Recruiting and Retaining Party Activists

This book explores how experienced party organisers in the UK work to recruit and to retain party activists for local campaigning. Local door-to-door campaigning is widely regarded as being a key element in a successful election campaign. However, for door-to-door campaigning to work, a large number of volunteer activists are required. The question then is: How can parties identify, recruit and retain such volunteer activists? Based on interviews with highly experienced campaigners, original party documents, the wider campaigning and volunteering literature, numerous informal conversations and the author's own experience of local campaigning over a 20 year period, this book provides an answer to that question. It shows how potential activists are identified, encouraged to become active and supported through their initial encounter with local campaigning. The author also shows how local parties can encourage activists to remain active by creating a 'retention enhancing campaigning environment' and what that involves.

Based on interviews with UK practitioners with experience of managing volunteer activists Offers both experienced and novice practitioners in the field of volunteer management an insight into good practice Scholarly sound, and yet accessible to a wider practitioner readership

Auteur
Robin T. Pettitt is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Kingston University, London, UK.

Contenu

Chapter 1: Recruiting and Retaining Party Activists. Chapter 2: Recruiting activists. Chapter 3: Retaining Activists. Chapter 4: practical lessons for recruiting and retaining party activists.