Introduction

This manual is written especially for leaders of independent conservative
student organizations or student divisions of campaigns who use public
programs as a part of an overall strategy to advance a cause or a candidate of
their choice.

However, most techniques are equally applicable by anyone organizing public
programs such as student government, speakers committees, professional clubs,
educational groups, and entertainment programs, to name a few.

Purposes and Types of Public Programs

A campus political organization should schedule about one program a month and
two or three major public program presentations a year in addition to your
regular meetings.

1. Simple open programs

These smaller, monthly programs educate and keep group members involved and
interested in the group. Such programs may help to recruit new members. No
special effort has to be made to bring in non-students, although each
program should be announced in the campus paper, on bulletin boards, in a
Facebook group or page, as well as emailed out to members.

Ideas for smaller programs include:

A school official
A local newspaper editor or wire service reporter
A panel of club members from an affiliate club on another campus
A movie or documentary
A local business or professional leader
A local political party leader speaking on party matters
An author
A debate watch party

Many groups have considerable success with informal discussion meetings. The
group might meet in the student union building or at a local restaurant and
invite a speaker with some special knowledge about a topic of current
interest.

The speaker gives a fifteen- or twenty-minute presentation and then leads an
open-ended question-and-answer period with club members.

The club should welcome speakers on different topics to expose the club
members to a useful and interesting array of opinions.

2. Major public programs

Major public programs should draw an audience well beyond a group’s
membership. They can convince undecided students and build enthusiasm among
your group’s members. Many major political leaders first got involved in
politics after personal contact with a policy expert, candidate, or an
important government official during a public program on campus.

An important function of these public programs is their use as media events.
This allows you to affect those who didn’t attend the event itself as
well as raise your group’s profile on campus.

You probably won’t change many minds among the people who come. Most
people who take the time to go to a political rally or publicized speech
already have their minds made up.  Therefore, pay particular attention to
attracting media coverage with this event.   Some examples of
events where you want to maximize attendance and publicity are:

A nationally-known conservative speaker
A governor, senator, congressman, or other major office holder
Candidates or potential candidates
State or national party leaders
National leaders of political organizations
Visiting columnists
Visiting economists or stock market experts
Foreign policy experts
Foreign diplomats
Debates between Republican and Democratic officials
Political rallies

Films shown for educational purposes, for public relations, or for profit.

Be sure to choose your major public program speakers carefully. Select those
who will effectively promote your club’s philosophy. You’re not in
business to provide audiences for your opposition.

Your major event can feature a single speaker, or several who engage in a
panel discussion. Seminars of half- a-day or full-day duration, while
requiring greater effort and organization, can also draw a crowd.

Major events require considerable time for planning and preparation. So you
will probably not want to host more than two or three such major events per
year.

Planning the Event

1. Location and facilities

Before any event takes place, your club should inventory the potential meeting
locations. Most colleges have a list of locations available and will give it
to you upon request.

You can eliminate a lot of last minute headaches and be prepared to make quick
decisions if you already have a sheet which lists the capacity, audio/visual
capabilities, the cost, and scheduling authority’s contact information
for every potential site.

Always underestimate crowds for a public program. It is far better to have an
audience of 175 packed into a room which seats only 150 than to have an
audience of 200 in a 300 seat auditorium.

In one case, the newspaper headline would read, “Conservative speaks to
overflow crowd,” and in the other case, even with greater turnout, the
story might read: “Sparse turnout for conservative speaker at the
university.”

If you have to apologize, you’d rather apologize to an overflow crowd
about a room a little too small than to your speaker for all the empty seats
in a larger hall.

The ideal situation is to have an expandable room. Many rooms have dividers
which can easily be slid back. If you can reserve such a room, do so.

When Ronald Reagan was scheduled to speak in the Assembly Center (which seats
7,000 when set  up for a speaker) at Louisiana State University during
his 1980 presidential campaign, his youth coordinator set up curtains to
shrink the auditorium to seat only 2,000. On three occasions, the curtains
had to be moved and more chairs brought in.

If you have to apologize, you’d rather apologize to an overflow crowd
about a room a little too small than to your speaker for all the empty seats
in a larger hall.

The ideal situation is to have an expandable room. Many rooms have dividers
which can easily be slid back. If you can reserve such a room, do so.

When Ronald Reagan was scheduled to speak in the Assembly Center (which seats
7,000 when set  up for a speaker) at Louisiana State University during
his 1980 presidential campaign, his youth coordinator set up curtains to
shrink the auditorium to seat only 2,000. On three occasions, the curtains
had to be moved and more chairs brought in.

The event started nearly half an hour late.

