NDTC Updates
NDTC’s Train-the-Trainer Summit
February 25, 2022
8 min
NDTC is proud to announce that our next “Train-the-Trainer” (T3) Summit will take place on Saturday, March 12th! Training is a core part of what we do externally, that’s why training our trainers is a crucial part of our work behind the scenes.
The more effective you train and facilitate, the more your trainees — candidates, campaign staff, volunteers, and precinct chairs — will retain. With this comes the increased Democratic success we all seek.
We put together this programming with our trainers in mind, regardless of who you train or your subject of expertise. Our expert trainers, Train-the-Trainer curriculum, and staff will work to bring trainings to light, from logistics to training materials.
There is a full day of programming as a part of the summit. While we hope you attend all events, we understand you might not be able to commit a full Saturday to our Train The Trainer event. With this in mind, here is the schedule:
From Fatigue To Fantastic: Overcoming Zoom Fatigue
11:45-12:00pm ET (15 minutes)
Zoom Fatigue. We all have it and like it or not it’s something we will deal with when training virtually. But there are some ways to help learners overcome Zoom fatigue, stay engaged, and get the most out of trainings, no matter how many hours on Zoom screens they’ve logged. This quick training is action-oriented and will review the best-kept secrets of busting screen fatigue in real time.
Supporting Resources
Effective Practices for Virtual Training: Successful virtual facilitation builds on your existing skills by focusing on a few key areas: general “tech hygiene,” online presence, and virtual community-based learning. Here you’ll find links to resources we’ve created to help you lead strong virtual trainings.
Get the Most Out of Your Virtual Political Training: With all the Zoom meetings these days, we know it can be difficult to remain engaged in a virtual setting. It’s especially hard to maintain a presence in trainings designed for in-person presentations. With this in mind, these are a few tips to make the most out of a virtual live training session.
How to Prepare Virtual Trainings: In order for political campaigns and organizations to be successful in a remote environment, it is crucial to know how to facilitate an effective virtual training. Successful remote trainings give participants the same level of engagement and quality content that they would get in-person. If done well, virtual spaces can be vibrant, engaged communities.
Hosting Successful Virtual Events For Your Campaign: Great events do not plan themselves. Strong logistics and production make smoothly-run events possible, especially in a pandemic environment. It is crucial to adapt virtual programs to reach different audiences. This is your guide to plan and host successful virtual events for your campaign.
Why The Art of Facilitation Matters
12:00-1:00pm ET (60 minutes)
Do you like hearing how others prepare for trainings, or what their pre-and post- training rituals are? Learn about this and more from our moderator, Managing Director at Arc Initiatives, Jonae Wortel, and three expert trainers, Abigail Hays, Jordan Berg Powers, and Stacey Chavis. This panel will be a conversation focusing on the Art of Facilitation. It will cover how they prepare for a variety of audiences, and how they incorporate audience feedback, both constructive and not.
Supporting Resources
4 Things To Do When Making Accessible Campaign Trainings: Accessible campaign trainings are the cornerstone of Democratic infrastructures. In order to be effective, the content and facilitation must be well-designed for a learning community.
The Importance of Design Thinking in Training: No matter the level of campaigning, an effective training program is essential for keeping Democrats competitive. Learn the importance of design thinking from our very own Director of Training Curriculum, Ashley Arnold!
The Local Democratic Leader’s Guide to Management: Leading is about more than titles and charisma. In other words, effective leadership is a skill that requires constant practice for new organizers and seasoned veterans alike. How you lead is a reflection of your values, and the choices you make will directly impact the progressive organizing landscape in your immediate community and throughout the country.
Successful Training In A Virtual World
1:00-2:00pm ET (60 minutes)
Are you new to training, or ready to level-up your skills? Either way, this session is for you. The session will discuss effective practices for virtual facilitation, identify effective community-based learning strategies, and evaluate how to maintain engagement during virtual live trainings.
Over the past 24 months, NDTC’s nearly 100 trainers have trained nearly 85,000+ people across nearly 545+ trainings. Come ready to learn some best practices NDTC and our trainers have finely honed over this time!
Supporting Resources
Making Your Digital Campaign Space Inclusive: Take the time to consider how you make your campaign spaces inclusive to staff and volunteers of all identities. There are many ways you can not only conduct voter outreach, but also keep your campaign’s internal culture thriving digitally.
Campaigns and Coronavirus: What You Can Do Now: Let’s talk reality. Whether you realize it or not, COVID-19 and virtual shifts in our culture have irreparably shaped the political landscape. As a result, these are the recent changes to “traditional campaigning” that your campaign should be familiar with.
Screen Break 2:00-2:15pm ET (15 minutes)
The Secret To Successful Events
2:15-2:45pm ET (30 minutes)
All successful events have one fundamental thing in common: a strong plan. But what does that really mean? Learn the elements required to create the type of event plans effective events are built upon.
Supporting Resources
How to Prepare Your Candidate for Political Events: Political events are typically managed by the Field and Fundraising teams, but the Communications team (or whoever is responsible for managing your candidate’s calendar, such as a scheduler) should ensure that your candidate is prepared in advance for every external campaign event with a briefing memo. To clarify, this includes your virtual training events as well!
