My List Screen

The My List screen displays the results of your search. From here you can save the search or edit it further. You can also save a fixed list of the current search results. The My List screen is the starting point for all tasks involving a defined group of voters, such as printing letters, canvassing, phoning and data analysis. From the My List screen, you can load a new list, save the one displayed, or start a new search (starting a new search without saving first will lose your existing list). Click the settings cog to customise how your search results are displayed.

All of the tools to complete these tasks can be accessed from the icon bar at the top of the My List screen. These are explained below.

The contents of your list will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. If your list is too large, only a sample will be available.

Printing your List: The Print button enables you to produce all types of reports, including Canvass Cards and Knock Up sheets. When doing so, you have to choose a Report Format to use.  Report Formats are what determine the layout of the page and what details of the voters in your list are displayed.

Creating Letters: The Letters button will produce a PDF of letters to the voters in your List. Connect’s built in Letters tool is the quickest and easiest way to produce letters to your voters. You can also print different letters to different groups and print them in delivery order using Target Pools (more of which later).  You'll need to lay up your letters in Connect first though.  The layout is not hugely flexible, so although producing letters this way is simple, if you prefer control over what your letters look like, then you might want to consider exporting your data and doing a mailmerge in Microsoft Word instead.

Labels: The Labels button will produce a PDF for printing addresses onto sheets of labels. You can select from a set of preset Label formats which conform to most industry standards

Creating a Phone Bank: The Phoning button sends your list to a Virtual Phone Bank. A Virtual Phone Bank allows users anywhere in the country to log in and canvass your residents over the phone. They can enter the data straight into Connect, so you don’t have to worry about getting the data back from them.

Exporting Lists: You can export your list to a .csv file for use externally. Due to data protection rules only Connect Managers and their Deputies can export the electoral register.

Sending your List to MiniVAN: MiniVAN is the name of the Smartphone App that works with Connect. It allows you to canvass quickly and easily directly into your mobile phone. You can then upload the data straight into Connect without having to enter it manually. The button here makes your list available as a download in MiniVan.

Counts and Crosstabs: Counts will send your list to the Counts and Crosstabs section of Connect. This area allows you to create a table showing various data broken down by groups of other data for the people in your list, like voting intention, postal votes or age profiles. You can either use Quick Counts and Crosstabs to set up a new table, or Counts and Crosstabs Formats to choose preset criteria that you, or someone else in your local party, has used before.

Defining a geographical areas for canvassing using Turf Cutter: The Cut Turf button places each of the properties in your list on to a map. You can then divide the list into different geographical sections by clicking around the dots to encircle them in a polygon. We use turfs to go canvassing.  These should not be confused with Walks, which are created in Walk Manager and are for leaflet delivery.

Using the Split button for lists that are too large: There will be times when your list is too large. Certain tasks in Connect (like creating a Virtual Phone Bank and printing letters) have a maximum number of voters. You can easily divide your list into smaller chunks using the ‘Split’ button.

The Data Entry Tools: From the My List screen you can send your list to one of Connect’s data entry modes. The three available are Grid, Script and Form. You are most likely to need to use Grid, which can be used to enter data from Canvassing. Form view is normally used for entering data from paper surveys. You can also access these Data Entry modes from the Main Menu.

Uploading Data: If you wish to apply the same piece of data to everyone in your list of voters, you will need to use the ‘Upload’ button. This will send the list to Bulk Uploader. From there, you can then apply tags, question responses and contact results (such as Do Not Mail). Please seek advice before applying large amounts of data in bulk to people you have not contacted.  Usually you can use a saved list of voters for any admin purposes, so there is no need to apply an arbitrary tag to voters for example.

Copying records from My Voters to My Campaign: The Copy button allows you to import voters in to the My Campaign database. You may wish to do this to import volunteer data held in a previous database, such as poster sites, deliverers or donors. The My Campaign section of Connect enables you to manage your volunteer team online.

Did you know you can customise the icon bar?
You can reorder the icons on the icon bar. These changes will only apply to your account on Connect. They will be the default whenever you open the My List screen. To reorder an icon, simply grab it and drag it along the bar. Then release it where you would like it to be. You can use this to put your most frequently used icons close to hand.