In final week of the Washington State Legislature’s 2005 session, the environmental community’s Sound Solutions legislation to save Hood Canal and Puget Sound had passed the House of Representatives but was still two votes short in the Senate. Our coalition had exhausted all of our contacts in these two swing districts but still needed to generate a lot more pressure on these Senators.

We didn’t have time to collect postcards or letters, and at this point in the session emails to these Senators were no longer effective. But adversity often spurs innovation. I proposed an idea of going out to these legislative districts with cell phones in hand and asking people to call their Senators on the spot. The idea caught on and a day or so later Peter Schrappen from Washington Conservation Voters and I headed for the local community college.

Though this test certainly had its bumps along the way -- it was cold and rainy and our cell phones didn’t work inside -- two people with three cell phones managed to generate about 60 calls in just one hour! This was an amazing return compared to the traditional phone banking we had been doing the previous week.

Keys to Mobile Phone Banking Success

1. Develop a good grab: We asked everyone who walked by us, “Would you make a call to help stop raw sewage from being dumped into Puget Sound?” It’s important to lead off with something that will grab people’s attention and most everyone will say yes to.

2. Ask everyone: You don’t know who will make a call unless you ask.

3. Have two phones per person: Each call takes several minutes so we had several clipboards with scripts for people to use in the call and that allowed us to ask other people while the first person is making the call.

4. Have more clipboards than phones: Lots of people will have their own cell phones, so be sure to have more clipboards with scripts than cell phones.

5. Pick a good location: The ideal location is one with consistent (but not too heavy) foot traffic, where people aren’t in a huge hurry. We did our pilot at the local community college’s Student Union building at lunch time.

Challenges to Consider

1. Capturing Activists’ Names: We didn’t create a system for collecting the names of people interested in staying involved. One simple solution would be to have a sign-up list on the clipboard and to tell people about it before or after the call.

2. Choosing the Right Location: In this case, we were trying to generate calls to two specific State Senators from folks in their districts. Though we went to the nearby regional community college, many people weren’t from the districts we were targeting. If you’re targeting specific elected officials, pick locations that mostly attracts locals. Grocery stores are good but often hard to get access to.

Unfinished business

Due to larger political forces our bill was never brought up for a vote in the Senate so we don’t know how these Senators would have voted. However we will be back again next year and I believe mobile cell phone banking will be too.

Jim Dawson is the Field Coordinator for People For Puget Sound. He can be reached at jdawson@pugetsound.org.