Moving from third place to second The experience of St Alban's, which bucked the trend in 2017 St Alban's in 2016 was: Not a target seat Tory held (Maj 12,700 over Labour) Lib Dems in third place (10,000) Labour's candidate was the ex Labour MP Nearby seats seen as better prospects by the party Didn't control the council So in many ways a similar situation to us. They decided to: Draw up a campaign plan Build the credibility of the candidate and the party Find the team/people needed Fundraise Increase activity levels They were in General Election mode for 6-7 months They had a six-month campaign plan and a six week fully-costed General Election plan ready to drop into place on the day the election was called. This fully-costed plan helped hugely with fundraising (See below). Events Leaders Visit They got Tim Farron to visit - took a lot of work to get him because HQ kept saying hey should the leader visit a third place seat. They put on a Rolls Royce visit for him. Got a great car, a photographer, the local media, BBC, he visited a school and a scientific research centre, he was met with a crowd at the station. HQ people all left thinking wow we'd come back here. Potential donors were invited and all were allowed to meet him and talk to him. Action Days In March they had an action day to show neighbouring seats they were the centre of gravity. Also used it as a trial to make sure the office Was up and running. Meet Daisy events Daisy did 20 events and met on average 15 people at each, in people's homes. She asked them to invite at least 10 people for 90 minutes and she spoke to them all personally. Aim being 300 people could then go out and talk about her. Supporter drinks They held a Saturday morning drinks session which was family friendly - with tea and juice and biscuits and balloons and games, so younger people came along with their kids. After this one event they had enough people to boost their fundraising and events teams Campaign Tactics They relentlessly attacked the Tories while ignoring Labour except in targeted squeeze areas. They were squeaky clean on facts and ruthless in their use of a blue and yellow colour palette (helpfully the colours of St Alban's) Talked a lot about shared values (remain, thameslink, commuting, living in the constituency) Talked up local council election results Stake board team out every day covering town with orange Didn't even feature the Greens - they made it a two horse race Got the media onside. The media had spotted with the leader's visit that something was changing in St Alban's Local press - quality over quantity. Good press releases with good photos. Canvassing - when someone came into the office they never asked them to leaflet, they took them to one side, did role play with them, sent them out canvassing straight away with a buddy and within an hour they were on their own They used early donations to send a targeted mailing to weak areas, paid telephone canvassing (telebells) and did Daisy's Brexit survey Letter from Daisy to all women in seat, focusing on the NHS, education and the effect of Brexit on future She exploited dementia tax from a personal angle to older voters She used her links with other parties to boost efforts (action days, calling in mates etc) They got people to put money on at Ladbrokes to change the betting odds and then used them in leaflets One squeeze mailing every day for last ten days Targeted digital advertising At Christmas Daisy sent out 500-600 handwritten Christmas cards (get local school to do a competition) Video They used video - policy points; Daisy the story; Daisy out campaigning Team Got several people to do each role - not just one person. So eg for fundraising they had one person whose job it was just to respond to to PayPal notifications saying someone had donated. Others were to meet and greet at the event. Another to help organise meet Daisy events Diary manager - responded to invited and organised drivers Stake board team Film team - ex BBC cameraman helped Caseworker - replied to all emails VIP manager - organised lots of visits and recc'd the route for the leader's visit, organised posters for photo calls etc Several on membership Several on events Front of house team to welcome people and make sure no one was on their own at events Separate team for GOTV and the count Core team directing but gave people the autonomy to get on with their roles Used a triage system to find out people's skills Last 7 day's team - rotas eve of poll, keep candidate happy person (!) Fundraising January - established a core team and researched donors February - developed the message and held an event for potential donors March - keep the message active April - election called. Asked target donors immediately and ran a digital campaign May - spent money before election limits apply. Used early donations to enable this. A costed plan was significant in convincing donors to give. May/June - kept asking and thanking donors, which was key to getting them to give again and led to many repeat donations The fully costed campaign plan helped to persuade donors They raised Pound24,000 through small online donations Found members with big houses and invited them to an event. Daisy said she needed three things; their time and expertise, their money, or for them to open up their house and host an event to meet their contacts. Presented the fully costed campaign plan Told the she would follow up later. Then followed up with a cup of tea and an ask a week later. Income in 2015