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Planning the Campaign:
- Decide what type of energy campaign you’d like to
run. Choosing the right campaign for your school will depend
on the size, location and personality of your school and how many
resources you have available to pursue a campaign. Renewable energy
purchasing, green building design, green vehicle fleets, and energy
conservation can all be effective campaigns in reducing energy
usage. If you have limited resources you might want to start off
with a general conservation campaign where you can accomplish
lots of small victories.
- Find allies among faculty and departments. One of the
departments, maybe in the sciences or politics or environmental
studies, will probably be very willing to help you make the school
more environmentally sustainable. Faculty can be much more influential
than students, and they often like to be involved with student
projects and campaigns.
- Find your target. Meet with an appropriate administrator,
probably in the Facilities Department, to find out what your school
already does about this issue. Making connections with the person
who purchases equipment for the school allows you to bypass quite
a bit of hierarchy.
- Meet with someone in your school’s Development or
Alumni Affairs office. Find out if they’ll work with
you to raise awareness about your campaign among alumni. This
is great because not only can it lead to more pressure on your
target, it could potentially lead to monetary donations to your
cause.
Carrying out the Campaign:
- Be visible. Make posters, flyers, get an article or
two published in your school or town newspaper, send emails about
your campaign, any new accomplishments or upcoming events. These
make your campaign a conversation topic around campus and allow
you to reach people who may be interested in joining your campaign.
The visibility also places pressure on the administration to cooperate
and take action.
- Set deadlines and actually follow them. It is really
easy to lose track of time and simply forget to finish your jobs,
but take deadlines seriously. They will help move your campaign
forward and will keep the energy of the campaign at a high level.
- Develop materials. This could just be a simple factsheet
that you can use to recruit more people who might be interested
in your campaign. In order to carry out a campaign, you will have
to do a little research, but having solid facts will help validate
your campaign. Throughout the rest of these materials we have
included the addresses of a number of online resources that can
help you find right information you need.
- Petition correctly. If you are going to collect signatures
for a petition, try following these tips:
- Be confident. Very few people will sign a petition if you
do not approach them.
- Be mobile. Do not simply sit behind a table and expect
people to come to you. Walk around and talk to people as they
pass by you. People are more inclined to sign a petition if
they don’t have to go out of their way.
- Do not be too aggressive. If someone does not want to sign
your petition, you should respect that decision and not try
to bully him/her into it. However, you can still try to educate
him/her about issue, even if he/she does not sign.
- Know your issue and prepare a summary. You need to be able
to inform people about your campaign in a very short amount
of time. If you know what you are talking about and can be
convincing, petitioning is pretty easy.
- Have other people petition with you. It’s often easier
to petition if more than one person is collecting signatures
at a time. Plus others can help keep you company.
- Ask people who sign your petition if they’d like
to get involved in your campaign. This can be a good way to
get new members!
- Stay Motivated. It often helps to have someone to check
in with on a regular basis to talk about how the campaign is going.
Talking to someone who is not involved in your campaign but knows
you are involved can provide an outside insight into the campaign
and can also help boost your spirits. This could be the leader
of your environmental group, your advisor or simply a friend that
will listen.
- Be patient and persistent. Sometimes campaigns can take
a really long time to produce results. If you don’t seem
to be making any headway on your campaign, it might be a good
idea to reevaluate your strategies and take a new approach. Check
to make sure you are dealing with the person(s) who make decisions.
It may also take the administration a while to agree with your
campaign. In that case, just be persistent.
- Have fun. This really is an essential part of running
a campaign. If you are not having fun, it is a lot easier to become
discouraged. So enjoy yourself, enjoy the people you are working
with and do not worry about minor setbacks.
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