Activate local activists easily by phone.

A phone tree is a prearranged, pyramid-shaped system for activating a group of people by telephone. Using the phone tree system can spread a brief message quickly and efficiently to a large number of people.

USES

• Quickly mobilize members and/or supporters in emergency situations (for example, when a vote on key legislation is pending and a barrage of calls, faxes, e-mails, and letters are needed).
• Notify members of meetings, hearings, actions, and last-minute changes.
• Increase turnout by providing personal invitations to reinforce (e-)mailed notices.
• Save printing and postage costs involved with communicating brief notices by mail. (Phone trees are not effective tools for disseminating a high volume of information.)

RESOURCES NEEDED

• People- A coordinator and a network of reliable people (Key Group—see sample) form the skeleton of the phone tree.
• Time- The coordinator will spend time organizing the tree. (This process should be done prior to serious activation of the tree.) Once it’s set up, the tree can do dozens or even hundreds of hours of work with only five to 50 minutes of involvement by each member, depending on the frequency and number of calls each member is assigned.
• Money- No money is needed aside from long-distance charges, where applicable. Use home telephones and cell phones at no additional cost.

ACTION CHECKLIST

1) Make a list with current phone numbers of all the persons you want the tree to reach.

2) From that list, recruit a smaller group of people who will be responsible for calling and activating other members. This small group is referred to as the Key Group .

a. Keep the Key Group as small as possible, since each group may be responsible for reaching people who in turn are responsible for reaching out, and so on. It is critically important that the members of the Key Group are reliable!
b. Impress upon ALL participants the importance of completing all their assigned calls.

3) Divide the people on your list among the members of the Key Group.

a. Consider assigning responsibilities geographically to reduce any phone charges.
b. Try to limit calls to three to eight per participant so the phone tree won’t become too burdensome.

4) Make a chart of Key Group members and their assignments and distribute it to the Key Group. Be sure to include work, cell, office, and other numbers to locate members.

5) Ask key people to notify you when they are going out of town or will otherwise be unavailable. Have alternate Key Group folks that can fill in if someone is unavailable.

6) Hold message drills occasionally to test your phone tree for effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

OPERATING THE TREE

1) As coordinator, you will start the tree. Write out a brief script complete with the specific action each member needs to accomplish (calling their members of Congress, writing a letter to the editor, coming to the next planning meeting, etc).

2) Call the members of the Key Group using the script. Make sure that Key Group members understand what they need to do and the time frame in which they should do it.

3) Spot-check the tree’s effectiveness by calling a few people down on the list to be sure they have received an accurate and complete message. Also, you can prearrange with folks down the list to contact you once they have received the message.

4) Train the folks in your phone tree to keep trying each person on their list until they make contact. If a member of the phone tree cannot be reached, have the caller notify you as the coordinator so you can fill in or delegate the responsibility to another member.

5) Ask the membership chair to keep you informed of changes in branch membership so you can keep your communications network up-to-date.

KEY POINTS

• Have an organization chart for your phone tree.
• Be sure that your Key Group members are reliable.
• Have multiple ways of reaching members (home, work, and cell numbers are key).

Download an illustrated sample of a phone tree.