The constant increases in the seating area and requests for people to make
more room because far more people had arrived than were expected created
enormous expectation and excitement. Ronald Reagan himself dubbed it the
“most successful event in my campaign to date.”

Other options include providing a large screen TV and loudspeakers in another
room for those who are not able to fit in the main hall.
Since some reporters may arrive late, make sure you reserve enough good
space for them. Place them near the back of the room to ensure they are
capturing the crowd in their photos. Mark it off as the “media
section.” Television cameras may require a raised platform in the middle
of the room.

Other considerations in choosing a meeting room include central location, easy
walking distance from parking and dormitories, a well-known location, good
acoustics, and availability of a good sound system. For major events, have a
portable emergency sound system available just in case the built-in system
suffers an attack of the gremlins.

If your speaker is particularly effective in a question and answer period,
another type of public program presentation which can be successful is an
open-air speech at mid-day in a campus area with much foot traffic. A good
portable public address system and a slightly raised platform can draw a good
crowd.

2. Invitations

When trying to obtain a “big name” speaker for a major public
program, the three most important factors are advance notice, flexibility in
dates, and solid guarantees of a well-organized, well-attended event.

Invite speakers well ahead of time. Advance planning gives you time to draw a
big crowd and fire up your troops for the event. Major speakers often require
booking months in advance.

Be clear about what dates and times are not good. Avoid weekends, especially
on commuter campuses. Events the week before mid-terms and final exams could
also be problematic. Check the calendar of campus activities and give an
invitee as many alternative dates as you can.

Avoid scheduling your event on dates that conflict with:

Large sporting events
Finals or midterms (or surrounding)
School breaks
Major campus events
Local campus evets
Holidays

Your speaker will want to know this is a serious invitation which, if
accepted, will result in a successful event. You should carefully type on
club letterhead (if you don’t have it, make it) all the details,
including:

The name of the sponsoring organization
The appromimate size of the expected crowd

Nature of the meeting (rally, dinner, debate, panel, or featured speaker)

The suggested topics of the event (You can leave the speaker some freedom to
choose topics if you wish, but it’s still a good idea to suggest a few.)

Wheather there will be a question and answer period following the speech

Your intention to pay travel expenses and accommodations
The payment you can offer, if any
Opportunities for news media coverage
Possible auxiliary activities, if your speaker has time

If your group and the speaker share the same cause, and your program will
advance this cause, let the speaker know that, too.

Prominent people who know you and are known to the speaker might serve as
references for your group. Ask these people to endorse your invitation with
letters, emails, or phone calls to your invitee.

A short history of other successful major programs your group has sponsored
will help persuade a speaker to accept your invitation.

If you don’t know how to get in touch with the speaker you desire, the
Leadership Institute may be able to help.

The Leadership Institute (LI) helps independent conservative groups bring
speakers to campus.  If you have a specific person in mind, LI may be
able to help you get in touch with the speaker to arrange the details of the
visit.

After you invite the speaker, it is a good idea to phone his or her office a
week after mailing the invitation to be sure it was received and to ask if the
speaker’s staff have any questions you can answer.

Once the speaker accepts, ask him to send you photos, biographical
information, and useful information about the topic he will cover.
After the event is set, maintain regular contact with the
scheduler. Phone the speaker’s office a week in advance and again a day
in advance of the event to be sure everything is still scheduled.

3. Filling the Speaker’s Schedule

After a speaker has accepted your invitation, find out how much of his time
will be available for other activities. Then try to schedule his time in order
to get the maximum benefit from his visit.

If the invited speaker has the time, you can expand his visit into a full day
of events.

Do not commit the speaker to any additional activities until he or his staff
has approved them.

Typical extra activities can include:??

An exclusive interview with the campus radio station or newspaper
A lecture to a class

Informal talks with students in the Student Union or wherever students
congregate

Meetings and interviews with student government and campus leaders to learn
of their concerns

Discussions, receptions, or meals with club members (very important to build
enthusiasm)

Interviews with local newspapers and appearances on local TV programs or
talk radio shows.

Operation Hometown – Arrange to have photographs taken of the speaker
with club activists. Separate club members by hometown. When the speaker has
a free moment, take casual photos of each group with the speaker and mail or
email them, with appropriate identifying captions, to each group’s
hometown papers. Photos of local people with important public officials are
almost irresistible to many local newspaper editors.

Many opportunities for creative activity surround public appearances. Advance
men for the late President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign regularly set
up flimsy barricades at airports, ostensibly to hold back the crowds.

