2. Organize a school-site meeting(s) with educators, parents, and community members to plan the walk-in

It's important to involve members from across the community in the planning of your walk-in so that everyone feels included. Here are some ideas of what to address during your planning meeting(s):

• Identify the goal for the walk-in. Make sure to tie it into the current moment so people understand why we’re doing this now.
• Choose themes and the message.
• Develop an outreach plan that includes member-to-member conversations.
• Create the May Day program and schedule.
• Develop the overall turnout plan, which includes follow-up to remind and confirm people who said “yes” or “maybe” they will attend.

Step 4:  Promote your event and recruit attendees

Now that you've planned your event, you want to make sure that people attend it to hear your message and take action with you. It will be important to recruit turnout from the rest of the community. This will show that support for public schools and students come from within AND outside the school community. Try these recruitment tactics:

• Create an outreach list. Build a list of email addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information and have your committee and event partners add potential participants to it. Send regular mass emails and plan phone banks to reach these lists.
• Tap your planning committee. Ask each member of your planning committee to identify and call ten people to personally invite to the event. Create a "promotion kit" with sample promotional emails, phone scripts, and social media. Circulate to volunteers and ask them to share the event with their networks.
• Build local partnerships. Reach out to parent/student school-based organization leadership, engage school volunteers, and ask other groups that are connected to the community, like the Boys and Girls Club, Kiwanis Club, etc. to circulate information to their friends and families. Connect with local businesses and request they post a flier about the event and/or post about the event on their social media pages. Ask your local politicians to join the event and to share it with their listservs and on their social media accounts.
• Be present in the community. Leaflet neighborhood events with fliers with either sign-up sheets or a QR code to the registration page. Make presentations at community events such as meetings of neighborhood associations and places of worship, and at education-related events. Spread the word during school-sponsored activities, like athletic events, open houses, performances, and cultural nights. Canvass the neighborhood and knock on doors to explain the action and ask people to participate.

Are you a union member? Unions were created for this moment! Make sure to use the key touchpoints of your union to engage your members with the walk-in. Try these tactics:

• Call a work-site meeting and announce the event.
• Put fliers on your union bulletin board and in members’ mailboxes.
• Through one-on-one conversations, ask members to attend the action and register for the event.
• Sign members up to help plan the event and delegate roles for outreach.
• Enlist support from former or retired members who still live in your community.

Step 6. Post-May Day Steps

Remember, we want this to be a movement, not a moment! Follow up with attendees and speakers so that you move them up the ladder of engagement and to your next organizing asks. Try these tactics:

• Send thank-you notes to all walk-in participants and organizers.
• Collect turnout numbers, photos, and media clips to send to NEA at [email protected].
• Reconvene planning committee to assess what worked well, what could be improved, and key lessons for moving forward with your campaign.
• What’s the next action in your campaign? How will you recruit walk-in participants to join it?