EQUAL VOTE PROGRAMS:

The Equal Vote Coalition mission at its core is to combat systemic inequality in the vote. Through research, education, outreach, coalition building, and boots on the ground campaigning we advocate for voting and electoral reform, ensuring that every vote carries equal power. 

Equal Vote and STAR Voting have six key programs driven by our boards of directors, staff, volunteers, and supporters: Education, Outreach, Research, Operations, Chapters, and Implementation. Each of these include a number of teams and committees that each have a dedicated Slack channel. All STAR supporters are encouraged to join our Slack workspace to get involved. 

All programs report to the Equal Vote Coalition 501c3.

PROGRAM LEADERSHIP: 

Equal Vote Coalition programs are co-directed by at least one board director and an elected program representative. Together with the committee and team leads, these steering committees form a smooth channel connecting our leadership with our volunteer base for big-picture planning and boots-on-the-ground action. This helps bring the institutional knowledge and strategic vision on our boards back into the everyday work we do, while creating bottom-up channels for feedback and integration of new ideas. 

• Past, present, future: Leaders keep tabs on what's happening now, what teams and committees are active, and what goals and plans are up next on our timelines. Leaders are also critical for holding and passing down the institutional knowledge of what processes and systems have been tried before in order to set up committees and teams for success going forward. 
• Workflow: Leaders create timelines for programs, identify and recruit leaders to achieve benchmarks, and support their committees, who in turn report updates back to the steering committee and board.
• Leadership: Committee and team leads focus on the action items; board directors responsible for each program focus on defining the program goals for the year, and identifying key action items that might be overlooked otherwise. 

PROGRAM DETAILS

• Every program includes a number of committees and teams who work together to get things done.
• Committees meet regularly. Teams generally work asynchronously and meet as needed. 
  
  

Intro-Level Volunteer Opportunities: Welcome Team, Chapters, Caucuses, Comms Committee, Outreach and Coalition Committee, Events Committee, BetterVoting Committee. Let us know if you have specialized skills or specific interests! 

> OPERATIONS:

Operations Directors: Sam Monsen, Rob Lanphier

Metrics and Goals: Email blasts sent, number of orientations ran, conversation rate of sign ups to orientations, conversion to activated volunteers, trainings hosted, coffee chats, volunteer support/co-working calls, kudos given, number of leaders with titles, number of staff, funds raised, number of small donors, number of large donors/granting orgs, number of sustaining members, fundraising campaigns to members, Etsy merch. 

• EV Board of Directors
• STAR Action Board of Directors
• Fundraising Committee
• Financial Team 
• Leaders and Volunteer Coordination
• Welcome Team
• Etsy Shop Team

> RESEARCH:

Research Directors: Mike Franze, Keith Edmonds

Metrics and Goals: Research projects launched, committees active, papers published, polling conducted, focus groups held. 

• Research Committee
• Legal Team
• STAR-PR Committee
• Data Team

> EDUCATION:

Education Directors: Sara Wolk and Annie Kallen

Metrics and Goals: Shelf stable content published; websites and pages, articles, infographics, videos, podcast episodes.

• Graphics and Marketing Team
• Videos Team
• Websites Team
• Beyond RCV Team
• Voting Methods Forum Team

> OUTREACH:

Outreach Directors: Ruben Montejano, Kellyn Standley

Metrics and Goals: Recruits signed up, new coalition members, retention, coalition-network events/projects hosted, events hosted.

• Comms Committee
• Events Committee
• Outreach and Coalition Team
• Presentation Team
• Beyond RCV
• Caucus and Ambassador Project**
  **See caucus list below

> CHAPTERS:

Chapter Program Directors: Aram and Arend

Metrics and Goals: First meeting, regular meetings, number of leadership roles assigned, events/meetings hosted, number of local organizations contacted, presentations given, fundraisers organized, campaigns launched, campaigns won, new sign ups, total active members, meeting attendance, in person meetings/events, number of local chapters under the state (city or county), press coverage.

Our Chapters: We have chapter channels for every state in the US and for many other countries as well. In areas that have critical mass, (ideally five active members or more) chapters host meet-ups, events, and/or regular monthly meetings.

