filter for Assigned leaders, so to see open applicants, you can select another Status filter such as Any, Open, or Open/In Process. When you clear all the filters using the X at the far right of the filter row, the Assigned status filter will be reinstated.
   
   
8. Why don't I see the answers to the survey questions for an Open applicant?
   
   If the application was made from the CitizenBuilder website, the absence of answers at the top-right of the LMT detail page indicates the applicant has not yet answered them. They can go back to the application and as long as it is still in Open or In Process status, it will take them directly to the survey to complete the application, but they need to be signed in so CB can recognize them. As we continue through the transition from NationBuilder, you may still be processing some applications that were opened in NationBuilder, and although the survey answers will eventually be available, along with other activity notes, they have not yet been loaded into CitizenBuilder.
   
   
9. How can I determine whether an Open application in LMT came from CitizenBuilder or NationBuilder?
   
   A Dashboard System action note that reads "Applied to be ...." is recorded when an applicant confirms their contact information in step 1 of the application process (step 2 is to answer the survey questions), so the presence of this note indicates the application was made in CitizenBuilder. Applicants in NationBuilder will have a tag on their profile such as "DC Applicant" or "DC Applicant-In Process". Remember though that these tags are no longer automatically maintained by CitizenBuilder, so they will remain on the profile until manually deleted. When these role tags no longer serve any historical purpose, they will be removed en masse.
   
   
10. An applicant in LMT is showing a status of In Process, with an Assigned to person who is no longer an assigned leader. How do we reassign someone else to complete the process?
    
    Any leader with appropriate system permissions may perform actions on an open application, but the first one to send an email or to manually use the In Process button will be shown as the Assigned to person. If someone else needs to take over to complete the application review process, they may use the Pickup the Process button, which will change the Assigned to name on the application to them.

People Profiles

1. Why do my Social Capital points not match what showed in NationBuilder or Patriot Games?
   
   First, NationBuilder social capital points are separate from Patriot Games social capital points, so you won't see Patriot Games points in CitizenBuilder. The Patriot Games points are only visible within Patriot Games.
   
   Your social capital points in CitizenBuilder should now be correct, but there was a delay in getting them brought over from NationBuilder. If you think there might still be a problem with your points, submit a ticket at the COS Help Center and we will check it out.
   
   
2. NationBuilder had a convenient universal people search; where do I find that in CitizenBuilder?
   
   The NationBuilder universal people search, using the entry field in the upper-right of the People page of the control panel, allowed you to enter a name, phone number or NB ID and it would discern which you entered and auto-create the filter criteria, then present the results. Unfortunately this feature does not yet exist in CitizenBuilder, but it is being worked on now and will be added very soon. In the meantime, you will just need to define your own filter criteria, which are specified in a very similar manner as in NationBuilder. You start by clicking on the funnel icon to expose the entry widgets.
   
   
3. When we were back in NationBuilder, the profiles had lots of activity notes in the Dashboard tab of the profile, but I don't see any of that history in CitizenBuilder. Is all that history lost?
   
   No, the activity notes history is a vital part of the history for every profile and although you don't see it now, it will be there within a few weeks. We just needed to concentrate on higher priority issues for the transition, but the work is underway now to filter through the activity notes and get all that would still be relevant loaded into CitizenBuilder.
   
   
4. The districts are not yet assigned for a supporter. How long does it take for them to be assigned?
   
   Unlike NationBuilder, there is no background processing being done to assign districts, so the answer is that they will remain unassigned until someone manually sets them in the supporter's profile, or possibly if the supporter updates their address on their My Profile page.
   
   CitizenBuilder automatically attempts to determine the districts whenenver an address is entered on the website. This can be from the supporter signing the petition, applying for a leader position, signing up to receive updates, or updating their address on their My Profile page. When you see districts that have not been assigned, or do not look correct, you can go to the Address page of the supporter's profile and use the District Lookup button to have CitizenBuilder attempt to identify the correct districts based upon the address. The districts may also be assigned manually based on the state's lookup website or other resource. After setting the districts, be sure to click the Update button to save the changes.
   
   
   
5. Why were the districts not updated after I changed the address in the profile?
   
   The districts are not automatically updated when the address is changed from the profile. It is up to you to determine whether they need to be updated when you are changing the address, and you can use the District Lookup for this. This is done because there are instances where districts are not properly identifed by the automated lookup, and may have been manually set. We do not want CitizenBuilder automatically changing what someone may have determined to be the correct districts through other means.
   
   
6. When I use the District Lookup button to determine the districts, one or both of the districts is showing a drop-down list of more than one district. Why is this, and which is the correct one?
   
