Campaign field guide
A sample campaign field plan, and how to schedule it
A working guide to the four scheduling problems every local campaign hits before November. Here is how to run each one without finding a gap at 6am.
Canvass shift scheduling
A canvass needs a launch site, a walk list, and people in pairs. It fails when turf is uneven: eight people in the candidate's home ward and none in the ward that decides the race.
Set up launches as shifts, assign by ward first, and log who came. The full guide is on the canvassing software page.
Phone bank scheduling
Phone banks are the easiest shifts to fill and the easiest to skip. Treat them as real shifts: set hours, named callers, and a call the day before.
A Tuesday with twelve names and five callers is fixable in October. The full guide is on the phone banking software page.
Early voting site coverage
Early voting is a marathon dressed as a sprint. In DC that means 25 sites over 14 days, all needing greeters during voting hours. That is hundreds of shifts before election day. It is also where people start to burn out.
What works: shorter shifts than election day, four hours at most. Keep the same person at the same site all week so faces get familiar. You can run thinner here than on election day.
The daily job is triage: which sites can run light today so your best people are fresh for Tuesday. The 7am report makes that a two-minute read.
Election day and GOTV (get out the vote)
GOTV week is when every scheduling debt comes due. Three rules hold election day together: book the 6am shift at 120 percent, keep a reserve of reliable people, and work the gap list Monday night.
The reserve works because your records are real. The full plan is in the election day coverage guide.
The calendar between now and November
August and September are recruiting and canvass launches. October is phone banks, confirmations, and building the early voting schedule. The first week of November is execution. All of it writes into one grid.
So your list, your records, and your coverage picture build up instead of starting over. Start in August and you walk into GOTV week with three months of data behind every choice. The field organizer carrying that calendar has a guide of their own.
A sample campaign field plan
- Goal: the votes you need to win, and how many come from doors, calls, and texts.
- Universe: the voters you will contact, cut into turf and call lists.
- Calendar: canvass launches and phone banks by week, then early voting and election day shifts.
- People: how many volunteers you need each week, who recruits them, and who leads each site.
- Tracking: doors, calls, and IDs each week against your goals.
Write it on one page. Then build the schedule from it. The free volunteer calculator turns your sites and days into a shift plan.
Field plan questions
What goes in a campaign field plan?
A vote goal, the voters you will contact, a weekly calendar of canvasses and phone banks, the volunteers you need, and how you will track results.
How many volunteers will you need?
Enter your sites and dates. You get your number in seconds and a shift plan to download. No sign-up.
Check how many volunteers you need, free