In places with an especially local focus or local campaign effort we have local branch channels for specific cities or counties, and local campus chapters can team up with larger local branches to activate voters in their area. Chapter channels are all private so we can vet members. Let us know where you are so we can include you. 

> IMPLEMENTATION:

Implementation Program Directors: Hayden Sasswood, Andrea Denault

Metrics and Goals: Election hosting infrastructure and templates created, paper ballot and online elections facilitated, elections hosted on the Better Voting's platform, barriers to implementation overcome, campaign fundraisers hosted, campaigns launched, milestones reached, press releases, petition signatures, legislative engagement, campaigns won.

• • Better Voting Implementation Committee
  • Case Studies Team
  • Charter review commissions
  • Citizen Assemblies on voting reform
  • Initiative Petitions
  • Legislative Bills

EQUAL-VOTE CAUCUSES:

We have caucus channels for different organizations and political parties we've been working with and outreaching to. Our members who are also involved with other groups can be knighted as Equal Vote Ambassadors to those groups, and the caucus channels are places for our ambassadors to connect and share about our outreach efforts. The political party caucus channels are private, if you'd like to join any of them let us know.

• Braver Angels
• League of Women Voters
• Democratic Party
• Republican Party
• Green Party
• Libertarian Party
• Forward Party
• Democratic Socialists of America
• Working Families Party
• Campuses
• Approval Voting
• Ranked Robin
• Proportional Representation
• Election Integrity

MORE PROGRAM DETAILS!

> EDUCATION PROGRAM: 

• Graphics and Marketing Team: The Graphics and Marketing Team creates shelf-stable high-quality content. 
  
  

• BetterVoting Committee: The BetterVoting Implementation Committee meets monthly and works to help organizations host elections using better voting methods, online at BetterVoting.com, with paper ballots, or anywhere else our services are needed. 
  
  

• • • Responsibilities:
      • Maintain BetterVoting.com and paper-ballot options
      • Election Pipeline: Pitch BetterVoting/STAR  ➡️  Run Election  ➡️  Case Study 
      • Provide support for election admins
      • Point of contact for additional tools
        
        
• BetterVoting Leadership Team: The BetterVoting Leadership Team coordinates and makes high-level decisions on STAR Voting and BetterVoting implementation and strategy. 
  
  
• Videos Team: The Videos Team creates shelf-stable high-quality educational videos around voting methods and supports our Comms Committee in the creation and distribution of short videos for immediate distribution.
  
  

• Websites Team: The Websites Team works to create, update, and upgrade our website content. 
  
  

• Beyond RCV Team: The Beyond RCV team works on voter education about RCV, FairVote, and the RCV lobby. We owe it to voters to get this right. 
  
  

• Voting Theory Forum Team: The Forum Team provides structural and technical support to the Voting Theory Forum, a high-level, inclusive space for technical discussions on voting theory.
  

> OUTREACH PROGRAM: 

• Events Committee: The Events Committee meets twice a month to plan and organize events for Equal Vote, STAR Voting, and coalition events with other groups.
  
  

• • • Responsibilities:
      • Organize public-facing webinars
      • Support local chapters to host in-person events
      • Organize symposia, retreats, and summits
        
        

• Comms Committee: The Comms Committee meets weekly to craft messaging in response to current events, share updates, and share content from our websites, articles, memes, videos, etc. on social media.
  
  

• • • Responsibilities:
      • Craft messaging in response to current events 
      • Share content from the STAR Voting and Equal-Vote websites: Articles, infographics, videos, etc
      • Share memes and engaging or inspirational content
      • Respond to and engage with followers and relevant influencers
      • Highlight Volunteers
      • Handle communications requests
      • Handle admin tasks related to events including posting to social media, and posting pages on starvoting.org/events
      • Coordinate with staff for email blasts

• Outreach and Coalition Team: The Outreach and Coalition Team works asynchronously to run outreach campaigns to individuals and groups we care about. Making friends, booking speaking and tabling gigs, winning endorsements, and recruiting coalition members. 
  
  
  • • Responsibilities:
      • Run outreach campaigns: Coordinated outreach to public figures
      • Endorsement and Coalition Pipeline: Contact  ➡️  Presentation  ➡️  Coalition/Endorsement 
      • Co-hosted events and action items that strengthen our coalition relationships and grow our collective reach

• Presentation Team: Want to give presentations on STAR Voting? We can get you set up and trained, and have other people come along to help field questions and support you.