   There are times when the exact districts cannot be determined from the address provided. Usually if the zip+4 zip code can be determined, the specific districts can as well, but not always. In these instances, the data source being used by CitizenBuilder may offer multiple possible districts, and one is arbitrarily selected. If you know the correct district, select it from the list before clicking on the Fill Fields With Results button. You may want to consult the state's legislature website which may have a district lookup option. If not, openstates.org has a lookup that is generally fairly accurate.

Maintaining Website Content

1. What do the various Content types mean and how are they used?
   
   Notifications - Intended to be brief timely topics, typically directed to specific states or districts via the Geo-Permissions, or to specific roles, and are displayed in the upper panel of the homepage left sidebar, in a slider fashion. Up to four can be displayed in the sidebar, and the Show All link will open a page to display them all. Notifications will typically have a short lifespan and are defined with a start and stop date.
   
   Posts - Blog posts describe some event or topic of general interest, with the most recent posts displayed first. The first four posts are teased on the homepage in the left sidebar, below the Notifications panel. Display order is also affected by Geo-Permissions, Role Permissions, and whether they are defined as High Priority. An expiration date may be specified to automatically suppress display from the Home and Latest News pages when expired. Posts are also displayed on the Blog page, even when expired but with a lower priority for placement, and are searchable from the Resources page.
   
   Pages - Web pages which are searchable from the Resources page of the website. They may be referenced with a link within other Pages, or other content types (Notifications, Posts, Videos and Files). An expiration date may be specified to automatically suppress display when expired.
   
   Videos - Although video links may be included in Notifications, Posts and Pages, they would not be separately searchable in that context. Defining a Video enables it to be searchable from the Resources page, and allows for an expiration date to automatically suppress display when expired. Videos published on the COS YouTube channel are automatically created as Videos within 24 hours. The actual videos are not hosted on the CitizenBuilder website; they can only be links to an external host such as YouTube.
   
   Files - Intended for use as a repository for all COS documents, both internal and external, and are searchable from the Resources page. An expiration date may be specified to automatically suppress display when expired.
   
   Surveys - Most commonly used as application questions for the various COS leader positions, but can also be created for use within a Post or Page for a more general use. Surveys are a question/answer feature, and answers can be defined as Text, Yes/No or Multiple Choice.
   
   Polls - Each Poll is defined as a single question with a multiple-choice answer, and can be embedded within a Post or Page, or used as a standalone page.
   
   
2. How do Geo-Permissions and Role Permission work with CitizenBuilder Content?
   
   These features may be applied to Notifications, Posts, Pages, Videos and Files.
   
   Geo-Permissions are defined with one or more states, and optionally any combination of regions and districts within the defined states. These serve to affect the display order, and are related to the user's voting state and home districts (lower and upper). Geo-Permissions do not restrict access to the content, they only affect ordering.
   
   Role Permission is defined with one or more leader roles, and serves to restrict access to the content based upon the user's assigned role(s). As an example, if a Page is defined with a Role Permission of DC, only District Captains would be able to view that page. You must be signed in on the website in order to view any such restricted content.
   
   
3. I prepared a Post for the website but when I went back later it wasn't there. What happened?
   
   Most likely the Post you're looking for has gotten stored under the parent page for your state. This is a means of organizing posts into virtual folders. A parent page has been created for each state, and you can search for it in the Title column. If you were looking for the Utah posts as an example, you would search for Utah Parent and likely find just the one page named Utah Parent Page For Posts. If there is a number in parenthesis following the name, click on it and it will take you into that folder where you will likely find the Post you were looking for.
   
   
4. So how do I store a Post in the parent page folder?
   
   When you are editing your Post, you will see an entry field in the upper-left corner labeled Parent Page (Optional). When this field is left blank, your Post will be located at the top level. To place it in the appropriate parent page folder, search for the parent page name (e,g., Utah Parent) and then select it from the list. When you next save your Post, it will be stored in that parent page folder.
   
   
5. A Post has expired, so why is it still being displayed?
   
   Expired Posts remain available on the Blog page and available in the Resources search, as long as they remain published. However, once a Post expires, it will no longer be displayed on the Latest News page, nor in the news feeds on the main page of the website. It will also appear further down the list of posts (has a lower priority) when it is displayed.

Other General Topics

1. The conventionofstates.com website was always described as our 501(c)(3) website, and the cosaction.com as our 501(c)(4) website, yet I see references on the new site to COSAction. Isn't that a problem?
   
   No, we recognized that having two websites was confusing to people, so we now just have the one website at conventionofstates.com, which is our 501(c)(4) website. We can now do everything on this one website within both sections of the IRS code.

If your question was not answered above, or you have a question you'd like included in this FAQ, please post a message in the CB Preview Slack team, or submit a ticket to the COS Help Center.

Last Updated: 2/1/18 07:50 ET