How to Move Your Event to a Virtual Space: Should we cancel our event or go virtual? That is the question that organizations around the world struggle with. Equip yourself to move any event online in the event of a shakeup, infectious or otherwise.
Engaging Volunteers Through Powerful Experiences: Deepening relationships and engaging volunteers is crucial to building a strong Democratic infrastructure. Hear from Lucia Nuñez, the Deputy National Training Director at the DNC on how to engage volunteers through powerful experiences.
How to Organize a Political Event: Because every good party starts with a how-to guide, right? At least, every decent political event should. To help you out, we’re going to break down the essential components of planning and hosting a political event and what you’ll need to engage your guests in your campaign.
Training On The Trail: Campaign Training In Real Life
2:45-3:45pm ET (60 minutes)
All the best practices in the world mean nothing if you aren’t equipped with the insight and skills to bring them to life on an actual campaign. Join our moderator, NDTC’s Chief of Staff & Operations, Allyson Raines, and panel of trainers, Mallory Long, Melissa Goldberg, and Rosetta Okohson, as they share their real life experiences of training while on the campaign trail and the tools, tips, and resources they’ve built to drive success as a result.
Supporting Resources
How to Train Your Volunteers for Success: Training your volunteers is another way to increase capacity and continue to engage your team in a way that makes everyone feel prepared and included. Learning happens best through repeated exposure, and volunteer training should be an ongoing process.
Fundamentals of Local Democratic Leadership: Your organization’s “business as usual” speaks volumes about your leadership and the organization’s values. As a local leader, you need to lead with trust, empathy, and responsiveness to community and member needs. That means taking a step back and being a critical observer of how you, and your organization, work.
How to Provide Candidate Training For Every Democrat Ready to Run: Running for office is no small undertaking. You need the right team, good fundraising, strong strategy and messaging of steel, and most of all, effective candidate training to help you learn how to run a successful campaign.
Training Campaign Volunteers: Every campaign will have a different training experience. In fact, most campaigns don’t have a designated person in charge of training, but that’s OK. Any well-prepared candidate or campaign staffer can coordinate a successful training session for campaign volunteers.
Featured Trainers: Why The Art of Facilitation Matters.
Jonae Wortel is the Managing Director of Arc Initiatives. Arc Initiatives specializes in building, managing, and advising public affairs and political campaigns with deep knowledge of the arc of an issue.
Abigail Hays is a campaign professional with five cycles of experience developing, training, and managing field staff across the country. Most recently, Abigail served as the Training Director for the Joe Biden for President campaign in Pennsylvania.
Jordan Berg Powers is the Executive Director at Mass Alliance, where he has helped elect new progressive leaders across the state of Massachusetts for over a decade. In 2015 Jordan was recognized for his exceptional work in politics as an inaugural inductee into the 40 under 40 Poly Award. Jordan also serves on the board of JOIN for Justice, and is on the advisory committee for the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA).
Stacey Chavis serves as Managing Director of Campaigns Academy, where she works at the intersection of politics, policy and advocacy. Moreover, her work has trained over 30,000 candidates on the components of running for elected office.
Featured Trainers: Campaign Training in Real Life
Allyson Raines is currently the Chief of Staff and Operations for NDTC. She is an experienced Campaign Director and Organizer with demonstrated success running and winning issue and electoral campaigns in the reproductive health and rights movement.
Mallory Long is currently the Director of Training at the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and the National Redistricting Action Fund. Mallory has spent seven years in various organizing and training roles at Planned Parenthood’s national and local organizations.
Melissa Goldberg currently serves as Training Director for the Ohio Democratic Party and teaches a Voting Rights Advocacy & Mobilization course at Stanford Continuing Studies. Previously, she served as Director of Training & Communications for Voter Protection with the Virginia Democratic Party and in Field and Digital Organizing roles for other Democratic political organizations.
Rosetta Okohson is the Founder & Principal Fundraising and Political Consultant at MO Political Consulting. She also serves as a board member of the Gateway Regional YMCA in addition to being a trainer at NDTC. Previously, Rosetta honed her consulting and fundraising skills working for the Missouri Democratic Party and statewide campaigns.
Other Featured Trainers
Allie McRaith is our Trainer Engagement Manager, who mentors and grows our talented trainer pool. Having worked on Illinois statewide races in the past, she remains thrilled to be using her skillset to organize and empower people within their communities.
Roda Musmar is the leader of logistics and programmatic initiatives with our Live Training team. She built the Lead Staff program that has helped NDTC execute all of our live events. Additionally, Roda trains our staff and continuously alters the program to improve the experience for our staff and audience.
We look forward to seeing you at Train-the-Trainer! Join us for the whole day or just the sessions your schedule allows. Feel free to continue reading for a brief introduction to some of the faces you will see at T3.
The training and tools you need, when you need them. Courses are available 24/7. Are you a candidate, campaign staffer or volunteer, at the beginning stages of your campaign or in the home stretch? We have the courses to address your specific needs and arm you with the knowledge to win.
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