Creating a 2004 School Plan – A Manual

Sign up 50% of your school to get ten voter pledges each.

There are four keys to maximizing student participation in your school.

1. Make sure everyone knows about it. That means building a Freedom’s Answer Leadership Team that has representatives of every different aspect of the school on it so they can all carry the message to their groups. It means having a school-wide assembly or system of announcing the program. And it means being sure that it is covered with big attention in the school newspaper.

2. Stress the simplest way of Taking Ten. Describe the basic way most students can Take Ten – because it is something that almost every student can do, no matter how out-going or how much of a leader he or she has been. Here it is: Take the Take Ten form home to ask your parents at the dinner table to pledge to vote. Then call your grandparents to pledge. Then any older brothers or sisters. Then your favorite aunt and uncle. And finally, your neighbors to the right and your neighbors to the left. Before you know it you have ten – and done it all in about half an hour one evening.

3. Have students watching the web site for results. Have the students their results to someone on the Leadership Team who is responsible for posting the results nightly on the web site – indicating how many pledges have been collected so far. If the number keeps going up every night, that will cause excitement and make students want to be part of something big, exciting and happening.

4. Create incentives to get voter pledges. Here are some ideas:

• Have clubs and homerooms challenge each other to get the most.
  
• Have the principal announce Election Day as a day off if 100% of the school gets ten pledges each.
  
• Feature a new student hero in each issue of the school paper.
  
• Give the local media the names of all the students taking part.
  
• Challenge your high school rival to a voter pledge drive.
  
• Conduct raffles (school-wide or by homeroom) among all those who have signed up to Take Ten.
  
• Have local stores or vendors do the same – raffles among all Freedom’s Answer students who have reported ten voter pledges.

And don’t forget the 50-State Challenge and the Mega-Prize. The more schools in your state participate and the more students at those schools Take Ten, the more likely you and your state are to win the Mega-Prize.

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