• Caucus and Ambassador Project: Each Caucus connects 'STAR Ambassadors' from across the country to identify and coordinate win-win advocacy efforts within their target outreach group.

> RESEARCH PROGRAM: 

• Research Team: The Research Team identifies needed research projects and collaborates on research papers that help build the evidence for better voting methods.
  
  
• Legal Team: The Legal Team reviews and consults on election law and potential legislation.
  
  

• STAR-PR Committee The STAR-PR Committee is in the 3nd phase of the project, vetting proposals for Proportional STAR Voting, comparing proportional systems, and writing papers documenting our process and findings. 
  
  

• • Responsibilities:
    
    • PR recommendations: Leading proposals  ➡️  Vetting and Comparisons  ➡️  Consensus building  ➡️  Proposal to Board
    • Modeling methods (simulations)
    • Creating resources for PR
    • Publication: Vision  ➡️  Outline ➡️  Draft  ➡️  Add Research and Citations  ➡️  Edit  ➡️  Final Publication
    • Providing expert consultation on proportional representation
      
      

• Ranked-Robin Committee: For organizing around Ranked Robin (Condorcet), Equal Vote’s recommended ranked voting method. https://rankedrobin.org
  
  

• • • Responsibilities:
      • Ranked Robin recommendations: Leading proposals  ➡️  Vetting and Comparisons  ➡️  Consensus building  ➡️  Proposal to Board
      • Creating resources for Ranked Robin
        
      • Developing consistent language and framing
      • Interfacing with PR Committee on Proportional Ranked Robin recommendations.  
        
        

• Data Team: The Data Team works asynchronously on data crunching and analysis.

> OPERATIONS PROGRAM: 

• Welcome Team: New volunteer orientation and introductions. Please introduce yourself. Name, location, any relevant skills you can lend to the cause, any parts of the project you are especially excited about.

• • • Responsibilities:
      • Engage with welcome posts
      • Regularly reposting orientation resources
      • Onboarding Pipeline: Join Link  ➡️  Phone Calls  ➡️  Orientation  ➡️  Plug in
        
        
• Leaders and Volunteer Coordination (within each committee): Volunteer coordination, cross-pollinating between our staff, chapter, and committee leaders. 
  
  

• Kudos: A dedicated channel for appreciation and recognition of our team members for all they do. 
  
  

• EV Board of Directors*: Governing body for the Equal Vote Coalition.
  
  

• STAR Action Board of Directors*: Governing body for STAR Voting Action. 
  
  

• Fundraising Committee*: The Fundraising Committee meets monthly to identify and pursue fundraising opportunities and projects. 
  
  

• Financial Team: The Financial Team includes our treasurers, executive director, bookkeeper, fundraising coordinators and admin assistant. It works asynchronously and meets as needed to keep financial matters up to date and organized.
  
  
  • • Equal-Vote General Fund: Program funding for education, outreach, research, coalition building, and operations
    • Jameson Quinn Memorial Fund: Dedicated research funds
    • Implementation and Certification Fund: Addressing cost prohibitive barriers for initial adopters
    • STAR Action General Fund: Granting funds to viable campaign efforts
      
      

• Hiring and HR Team: The Hiring and HR Team works asynchronously and meets as needed to support staff and troubleshoot HR issues. 

> CHAPTERS PROGRAM:

See The Five-Point Chapter Leadership Model for more information

• Responsibilities:
  • As determined by chapter membership
    
    
• Specialized Roles:
  • Chapter Chair and Steering Committee
  • Secretary and Admin Committee
  • Volunteer Coordinator and Action Committee 
  • Events Coordinator and Committee
  • Outreach Coordinator and Committee

> CAMPAIGNS PROGRAM: 

See The 5 Point Campaign Leadership Model for more information

• Responsibilities:
  
  • Running campaigns
    
    
• Specialized Roles:
  • Steering Committee Chair and Subcommittee
  • Events Coordinator and Subcommittee
  • Outreach Coordinator and Subcommittee
  • Canvassing Coordinator and Subcommittee
  • Treasurer and Fundraising Committee