Crowds assembled behind the barricades. Aides posing as members of the crowd
would push over the flimsy barriers at the moment the candidate arrived,
allowing the crowd in a “spontaneous demonstration of enthusiasm”
to surge forward and greet the candidate. All the while, TV cameras were
recording the dramatic scene for the evening news.

These ideas may be applied to other campus programs and not just your major
events. Give every event you host an air of excitement.

4. Physical arrangements

Even though you may wisely have reserved an undersized room, it is a
good idea to  set up fewer chairs than there is space for. Store
extra chairs in an adjacent room or in the back of the meeting room. As the
room begins to fill, set up additional chairs as necessary. This assures that
every seat will be filled, starting with the front rows.

When appropriate, decorate the room brightly with crepe paper, balloons, and
posters.

Ask your speaker if they have any Audio/ Visual requirements. Common AV
requirements  include:

Projector
Screen
Laptop for flashdrive plug-in
Internet access for videos or emails
Microphones
Audio speakers
Extra microphone for Q & A

Find out if he prefers to speak at a lectern and if he wants a lectern
microphone (if a sound system is necessary). Wireless microphones are nice for
speakers who like more freedom to walk around.

Reserve a section in the back for the media, and make sure someone responsible
gets the names of the reporters who do come.

Live or recorded music helps to build spirit and enthusiasm, particularly as
the crowd files in.

Make arrangements for an American flag on stage. You should also provide a
pitcher of ice water and a glass for the speaker. For a major event, or even a
smaller, formal event, have someone offer an invocation and someone else lead
the Pledge of Allegiance.

Drawing a Crowd

You can do many specific things to attract a crowd, but remember the most
important fundamentals: Select an interesting program and spread the
information regarding the event.

1. Advertising

1. Write and print up a flyer and send a campus-wide email inviting all
students to attend, with bullet points explaining why they will benefit from
attending. Place this flyer under every dormitory door the night before the
meeting. Distribute this flyer by hand in student parking areas as commuter
students arrive on campus.

2. Write a “Dear Faculty Member” letter announcing the meeting and
explaining why it is important and why students ought to attend. Ask the
faculty member to announce the time and place of the meeting in class. Place
these letters, signed by a faculty member or student leader, in every faculty
member’s campus mailbox.

3. Avoid paid advertising. Take advantage of every possibility of public
service announcements and earned publicity. Usually paid advertising is not
cost effective and should be used only by campus speakers committees which are
not on tight budgets.

4. Handmade posters are much more effective on campus than printed posters.
Once a person reads one printed poster, he may ignore all the others. Handmade
posters or memes, if clever, will each be read.

2. Personal Outreach

1. Many students will come if asked by a fellow student as a personal favor.
If your club has developed a canvass system to identify and mobilize
supportive students, every floor leader should invite every supporter and
uncommitted student on his floor.

2. Make personal visits to professors in departments such as speech,
economics, and government, and ask them to announce your program in class.
Tailor your presentation to the particular interest of the professor.
Sometimes teachers give extra credit to students who write analyses of the
content or style of the speech. You should suggest this.

3. Certainly the supportive local party organizations should be invited. This
would include party committees and their affiliated groups such as auxiliaries
for high school students, women, and ethnic groups.

3. Media Outreach

1. Notify local journalists on and off campus, including broadcast and print
media, about the event. Be sure your story is submitted well in advance of any
press deadline. Personally follow-up your press releases with a phone call.

2. Personally invite local print and broadcast media with a phone call a few
days before your program. Similarly, invite any non-hostile, local political
bloggers. This is a helpful way to remind them of the event. Even if they are
unable to send personnel to cover the event, if made aware of the program,
they will be more receptive to subsequent news releases.

3. A show of interest among the public may also spark media interest if
citizens call them asking for details of the event. To help show this
interest, have friends call media outlets and ask for information.

4. Many media outlets will not report on the event, but they may print an
announcement of the event in their paper if it is open to the
public. Many universities and colleges now cater to local residents and
non-students and encourage them to attend public forums or seminars featuring
guest speakers on campus.

4. Coalition Outreach

1. Many other clubs may be interested in the topic. For instance, if the
program will include a discussion of agricultural policy, the Future Farmers
of America would be interested. If the commercialization of space will be
addressed, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and other
engineering groups should be contacted, etc. Make sure other clubs know early
enough to put notices in their newsletters and on their bulletin boards.

2. Co-sponsoring a program with one or more organizations can sometimes
help swell a crowd. But this should be done only if having co-sponsors will
actually increase the crowd or media coverage. Be wary of having a bunch of
do-nothings share your credit while providing nothing in return.
Don’t forget to invite allied groups from other campuses.

