Triangle West Young Republicans

 

Step 1.  Schedule a date, time, location with your favorite candidate.  Depending on the situation, it may be possible to do a meet 'n greet for more than one candidate at the same time.  For example, if you're doing a Meet 'n Greet for Roy Taylor for Durham County Sheriff.

 

Step 2.  Get your invitation together.  You can do this via email, which is what I would recommend.  But you obviously need to have an invite that you can print out so you can give it to your neighbors etc.  Here's a sample, which is in Microsoft PowerPoint.

 

Step 3.  Ask your candidate(s) how many people they would like to see at your event.  You need to make sure you both have the same expectations.  Make sure you find out from the candidate if they are okay with the event being a "meet 'n greet" as opposed to a "fundraiser."  TWYR recommends that you host a "meet 'n greet" as opposed to a "fundraiser" for the simple fact that a "fundraiser" implies that each attendee is expected to donate some amount of money.  That may be your candidates goal.  However, most of the candidates would rather you schedule a "meet 'n greet" simply so you don't scare away potential voters by asking for a donation before they've had an opportunity to meet the candidate.  At the meet 'n greet, the candidate will ask for donations but you can feel free to communicate that donations are "appreciated but not required."

 

Step 4.  Create an invitation list . . . and while you are at it, create it in a manner that it can also serve as an RSVP tracker.  For those of you that are tech-savy, you can always use MyPunchBowl.com or Evite.com or some similiar site.  But you need to remember that not all voters are online.  Here is a simple MicroSoft Excel spreadsheet that you can use, which is what I decided to use in lieu of MyPunchBowl.com.