On July 24, 2008, I was fortunate to be one of 1000 delegates traveling to THE Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to learn ways to employ a Grassroots approach to making cancer a national priority. We were honored to have the incredible key note speakers all weekend and to participate in a town hall with Senator John McCain. Several of us were acting like school kids taking our picture in front of McCain’s bus at our hotel. And the Secret Service is just like they look on TV, very droll and matter of fact and noncommittal when asked a question while riding up in the elevator with us. Back to the Summit…
Delegates chose from three tracks, Advocacy, Fundraising, or Elections. In our Advocacy Grey group, the seminars presented Friday and Saturday built upon one another providing the tools to create a group project. The last session of the day on Saturday had each of our teams within the big group creating a 60 second video ask. We were to give the specific message components to convey:
Vote yellow to make cancer a national priority, refer to the website, and identify our team. Then we were to use brainstorming to create the concept which was to include: persuading viewers to support the cause by evoking emotion and connection with personal stories, educating with statistics and information, and most importantly making the ask.
My team did not win the competition for fabulous prizes, and I still came away with valuable experience on how to build excitement, passion and support for a cause using grassroots methods. Each of my team members presented me with an opportunity to learn something about working together toward a common goal.
So I close today with a promise to share more of the experience at the LiveStrong Summit in future posts and with this pearl of wisdom:
Making the ask is most important. The biggest reason people do not give or participate is because they do not get asked!
Until next time... LiveStrong... Teresa
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