This Sunday, July 19, OFA will canvass for the President's three health care reform principles in West Chester, the county seat of Chester County, PA.
If we have new volunteers who have never canvassed before, we will do a brief training. We will, of course, hand out the printed materials and make sure everyone understands them. But, after that, we will do an exercise called Hassle Lines.
Hassle Lines
The group makes two lines facing each other--like a Virginia Reel. The members of one line take the role of OFA volunteer, knocking on a door. The members of the facing line take a different role, usually a person opening the door who we would like to talk to about health care. We give each line a few moments to get into their roles and then ask that they begin the conversation. We let it run for only 30 seconds or maybe one minute.
More on Hassle Lines
After this short conversation, we debrief for the entire room. To those in the OFA volunteer role: "What did you say to introduce yourself and start the conversation?" To those who opened the door: "How did you feel when you answered the door?" To both: "What did you say that helped the conversation along?" "What did you say that did NOT help the convesation?"
Then we switch roles for each line, but perhaps we give the door opening person a slightly different assignment: "You are in a hurry to get out the door for an appointment" or "You really like to talk to people and you have a tendency to take a convesation in many directions."
After more debriefing, we get to the hard stuff. The door opening line may be assigned to be gruff and grouchy. Or not interested. Or to raise some of the spurious arguments that are out in our national conversation right now. The members of the OFA volunteer line deal with this in any way they can.
The debriefing of this last part can be difficult and it may pay to give time for everyone to decompress first. But OFA volunteers who have already encountered their worst fears in a safe environment, may be better equipped when they are really at the door.
The entire Hassle Line exercise as described here might take fifteen minutes.
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