Printing Canvass Cards

Any list you create can easily be converted to a printable canvassing report. While we highly encourage teams to use the MiniVAN app for canvassing, sometimes you may need to print your list and grab a clipboard.

This guide will take you through the steps to create a printable canvass card that will also have a list number on it, allowing volunteers who would rather use MiniVAN to download the list on location and work alongside those recording their responses on paper. For people who like having a pen and clipboard on the doorstep, you can also encourage them to enter the data into MiniVAN at home, or in the pub after the canvass session has finished. This helps save on data entry for others, as well as introducing them to MiniVAN in a more comfortable environment.

If you are organising multiple sessions of canvassing, or sessions with a large group of volunteers then you should learn about organising it by dividing your list into what we call Turfs and running it from the My Turfs page. However, for the time being we'll keep it simple and show you the most direct way of printing your list.

Hot Tip! If you want to print canvass cards for all voters in a whole polling district based on your delivery walks you can avoid Create a List entirely. Instead, go to Walk Manager, click on your chosen polling district and click on the blue Print All Walks link at the bottom of the screen and then follow the steps below from part 3b.

1. Begin under the My Voters Database

2. Loading your list

Load the list you would like to use by Creating a New list or loading a list you recently created from a folder. For canvassing we recommend using the Doorstep Canvass target pool which uses your past canvass data, marked register and postal voter lists as well as demographic modelling to send you to the households that are most likely to vote and be open to our message. It also helpfully excludes student halls and care homes and anyone you've spoken to recently

3. Setting up your printed lists

Click the Print icon in the toolbar. The Print Report screen will appear.

Select/enter the appropriate options from the fields listed below:
- Report Format: this controls the information that will appear for each record on your canvassing sheet. You can pick a standard format linked to one of the national scripts, or you can choose a format that will allow you to choose a local script. Some formats, like those for blue envelope writing require no script at all. Selecting the Report Format may fill the remaining options on this page automatically. If not, select the options that work best for you
  
  ○ Script: Select the script you plan on using for your canvass - this will determine what information you can record when you come to do your data entry. You may also choose a local script if one has been created by someone on your campaign team
  
  ○ Contacted How: select the source (Phone or Doorstep). This controls the default order in which the names will appear on your page and the page
- Title: Change the name of your list from the default “My List” so that once you print the list, you can easily identify it
  
  ○ MiniVAN Campaign: If volunteers want to use the MiniVAN app on their smartphone or tablet you will need to select a MiniVAN Campaign for your list so that it will show up correctly on the app. The MiniVAN Campaign determines the script, so you should make sure it matches the script you've already chosen

You can also modify the Sort Order settings by changing the drop-down options. In many places sorting by Polling District and Polling Number will be sufficient to get the list in the correct order. However, if this is not the case where you live you can sort by Street Name and then Street Number for sequential streets, or Street Name, Odd/Even, Street Number for streets where the odd and evens are on opposite sides of the road. Alternatively, you can order your list by their delivery walk and the order set in street sorter by selecting Default Walk, Street Name, Walk Manager Order.

For more information about sorting your streets and cutting walks, see the Walk Manager section of this guide. Note that when sorting by Default Walk properties for which we have no geocode (that's the location information that plots each house on a map) will not be assigned a walk number and therefore will appear at the end of you list unless you used your walks to create the list in the first place (in which case they will not be shown at all)

You can tick the checkboxes for extra page breaks and to display more information in the group headers. Removing page breaks will save paper. Adding them will make it easier to hand different streets to different canvassers

At the bottom of the page, you will find other options for personalising what your printed list will look like
Click next

4. Accessing your printed PDF list

Your database will create your Canvass sheet as a PDF.

Click on My PDF Files (you can always go back here from the main page as well)

5. Print your lists

Your canvassing sheets are ready for printing.
Click Download next to the list youant to print to open the PDF of your Canvass sheet.

Hot Tip! Did you you know that you can see all the PDFs created by other users in your local party by selecting their name from the drop down box on the My PDFs page? This means that you don't need to email canvass cards around. Other users can simply log in, select the name of the person who created the list and download it themselves!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: It is illegal under GDPR to email canvass cards that contain personal data on them without first encrypting them with a password. This includes uploading them to file sharing sites like Google Drive. Please also make sure that you shred all canvass cards immediately after use and dispose of them securely.

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