Cutting Turf for Door-to-Door Canvassing in Empower
Using the Rapid Turf Cutter Tool
You can access the Rapid Turf Cutter at: RapidTurfCutter.com
First, export your list of addresses from VAN using the Standard Text format from MyVoters. Export as the Excel (.XLS) format and unzip the file.
If you are not using a VAN list, you can use the template. You will need to include both the Zip5 and Zip4 fields for the address.
Confirm your turf preferences by:
Choosing the maximum number of people per turf group. This number must be 10 or greater. This is the maximum number of addresses that will be included in each section of turf. While the maximum number of people per turf group is set at 65, you can adjust this. Empower works best with turfs that contain less than 200 people, so don't put a maximum above 200.
The default setting for the Exclude Unwalkable Turf box is checked. Exclude walkable turf to ensure you don’t have any turfs that will be too small for someone to walk (below the minimum size you set). Include unwalkable turf (uncheck box) to ensure that every address on your list has someone assigned to it and will be uploaded to Empower. You could theoretically manually combine these with larger turfs (manually, by editing the tags in the CSV that is exported) but it might mean that some volunteers have a less sensible turf. Empower won't assign any turfs with less than 10 people, so it is recommended to set this setting with a number that is 10 or higher.
Select the minimum number of people that you want assigned to a turf by entering this minimum number of addresses in the Exclude anyone in turf with fewer than X people box. This will help provide some consistency in the number of houses that you are including in your turf.
Door to Door Canvassing Calls to Actions have two options for assigning contacts - Manually and Let Volunteers request turf:
If you want to let Volunteers request turf, leave Bulk assign all turf to EID box blank
If you want to assign contacts manually, Empower requires that each contact is assigned to the person who will reach out to that person. If you don't know yet who will be reaching out to them, you can assign all contacts to a single placeholder person and reassign them later (see Bulk Reassign Section below). If you do already know who will reach out to each turf, leave the box blank, then once the CSV is generated by the turf cutter tool, add the EID for the person who should reach out to that contact to each row. See the Finding a Person’s EID section below.
Next upload your NGPVAN Van file by clicking or dragging your file into the upload box. Locate your file and make sure it is in the correct .xls format.
Make sure you don't change the format of the file after exporting it from VAN. For example, if you open the file in Excel and save it again, any zip code that starts with 0 will be too short and the file will not upload. Similarly, saving the file into a different format (like .xlsx or .xlsm) will cause the upload to fail. Keep the file exactly as it was when it was exported from VAN for the best results.
- Once you have uploaded the file, click Cut & Download Turfs to download the file with your turfs.
- If you are using a placeholder contact, you are now ready to upload this CSV into a Door-to-Door Call to Action in Empower. See instructions below in the Bulk Reassigning Contacts section on how to bulk reassign those contacts once you are ready to assign the turf.
- If you left the placeholder contact blank, you will need to assign the turfs before you can upload the CSV. You can assign someone turf manually, by adding their EID to Column A of the CSV. See the section below on Finding a Person’s EID. Once you’ve assigned a contact to each line of turf in the CSV, you should be ready to upload it to a Door-to-Door Call to Action in Empower.
Click on People on the left hand side of the Empower App.
Find and click on the Filter button. Select Tags. You will be able to see the different turf tags that were assigned to contacts. These turf tags signify the turf that each contact is connected to. Select the tags for the turfs where you would like to reassign contacts from.
Select Bulk Action. From the drop menu, click on Assign to person.
Start typing the name of the person that you would like to reassign the contacts to - their name should populate in the search bar. Once you have found the person click Apply and the contacts will be reassigned.
Finding a Person’s EID
Find a person’s page by click on the My People or All People button. Once you’ve located the person’s name, click on the hyperlink in their name.
You are now on the person’s page. Their unique EID should be on the top right side of the page.
Add this person’s EID number to column A of your CSV to assign them turf.
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