Without adequate planning, your campaign strategies will fail.  The only way to make certain you accomplish all of your objectives and protect your team members from becoming overstressed is to devise a plan or strategy and stick with it.  Political consultants have a phrase for this:  “ Plan your work, then work your plan.”

To begin with, you will need to create a campaign plan.  Select the person with the best organizational skills, often the campaign manager, to write the plan.  However, producing the final document should be a team effort.  All participants should feel comfortable with their tasks and understand that they must work together to reach the common goal.  Whether it is making phone calls, raising funds, or running a political yard sign campaign, creating an organized plan is the first step.

Since both time and funds are limited, it is imperative to address the issues of budget and create a workable timeframe when creating your plan.  You should carefully detail when each event of the campaign will occur, to make certain that you stay on course and meet your campaign strategy goals.  It will be too confusing to have more than one person work on the timeline.  By having one person remain in charge of the timeline, you will avoid confusion and help ensure that each task is completed on schedule.

To ensure that you keep momentum and enthusiasm high for your team, keep the plan well organized, clear, and simple to understand.  Whether your volunteers are expected to run a fundraiser or place political yard signs throughout the community, they need to feel they are working within a well-organized effort or they may begin to lose confidence in the team leader’ s abilities.  By keeping activities organized and adhering to the plan, you’ ll know that your campaign is that much closer to victory.