Hello friends,
Last week my colleague Jessica and I hosted a session on election preparedness —it was an excellent conversation and felt nourishing to be in community with so many of you.
Folks have shared how useful the resource guide has been so we decided share its content with you (below).
One of the questions we asked everyone and would like to ask you is —What do you wish your organization had done differently in 2016? 2020? How can we learn from that to better support our folks in 2024? (Lots of ideas on how to do this below).
Another outcome of the session we want to share is that organizations (especially leaders) can’t communicate enough. Acknowledge the election, acknowledge the stress and uncertainty folks are experiencing right now. Acknowledge election day and whatever comes on November 6th. Don’t pretend this isn’t happening, don’t pretend folks aren’t understandably stressed and scared about what could come next. There are multiple scenarios that y’all will need to prepare comms for, it’s never too late to start.
Election Preparedness 2024 Resource Guide
Taking Action: Organizationally
- Give employees time to vote (the 5th is the last day)
- Minimize any non-critical events or meetings being scheduled the week of the election. Do not schedule anything for the day after the election, even better, give folks the day off.
- Prepare for multiple outcomes. You do not have to have all the answers. What NEEDS to happen over the next 30 days? As you get more information you can continue to build out a plan.
- Increase WFH flexibility between now and Jan 20th
- PTO for civic engagement (volunteering, protesting, etc)
- Some orgs have created bailout funds for staff arrested while protesting re: causes the org supports
- Revisit end-of-year performance -can it be pushed off? Can the process be streamlined?
- Where is there deadline flexibility? –Folks are tired, where can you create space?
- Prepare communications. Make a list of potential communications you may want to have ready to send if and when the time comes.
- Double down on compassion + core values. Leaders. ground in your long-term commitments, mission, and vision regardless of who wins what
- Have a crisis escalation plan –is HR and leadership ready to live into it?
- What’s the ‘worst case’ work plan? Based on the location or nature of your organization’s work could the safety/security of your staff be in jeopardy if there is upheaval during or after the election?
- Ensure there is a clear decision-making framework within the leadership team to enable rapid response.
- Share resources with staff, particularly any mental health offerings / EAP
- Be extra cognizant of folks’ accommodations
- Managers –ask staff what they need at this moment. If they don’t know, provide examples or perhaps even offer up examples of what you need or what you’ve asked your manager about.
- Activate ERGs/affinity groups pre/post-election to provide space for folks to connect, take action, process emotions
- Connect with other orgs/partners to understand how they might be mobilizing to support those most impacted.
- Understand Project 2025 implications for your sector
Taking Action: Individually
- Vote early if you can –this takes your name off of get-out-the-vote registries and means that you save the energy of canvassers and phone bankers
- Vote your entire ballot –don’t fall prey to the “oh, I don’t know enough so I’ll just leave it blank” do your research, we need you!
- Connect with friends in swing states / visit swing states if possible
- Share why you’re voting on social media and group chats
- Donate/volunteer to local campaigns, esp for GOTV efforts
- Find/create community space for processing the election and post-election
- Be gentle with yourself
- Take breaks. Hydrate. Connect with beauty and joy as you are able.
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