5. Social Media Outreach

1. Create a Facebook event page and ask everyone involved to invite their
online network to attend.  You can share the link to the event page on
other student group Facebook pages and local conservative pages inviting them
to attend and spread the word.

2. Share the link to the event page on Twitter using hashtags that will reach
your local target demographic.

3. Consider sharing your event on Snapchat. Although this won’t get you
national attention, Snapchat may share it locally.

6. Concluding thoughts on outreach

1. Controversy draws a crowd. Don’t worry if your opponents chalk
up the sidewalks denouncing your speaker; open opposition creates student
interest.

2. Some who disagree with your speaker can be specially invited too,
unless they are likely to be truly disruptive.

Managing the Public Program

1. Before the program begins
Lighting is often a big problem at public programs.

Your speaker should stand in the best-lit place in the room. Sometimes you
will have to rent a spotlight which will beam at him over the heads of the
audience.

Always hang a group banner behind speaker to maximize group exposure and to
get good photos.

Never place a speaker in front of a window through which light is shining
behind him.

Never place a speaker in front of a mirror which will reflect back lights
from elsewhere in the room.

Never place a speaker in front of a turned-on light affixed to the wall
behind him.

Designate some people as ushers to oversee seating, answer questions, and
distribute program or campaign flyers (if any). The ushers should also be on
the lookout for hostile elements which might try to disrupt your public
program.

Where hecklers are likely, have many of your own group members arrive early,
slip in, and seat themselves among the hecklers. This is not to confront or
argue with them.  Your people’s presence prevents the formation of
solid blocks of hecklers and dampens their group spirit.

Regardless of your ultimate  hopes for the event, don’t call it a
“rally” in your publicity materials. The word “rally”
creates the expectation of a highly charged, packed event which is difficult
to create. If a speech turns into a rally, so much the better, but raising
expectations beforehand is not a good idea. Under-promise and over-perform.

An old audience organization technique which is universally successful and not
widely known is the diamond seating pattern. Four sharp people should be
briefed beforehand to seat themselves in a diamond pattern in the audience.
That is, one in the middle of the front row, one half way back on the extreme
right, one halfway back on the extreme left, and one in the middle of the back
row.

In most speeches, there are pauses where applause is appropriate. The job of
these four people is to look for these places and to applaud vigorously at the
appropriate times. People seated in the audience are thus caught up in the
obvious enthusiasm of the people around them. This technique can make even an
average presentation into an outstanding success.   The red
dots indicate the placement of people in the audience for the diamond seating
pattern.   Another person should be designated to photograph
the event. The photos may be useful for your publicity. And the frequent
flashing of a camera strobe lends an air of drama and importance to the
arrival, departure, and presentation of the speaker. Bright video camera
lights turned on the moment the speaker enters heightens this effect.

Another person should be appointed to manage the social media for the event.
This person should tweet important lines from the speech and post pictures of
the event. This will help create a buzz about the event.

2. Introducing the Speaker

Do not be casual with your choice of who is to introduce your speaker. Have
some competent person prepare a formal, lively introduction.

The introducer must understand the audience has come to hear the speaker and
not the introducer. Therefore the introduction itself should almost never be
more than three minutes long. A good formula to use for a lively short
introduction is the T.I.P.:

Topic – what is the theme of this program?
Importance – why should you be interested in this theme?

Person – who is our speaker and why should you care what he has to say
on this topic?

The master of ceremonies should start the program only a little late. If you
wait for late arrivals, those people who arrived on time will lose their
enthusiasm. Usually, when   programs are delayed in hope of
drawing a larger crowd, no one else shows up. This devastating occurrence can
be prevented by starting not more than 10 minutes later than the advertised
time.

Be sure the master of ceremonies encourages the audience to interact with the
event via social media. Remind them of the event’s hashtag.

3. The Program

Have one or two group leaders brief your speaker on local “hot
topics” among the students. A brief comment in the speaker’s
opening remarks about “your exciting victory in last Saturday’s
football game” will go a long way toward creating a bond with the
student audience.

For the convenience of the speaker, you should reserve a nearby room with a
bathroom and give him 15-20 minutes before the presentation to freshen up and
work on his notes.

For a student audience, 20 to 40 minutes is a good length for the principal
presentation.

4. Questions

At most public programs, students expect to be able to ask questions. If the
speaker is really good, this will be his chance to shine and to win many
converts. You’ll probably want to allocate another 30 minutes or so
for questions. This should be announced at the beginning of the question
period.

