Welcome new volunteer!

So, your application for a role in COS has been accepted. Now what? 

This page will help guide you to the resources you need to be successful and help you understand the structure of the organization.

Along the way, you'll become familiar with a lot of useful acronyms. So, bookmark this page where they're defined so you can reference, as-needed.

Start with the nifty Pocket Guide to Convention of States! In this handy, printable, beautiful PDF you will find a brief history of COS, its governing organizations, founders, and sponsors plus information about Article V of the Constitution and the tenants of the resolution that states must pass in order to call a COS. You can also print copies for spreading the word and even buy professionally printed copies from the store.

 

Each state's volunteer organization looks something like this:

 

We are always seeking new volunteers in every position at every level. So, feel free to apply for any role to which you feel called and, yes, it's possible to take on more than one role. Ultimately we'll be sure you have a role which makes use of your strengths so you can be successful in your mission with COS.

 

Convention of States University

As you can already see, we have a lot going on. Don't let it daunt you, though, in Convention of States University, we provide Introductory Video Courses and Leadership Video Courses you can attend from the comfort of wherever you may be. We request everyone start with LG 100 Convention of States Legal Training because the sanctity of our organization is maintained by us all. 

 

ConventionofStates.Com

Our Web site is a combination of a public information and a private set of tools accessed by logging into your COS account. Please don't share your account with others as you are held responsible for any activity logged under your username. Many of your questions can be answered on the site. You can use the small magnifying glass icon at the top of the site to perform searches across all the pages - login to included the private pages. 

 
At this screen, you can expand a view of the entire petition by clicking on "See Full Petition Here".  You can also see what COS does with your information by clicking on We Protect your Privacy.

By now, you should already be accessing your COS account. Just in case you've missed that step, to create a new account, click the “Sign In” button at the top of the screen, click “Don’t have an account?  Sign Up Now.”, and follow the prompts. If you are going to apply for a leadership role, please do not use the “Sign in with Twitter” or “Sign in with Facebook” options as these are not as secure.

Once you have created an account, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your account.  Click on the link within the email to verify that you own the email and you requested a COS account.

The screen below shows that you are logged in with either your picture or your initials in the top right-hand corner.  To get into the private side (admin section) of the Web site, called Citizen Builder (CB), hover your mouse over your picture/initials and select “Dashboard” from the menu.

NOTE:  If you have been assigned a leader role that enables you to get into Citizen Builder (CB) by choosing "Dashboard" from your admin dropdown menu, please be sure to use it only when you are on a secure network!  This means a network where you must enter a password to get access.  Our supporters’ information is valuable, and we do not want it getting into the wrong hands.

 

Citizen Builder

When you arrive in Citizen Builder (CB), slide your mouse to the left (under the COS Flag) to access CB’s menu.  You will see at first activity metrics under National Scoring, CB Activity, Leaderboards, and Growth Stats.  The rest of the menu options are sections of the software suite that allows us to work with the data from our users. Depending on your role and permissions, you may not see some of these sections. Click on the plus next to the menu options to open each specific application.

PETITIONS identifies whether a person’s petition has been sent to their legislator.  If it hasn’t been sent, the list identifies the problem with each petition so it can be corrected and sent to the legislators.

CONTENT has the following subcategories:  Search Content lets you locate an existing document by type, title, description, location, category, author, or status. Bulletins lets you create bulletins that distribute information on a wide scale to COS leaders and supporters. Posts lets you create and edit blog posts that are accessible through the ConventionOfStates.com Web site. All blogs and pages should be created by or with assistance from State Content Writers. Take SCC 100 Content Writer Leadership Training course for guidance.  Pages lets you create and edit Web pages that are accessible through the ConventionOfStates.com Web site. Videos lets you create and edit Videos that are accessible through the ConventionOfStates.com Web site. Files lets you create and edit Files that are accessible through the ConventionOfStates.com Web site Categories lets you view documents by pre-existing categories to help you identify those most useful to you. Surveys lets you create surveys and analyze the results of completed surveys. Polls lets you create polls and analyze the results of completed polls.

TOOLS has the following subcategories: Follow Up Tool identifies new supporters and petition signers and helps leaders track follow up calls. Florida has a State Team working this process. For training, take FUT 100 Welcoming New Supporters in COS University. Leaders, also known as the Leaders Management Tool (LMT), lists all the volunteers/leaders and their roles, and lets you onboard new leaders (based on your permissions). All volunteers in Florida are expected to complete, at least, the 4 public COSU courses before being assigned. See the course chart, above, for further training needed for other roles. District Dashboard lists all supporters in your jurisdiction. This is the primary CB Tool for District Captains! This is the tool where DCs will hone in on their Volunteer Interests (VIs) — those who signed the petition and expressed interest in becoming volunteers. Using this tool, DCs will build relationships with their VIs, calling, texting, and emailing until they determine they are not truly interested (and uncheck the VI setting) or get them onboarded as volunteers. Watch this Quicktip video for the District Dashboard (DD). Campaigns lists the publicity campaigns and allows leaders, based on their permission, to create new campaigns and track their progress. Redirect Tool allows leaders, based on their permission, to create alternate Web site addresses for existing Web sites. TelePatriot is where TelePatriot missions are created and monitored.  TelePatriot is one of the tools available in the COSAction app available for iOS and Android smart phones. COS University links COSUniversity.com to CB and provides a way for leaders with appropriate permissions to see which volunteers have taken courses. GoToWebinar tracks Webinars and attendees at Webinars.

HELP is for technical help within COS, including CB. Help Protocol gives you “help” in using Help. Help Desk takes you to the Help Desk where you can use the Knowledgebase, start a Help Desk ticket, or view your existing tickets. High Profile Bugs is a list of those problems that the developers of Citizen Builder (CB) are aware of affecting many if not all, but have not yet been fixed.

Other Applications COSA Uses

Slack is a multi-purpose communication tool.  It acts as a texting tool and a bulletin board for documents, audios, and videos.  It is organized into workspaces for different groups in the same organization--for example there is a workspace for each state, and for all district captains.  Within each workspace, communications are broken into channels.  Users can set their notifications so they are sure not to miss important messages.  Click here for Slack training.  

COSAction is an application for a smart phone, either iPhone or an Android.  You can get it from the App Store or Google Play.  Once it is installed, you can log in with the same credentials as you use for CB.  It is designed for on-the-go notifications from National, event reporting that will go into either CB or the Legislative Management System, or TelePatriot.  

TelePatriot is a telephone functionality of the COSAction App which is used for telephone campaigns. The campaign is set up by the Regional Director or State Director, and then uploaded onto each TelePatriot volunteer's phone. This functionality provides an easy way to dial and record the outcome of the call right on your phone.

Legislative Management System (LMS)
The LMS is a tool separate from CB but that shares information from it and COSAction.  It contains historic and current information on state legislators. 

Access to the LMS is given by the Regional Director (upon request) to members of the leadership team.