GROUP LEADER RESOURCE

Host an end-of-cycle gathering!

We often say that folks come for the candidate, or for the cause, and stay for the people. Whether you win your adopted races or not, we have so much to celebrate as a community this year. We encourage you to take a moment to pause, reflect, and appreciate all the work you’ve done—and have fun together!

In this guide, you’ll find suggestions for hosting an end-of-year volunteer social event. But you know your community best! We hope you’ll plan the event based on what will resonate most with your group members.

***Note: By November 19, Swing Left will provide more clarity on what 2027 will look like, so you can incorporate the updated plans into your event program. Stay tuned and join us for the November Grassroots Leaders Call (we’ll send a recording if you can’t make it!).

Prepare to host

  • Post your event on Mobilize. Use this link to post your event on Mobilize (or post here if you’re part of Swing Left College Programs). Even if your event is private, we still recommend using Mobilize to capture RSVPs and communicate to guests. Want to change the image? Email us your new one at host@swingleft.org.

  • Determine your goals. Depending on your group, this might be anything from purely social, to a facilitated group reflection, or you might use this event to inspire commitment for next year.

  • Ask for help. Enlist other group members to help you throw this event. Especially folks who were not group leaders this year but stepped up to take on more – this is a great way to start moving them into a leadership role. 

  • Plan your agenda. We highly recommend doing this in person! For in-person, you might reserve much of the time for mingling, but still plan to have some program so volunteers can hear from each other! For virtual events especially, map out how you’ll spend the time to meet your goals. 

Activity ideas

Here are some ideas for activities you could choose from. Again, you know best what will work for your group. If a member of your team loves to facilitate storytelling and team building, or if your group already has a tradition for end-of-year reflections, lean on those ideas too! If these kinds of activities don’t feel right, please do what’s best for your group. 

  • Share stories. Keep it simple and have volunteers do a round robin or “popcorn” short stories from this year that inspired or recharged them to do this work—or the funny moments that happened along the way. You can also use a simple prompt like, “What are you most proud of this year?” or “What was your most surprising voter interaction?” to get the ball rolling. 

  • Photo highlights. Collect photos from the group covering events throughout the year, and play a slideshow at your party. If you’re virtual, you could put a few photos on slides and ask a volunteer to speak to each photo with a short story.

  • “Roses and buds.” We know the typical “rose and thorn” reflection activity. With this modified suggestion, you can have volunteers share a short rose (something good from this year) and bud (something they’re looking forward to in the future). For example, “My rose is that my daughter canvassed with me for the first time this year, my bud is that I met new neighbors recently who want to get involved with our group.” 

  • Shoutouts. Show each other some love! Have volunteers raise their hand to give a toast or thank-you to another volunteer. As the host, be cognizant of if a volunteer is being left out of the shoutouts and be sure to include them.

  • Superlative awards. If you have a smaller group, come up with “awards” for each person. This could be serious like “most phone banks hosted” or not serious, like “best event snacks” or “biggest news addict.” 

  • Start / Stop / Continue. This event is meant to be a social gathering to spend time together, not a post-mortem on the year. But if your group is craving a more formal debrief, consider keeping it organized and time-bound with an interactive activity. Using butcher paper and post-it notes in person (or a shared Google doc if virtual), title three pages with “Start,” “Stop,” and “Continue” so volunteers can jot down short recommendations for what your group could do in the future, and then take a few minutes to share out. Remind everyone to be constructive and respectful, and let volunteers know if/when they can expect a chance to give feedback in a different setting.

If you have numbers and anecdotes for your group specifically, share those with your group! Don’t hesitate to reach out to your staff contact if you want support compiling your impact stats.

  • Did you meet your goal of new members, letters written, doors knocked? 

  • Did your candidate win by a ‘field margin’? 

  • Did you try a new strategy or tool that worked well? 

  • Did you partner with a nearby group for an event?

These are all things to celebrate!