This document are the handouts / homework for community coalition building from "Planning a Warrant Article" and "Campaigning for Your Warrant Article" presented on May 19, 2004 at the New Hampshire Library Trustees annual conference in Concord.

1. Building voter support for libraries
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Personal Assessment Worksheet
Goal: to provide you with a personal “script” for outreach and special events that is rooted in the
community’s need for a stable and well funded library and is authentic to your own experience of the
library.
Q1. Why is the library important to you, personally?
Q2. What is your favorite reason to use the library?
Q3. Who does the Library serve?
Q4. Why is the library important to those people?
Q5. What will new funding do to serve those communities?
Q6. Who is going to be uncomfortable with this initiative?
Community Assets Survey

2. Building voter support for libraries
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Question: What community groups do you belong to?
List:
Question: Where do you live and where do you spend your time?
List:
Question: Who do you know who knows everybody?
List:
Question: Who are we missing?
List:
Allies and Endorsers Survey

3. Building voter support for libraries
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Goal: to identify allies and endorsers around the community who need to be reached by the library. We
will ID Educational Partners, Social Welfare and Religious Partners, Governmental Partners, Civic
Partners, Business Partners, and Politicians.
1. Educational Partners
Three Messages: Library as Partner; Library as Resource Extender; Library as Gap Filler
2. Social Welfare and Religious Partners
Three Messages: Library as Resource Extender; Library as Third Place; Library as Start Point
3. Governmental Partners
Three Messages: Library as Contact Place; Library as Info Point; Library in Common Cause

4. Building voter support for libraries
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4. Civic Partners
Three Messages: Library as Social Leveler; Library as Neutral Good; Library as [insert organizational cause the
library already champions]
5. Business Partners
Three Messages: Librarian as Business Reference Resource; Library as Training Space; Library as Retail Anchor
6. Politicians
Three Messages: Library as Good Governance; Library as Responsible with Budget; Library as [insert
their pet project]
7. Media
The only message for the media is the campaign message