There is no one best way to handle questions. It depends on many factors: the
topic, the student interest, and the local circumstances.  If the
questioning is likely to be very lively, a firm, tough moderator should be
named to keep the program orderly and save the invited speaker or candidate
from having to be the “heavy” with any rude people in the
audience.

Possible ways to handle questions are:

Audience asks questions by standing where they are (moderator should repeat
questions so everyone can hear)

Audience goes to fixed location(s) to ask their questions at a microphone(s)

Roving moderator(s) with wireless microphones select questioners from the
audience (Phil Donahue style)

Audience submits written questions to moderator (less spontaneity)

A panel of experts or reporters asks the questions (Better on technical
topics. Can be mixed with audience questions also.)

Be sure to be respectful of the opposition, especially while holding the
microphone.

Always prepare for the potential of a hostile crowd during the Q &
A. Prepare in advance to have audience members with predetermined questions.
To identify these friendly audience members to the moderator, provide them
with, say, a red pen.

Some thought should be given before the program as to which questions may or
should be asked of the speaker. You should never try to limit the discussion
to only planted questions, but there are a few reasons why you would want to
at least have some planted questions:

It helps direct the discussion to areas of importance, especially when the
questions have strayed down irrelevant paths.

It prevents the speaker from coincidentally taking only hostile questions
and thereby appearing to have no support in the audience.

In the opposite extreme, if the audience is largely favorable, it gives him
a chance to show his stuff by giving good answers to tough questions,
especially if you already know he has a good answer to a question.

5. The Recruitment Opportunity

One of the world’s most common and most serious political blunders is to
spend hundreds of hours preparing a huge political rally only to let it come
and go without ever getting the names and contact information (phone number,
email address, and mailing address) of those in attendance.

You may not be able to do extensive recruiting at all public programs, but you
should almost always make some attempt to do so.

You should also have a membership table clearly visible before and after the
program so that students who want more information may talk with your club
members. You’ll find this a great way to recruit new members. The table
should be located just outside or next to the door.

Pass around sign-up sheets or ask people to sign in at the front door.

If the event is a political rally, it can be expected that most of those
present are supporters. The list from such a rally will be an extremely
valuable source of new members or volunteers for future activities.

Of course, if the speaker is willing to endorse your group and its activities
at some point in the program, that will encourage interest.

Even programs which are not yours can be a source of new members. Note the
questions asked, and speak with the sympathetic questioners after the program.

As soon as the event has ended, wrap up by informing the audience they have
the option to take a photo with the speaker on stage, in front of your
strategically placed banner. If possible, be sure to use a professional
camera. Ask the audience not to use their phone cameras to save time.

After the Event

Capitalizing through publicity

During the event, note which reporters came and which media outlets are
represented so you can get publicity to the others after the event.

For the newspapers, post-event releases summarizing the event and the
speaker’s points can be helpful.  Have people write
letters-to-the-editor about the event to increase the exposure. An especially
good writer could author an opinion piece on some aspect of the event and ask
that it be printed in either the school or a local newspaper.

Radio stations are actually the easiest to interest. Use a simple, cheap
digital recorder to capture the speech and extract a 15-30 second segment of a
forceful statement by the speaker (preferably followed by vigorous applause).
You may also interview the speaker after the event and take a clip from there.
Then call the radio station and offer them a “radio actuality.”

Most radio station news rooms have the ability to record audio segments
directly off the phone and replay them in their hourly news summaries. By
using a segment you give them over the phone or by email, they can appear to
have covered the event without ever sending a reporter.

If the speaker has a few extra moments, many stations will record a
short interview over the phone.  A group member can screen stations in
advance to find out who is interested in one of the above options.

Be sure to keep all clippings and a record of whatever broadcast publicity you
do receive from the media.  Many printed articles can be useful as
reprints.  Send copies of good clippings to your donors.

Send the speaker a hand-written Thank You note from the group.

Conclusion

You’ll want to do your best, but realize that no public program is
perfect.  Very few public programs will be able to utilize all the
techniques outlined in this manual.  Do not attempt to do more than your
available manpower and resources can accomplish.

Although there is some risk from the bad publicity if a public program flops,
the enormous benefits in building enthusiasm, recruiting, educating, and
carrying your message to the public make the effort well worthwhile.

Resources

Get help with your next campus public program.
AtLeadershipInstitute.org/Campusyou can:
• Request a speaker grant
• Apply for a speaker kit
• Find a speaker
• Join LI’s nationwide network
• And much more

For more guidance and on the ground support, contact your Leadership Institute
Regional Field Coordinator at
LeadershipInstitute.org/Campus/map.cfm.

You can find more information on how LI can help you succeed on campus at
LeadershipInstitute.org/Campus