Welcome to District Captain training Part 2!
1. Learning the Acronyms & Setting up your Technology
- Convention of States uses a lot of Acronyms. Use this Acronym Guide to find the meanings when you run into new ones (Print the Guide)
- Open the email asking you to confirm your new COS email account and click the link inside.
- Download the COS Action App to your phone (iPhone / Android) and sign into it.
- Watch Telepatriot training videos.
- National Training Video
- As a District Captain it will be your responsibility to encourage your Telepatriot Volunteers to be involved with Calling missions.
- Join the two Slack Workspaces (Wisconsin COS & COS DC) via the email invitations that you will receive.
2. Convention of States University (1 hrs, 40 min)
The DC 100 course will teach you how to do things on our website, so you may want to have a computer or laptop available to follow along in parts.
To access this course login to COS University using the same email and password you made for this website. (Reset your password here.)
- DC 100 District Captain Leadership Training (1 hr, 40 min)
3. Your District Numbers, State Representative and State Senator
Before you go any further you will need to discover your Representative, Senator, House District (HD), and Senate District (SD). Use the instructions below to find your legislators and district numbers, and save that information somewhere that you will be able to refer to easily. If you already know all four of these things go ahead and move on to step 4.
- Use Wisconsin’s My Vote to fill in your address and discover your Wisconsin State Representative. You can also address them as Assemblyman, Assembly person. Click here to go to My Vote Wisconsin: https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/My-Elected-Officials
- Use Wisconsin’s My Vote to fill in your address and discover your Wisconsin State Senator and Senate District. Click here to go to My Vote Wisconsin: https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/My-Elected-Officials
4. Citizen Builder
Citizen Builder (also known as Dashboard) is where we contact volunteers and petition signers, keep track of volunteer activity, and report interactions with legislators.
District Captains have 4 specific responsibilities in Citizen Builder.
- Processing Volunteer Applicants
- Maintaining a Potential Volunteers List
- Submitting Action Reports
More on all of these below.
5. Processing Volunteer Applicants
When someone applies to be a volunteer their application appears in the Leadership Management Tool (LMT). Our Wisconsin Grassroot Coordinator is responsible for processing applications for all roles, submitted by people living in Wisconsin.
Learn How to Process a Volunteer Applicant in the LMT
6. Processing Followups
Wisconsin is blessed to have a wonderful Follow Up Team. Their goal is to welcome each new supporter in a timely way. Once a petition is entered, they reach out to each new supporter with calls, and emails.
As a District Captain, wait for the Wisconsin Follow Up Team to conclude their work. It usually takes 3-4 days. The Follow Up Team is not responsible for discussing volunteer interest with new supporters. That is the District Captain’s role.
Soon after the Follow Up Team has finished their work, reach out to all new petition signers that have checked the box “I am interested in volunteer opportunities with COS” on their petition.
Watch:
7. Creating and Checking Your Lists
When people sign our petition, get a followup email, and come back later to tell our computer system that they are interested in volunteering, the only place they will appear is in a specially crafted list. It is the responsibility of a District Captain to have a Potential Volunteers list and to followup with any individuals who appear on it.
- Watch Essential Lists Tutorial
- Create both these Lists for your House District.
- Learn How to process Potential Volunteers List
8. Submitting Action Reports
Action Reports are a critical part of uniting all our individual efforts into one focused movement. They can be made through the COS Action App or the COS Website. Watch the videos below and save/print the instructions for your future reference.
- Watch Action Reports from the COS Action app
- Watch Action Reports from the COS Website
- (Website) Action Report Instructions: Print/Download (text) (text and images)
- Direct Link for submitting New Action Reports
9. How to Do it All
After learning all the parts of a District Captain job it can seem very difficult to break it down into an achievable list of tasks, but never fear, we've been there, done that, and made the list for you already!
Every Week do these 4 things 3x (or more).
- Check for Applicants in the LMT
- Check your Potential Volunteers List for new potential volunteers
- Check your cos email
- Check slack via app or website
Every month do these 5 things at least once
- Meet with or call all of your assigned volunteers.
- Call or meet with your Senator and Representative.
- Make action reports regarding your contact with your legislators.
- Discuss goals for your House District with your State Director.
- Attend your State Meeting.
10. Setting Yourself Up for Success
While you now know pretty much everything you need to get started, the following steps will help you be truly prepared to do this job.
- Save your Regional Captain (if you have one), State Director, and State Grassroots Coordinator name and phone number in your phone. Expect to use that number often, especially in the first couple of months.
- Create a COS file on your computer/laptop and save the following files to it.
- Save the Followup Volunteer Interest Email
- Save the Volunteer Applicant Email
- Save the Telepatriot Email (coming soon)
- Save Text option file (coming soon)
- Plan 3 days a week that you will login to Citizen Builder and make any necessary calls. There should be no more than 2 days between checking days. (e.g. Monday, Thursday, Saturday) Checking more often is encouraged.
- Plan to attend Wisconsin State Team Zoom Meetings regularly (2nd and 4th Wed of each Month at 7 pm Central Time).
- Save the COS Wisconsin Website to your Browser for quick access.
If you have completed all these things then call/text/slack or email your Regional Captain (If you have one), State Director, or State Grassroots Coordinator.
