David Milliband's leadership team has published the most cringeworthy guide to hosting a "party" for those people who might just feel spontaneously inspired to speak of the magnificence of the Glorious Leader hold a house party a la the Obama campaign. It's a six page colour PDF with minute-by-minute steps to help you maintain the spontaneity, including scripted remarks for-the-words-what-should-come-outta-your-mouth.
You simply have to read this.
Tips for success include:
3) Invite them. It’s probably easiest to give them a call. Invitations are best when made personally so if you won’t see them face-to-face, just pick up the phone. Here is an example of how to frame your House Meeting and this may be useful for sending out emails;
“David Miliband in his campaign for Labour leadership has launched the Movement for Change. This is an exciting initiative to rebuild the Labour Party from the grassroots and go back to the Labour traditions of organising within the local community.
I’m hosting a House Meeting as part of David’s leadership campaign to bring people together in the community to discuss how we can be part of the Movement for Change at a local level. It will be a chance to share stories, build relationships and discuss what we would like to change in this area and how we can help make David leader of the Labour Party to take this forward.
I hope you can come. The details are: Time, Date, Venue
It will be a really exciting opportunity to talk about our community and how we can help David Miliband’s Movement for Change being put into practice locally as well as practical steps for Labour supporters, Labour members and David’s leadership campaign.”
5) Inform ze High Command David’s leadership team (on [email protected]) that the House Group
Meeting is taking place.
(and then the "events subsection itself! Hold yourself steady!)
1) Remind your guests the day before – try and build accountability into the relationship. If someone confirms then they should be there and you need to let people know you are disappointed if they don’t turn up… even if it’s just your mates!
Time What you should be doing
5.30pm
Get in from work, give the place a quick vacuum and general tidy (or not, if you’re not that type).
Put the oven on and get the nibbles in. If there are drinks, get them chilling. Pick some music.
Get Labour party membership forms at the ready, whether on the computer at
[damned if I'm reprinting that]or print off the PDF from [or that]Get online and get the DM video ready at www.davidmiliband.net
7.00pm
People are arriving, take their coats, get them a drink, all that good stuff. More importantly, get them to fill in the sign-in sheet (below/link).
7.30pm Rounds/Introductions
Don’t forget that during your House Group you may get a phonecall from either David himself or one of his high-profile supporters – you will be informed beforehand if this is going to happen so make sure you factor this in.Not everyone will know each other, and even if they do people still appreciate finding out more about each other.
Get everyone in the room to introduce themselves and answer these
questions:
- Name?
- What groups are you a member of?
- Who brought you into politics? OR Why did you join the Labour Party?7.50pm
Show David’s leadership House Party video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uiBDO_8Vl48.00pm
As host you may need to start the conversation and share your stories first. If you have already had conversations with people in the group draw on the stories you’ve heard them share before.
Consider the following questions:
1) What one thing do you most want to change in our local community and why (share a story to illustrate the thing which currently frustrates you)
2. What most affects you and your family in this area and why?
3. What frustrates you about the Labour Party and why? How can we change
that during and after David’s leadership campaign?
4. What can you do to get David elected over the coming months?
If there are stories that unite people in the room make sure you ask what
people have done so far to address the issue?
- If they have tried something and it has worked get them to share the story
- If they have tried something and it has not worked, ask why?
- If they haven’t done anything then ask why? And then consider
together if this is something you can make change on together?8.40pm
Once everyone has shared a story and you’ve found some common ground that unites people in the room start thinking about some next steps. Move from the section where everyone has been sharing stories to some practical solutions and next steps by reading or taking from the following paragraph:
“I hope you have enjoyed this evening - it’s been really interesting hearing your stories tonight and it just shows the need for us to organise in our local community. Whatever our different perspectives on the issues discussed tonight, one thing is clear – that we can achieve more together than we can on
our own. Our communities need change and we know that our country needs change and sometimes it’s tempting to leave that to national politicians. Actually what I’ve realized is that we need local leaders to make change and we need a national leader for the Labour Party and the country who will work with us to
make that happen.The Movement for Change is going to be a long process for the Labour Party but, if it is going to be successful, it has to begin with us electing David Miliband as leader. But we must make the Movement for Change a reality in our area by taking action on local issues that matter to us.
There are three things that I think we need to do.
Firstly, we need to make sure that we are members of the Labour Party and that we encourage our friends and others to join so that they too can be part of this process.
Secondly, we need to ensure that we encourage new and old members to use their vote to support David Miliband and this Movement for Change.
Finally, we need to take responsibility to find other leaders to join us in bringing change to this community.”
And so on.
Mangled grammar, hideous pseudo-cool earnest self-importance... it's much like the Labour leadership campaign per se. Read it. And don't worry if they've taken it down by the time you've clicked... plenty of people have saved copies!
Hat tip: Total Politics