The following “timeline” represents how you can organize and execute your campaign from month-to-month, with bulleted “action items” and detailed descriptions to follow.  In general, public education, voter registration and list building are recurring and related activities. These initiatives should be continued throughout the year; in November, the size and accuracy of your list will be critical to the success of your campaign.

March-April

1. Identify the candidates in the race you’ve selected. Be sure you include all the candidates from every party. Excluding or omitting a candidate may open your afterschool campaign up to charges of favoritism or partisanship.
2. Develop a list of resources in your jurisdiction including afterschool leaders and supporters, programs, associations, advocates, and high profile political players. Now is also the time to determine the state’s funding, legislative and administrative structures as they relate to afterschool.
3. Get informed about your state’s election and voter registration calendars. Each state is different, and each community has different voter registration deadlines for the primary and general elections. Before you plan your outreach strategies, know when the elections are (primary and general) and how much time you have to register voters.
4. Open campaign office / Create campaign “war room.” If possible, find space to dedicate to the campaign. Working with your partners, identify office space and hire/assign staff who will work solely on the campaign.
5. Start building your database of contacts and supporters.
6. Engage the Afterschool Community.  Organize conference calls and/or meetings to convene and brief the advocates and potential partners you have identified. These meetings are your opportunity to present the case for afterschool as important public policy and a crucial plank of any campaign platform.
7. Organize and host campaign launch event

May-June

1. Identify Precinct Captains
2. Continue disseminating information about the campaign to the general public
3. Start planning candidate forums.  Now would be a good opportunity to plant the idea of candidate forums addressing issues related to afterschool programs. While forums for a statewide race may be difficult to organize, local candidates are usually far more receptive to community or candidate forums. 
4. Research the dates for future candidate forums or debates. Put these on the calendar. Organize volunteers and advocates in the field to attend and ask afterschool-related questions at these events. As the candidates continue to field questions relating to the need for afterschool programs, they will quickly realize the importance afterschool will play in this election.

June-July

1. Conduct polls or surveys to register voter opinions on afterschool
2. Organize events and meetings for parents, afterschool staff and other concerned citizens
3. Distribute candidate surveys
4. Continue to disseminate your information throughout the community, register voters concerned with afterschool issues, and add contacts and advocates to the database.

August

1. Reach out to editorial boards, community newspapers, and local media outlets with ideas for afterschool-related articles. Encourage them to focus on afterschool as a key issue in this campaign.
2. Organize a Lights On Afterschool event planning committee
3. Continue to disseminate your information throughout the community, register voters concerned with afterschool issues, and add contacts and advocates to the database.
4. September
5. E-mail or mail the 2012 Afterschool Candidate Resource Kit to candidates and their advisors. 
6. As it gets closer to November and candidates are more eager for press coverage, campaigns may be more likely to engage in public discourse through a candidate or issue forum. Review the idea of debates, issue forums, and town hall meetings with all the candidates’ campaigns.
7. Building on the candidates’ need for press opportunities before Election Day, invite the candidates to Lights on Afterschool or other Back to School events that you or your partners may be hosting.  Discuss Back to School events with the local school district and identify opportunities to “piggyback” on their events.
8. Continue to disseminate your information throughout the community, register voters concerned with afterschool issues, and add contacts and advocates to the database.

October

1. Host your Lights on Afterschool event
2. Collect signatures with the Afterschool for All petition during your Lights on Afterschool and other Back to School events.
3. Increase communication with your database of supporters and make a big push to mobilize your supporters through Get Out The Vote (GOTV) materials and events. Use Lights on Afterschool and Afterschool for All events as venues to distribute GOTV materials.
4. As the election nears, newspapers will begin to offer their endorsements. Request meetings with the Editorial Boards of your local print media outlets and offer to brief them on afterschool issues and why afterschool is important to the community.
5. Contact your high-profile supporters and work with them to place Op-Eds and Letters to the Editors in local and community newspapers.
6. Continue to reach out to all the campaigns and offer to brief and provide information/talking points to the staff and the candidates on afterschool issues.
7. Continue to disseminate your information throughout the community, register voters concerned with afterschool issues, and add contacts and advocates to the database.

Early November and Election Day

1. During the first week in November, your GOTV effort should be in full swing. Connect and communicate with your list of supporters
2. Continue to make the case to the media and general public that afterschool is a critical election year issue. Continue outreach to local and community papers and using the database, mobilize your list of advocates and precinct captains to increase awareness and outreach activities in their community. Be sure to distribute GOTV materials to ensure your precinct captains have sufficient amounts and won’t run out.

Election Day: Depending on resources, many campaigns use volunteers and staff as poll workers on election day. This would constitute passing out afterschool material and being a very visible proponent of afterschool programs at various poll locations throughout the district.

Again, this may only be feasible if you have the funding and resources. If you would like to organize people to staff the polls, be sure to plan ahead and factor the resources into your planning in April and May.

Late November-December

1. Immediately following the election, organize meetings with your partners and precinct captains to discuss what worked and what did not. Document and compile this analysis into a document for use by other advocates around the country.  The goal is to make afterschool an issue, not just in your neighborhood, but in communities around the country. By learning from each other, every subsequent campaign may be able to build on the successes while avoiding the mistakes of prior campaigns.

Post-Campaign

While the election may be over, your campaign work is not.  Hopefully some aspects of your work will continue for some time into the new term.  In order to make the most of all the hard work and energy that you put in leading up to Election Day, you need to continue your efforts with post-election follow-up to candidates, newly elected officials, media and the public. Send letters or e-mails to your candidates—like the examples in the appendix—to let them know you are still active and that they are still accountable for any promises they made during the campaign. Continue to contact the field so that active support for afterschool does not ebb in the changing tides of government; the need for afterschool will never end, so neither should our advocacy.

Follow-up with the candidate:
Once the campaign has ended, be sure to review public pronouncements, candidate surveys and other materials from the winning and losing campaigns. Understand the winning candidate’s position, and hold them to what they said. Having made public statements on the issue, the candidates will most likely be responsive.

Follow-up with the field:
There are a number of things you can do to follow-up with the field.  Ideally the end of the campaign is just the beginning of your outreach to the database that you’ve built.

• Be sure to send acknowledgements to the field, thanking them for their effort and hard work.
• Organize a post-election meeting with your partners and the precinct captains, and share best practices: what worked, what didn’t.
• Encourage the field to “keep the pressure on.”