MINNESOTA ENERGY

    CHALLENGE

    ACTION PLAN

    CHECKLIST

Your goal: to sign up 100 households to your school’s Energy Challenge team. Here’s an easy checklist

    to guide you to the smartest things you can do to get numbers!

    ? COME UP WITH A CHALLENGE GOAL. Do you want to strive for 100 households, or a certain

    amount of CO2 savings? Figure out how you want your story to end. th? SET A TIME LIMIT. Decide that you are going to promote the Challenge from January 14 –

    Valentine’s Day (for example), and center your campaign around those dates. People are much

    more likely to join if they know that it’s not a long, difficult commitment.

    ? PUBLICISE YOUR GOAL. Post it on Facebook with a link to the Challenge, then create a poster

    with a countdown to your goal and put it up somewhere visible. Make sure you’re updating the

    poster while your campaign is running.

    ? OFFER AN INCENTIVE. Saving the world is not enough – people need a concrete reason to take

    the Challenge. Offering them a prize is a pretty good incentive! Figure out what will motivate

    people and how much you can afford. Examples are: everyone that joins your school’s team on

    the Challenge is signed up to win one of five gift certificates to iTunes, or if you meet your goal

    then you’ll throw a special pizza party after class one day. (If you’re looking for a way to

    fundraise, the Blue Sky Guide is a great way to stay on message and still get some money)

    ? KEEP PEOPLE UPDATED. During your campaign, make sure you remind people that something

    is happening! Periodic emails with updates on the process towards your goal, announcements

    during lunch or in class – reminders that people should take action!

    SAMPLE CAMPAIGNS

Sample Challenge Campaign #1 – Work with teacher to assign Energy Challenge as homework

    Several schools have used this strategy very successfully to get students to take the Energy Challenge.

    Even if it is extra credit, that incentive can work to motivate students that might otherwise not pay

    attention. They will be rewarded academically for taking the Challenge. From a teacher’s perspective, the Energy Challenge can be used as part of a science curriculum and the Energy Challenge is a useful

    teaching tool. Students can be asked to prove that their family took the Energy Challenge by printing

    out their confirmation page and getting a parent signature at the bottom. This is a project best done in

    a small time span, so if you’re looking for a month-long project, this is perfect.

     www.mnenergychallenge.org Page 1

    Neely – ncranesmith@mncee.org, 612-335-5852

Goal: Persuade your teacher to assign the Energy Challenge either as mandatory homework or extra

    credit for a class.

Suggested Action Steps

    ? 1. Decide on your challenge goal for your classroom.

    ? 2. Contact Neely for Energy Challenge worksheets that have been used by prior teachers.

    ? 2. Set up meeting with science teacher (or other interested teacher) to talk about using the

    Energy Challenge in class. Be prepared to tell them why you think it would enhance learning

    and easily work into the existing class schedule without too much fuss. And how important this

    is to you.

    ? 3. Give your teacher Neely’s contact information so she can provide them with further

    information, forms, etc.

    ? 4. Create a poster for the classroom so you can keep everyone updated about your efforts.

    ? 5. If you reach your goal, reward the classroom with a pizza party or treats or something!

    Praise is a great motivator.

    Sample Challenge Campaign #2 - “New Media” Energy Challenge Campaign The easiest way to get in contact with a lot of people isn’t necessarily by putting up posters, but by

    using the technology that everyone is already using – the internet!

Goal: Use new media to get as many people on your team as possible.

Suggested Action Steps:

    ? 1. Decide on a challenge goal.

    ? 2. Decide how long you want this campaign to run, then pick a start date to launch it.

    ? 3. Pick an incentive. For this, a drawing would work best. Neely can give you more information

    about that.

    ? 4. Create a real-world display that you will update constantly to show other students how the

    campaign is going.

    ? 5. Create a Facebook group that reflects your particular goals. It’s good to be funny, quixotic,

    non-sequitur – think about what you think would interest people.

    ? 6. On your launch date put up your display, then email, text and Facebook everyone you know

    at school and tell them to do this, that the campaign ends on a certain day and if you reach

    your goal, then this great thing will happen.

    Sample Challenge Campaign #3 – Special Event Challenge Campaign We all have a lot going on in our lives and a lot to think about – so if you can integrate the Energy Challenge into an event that is already happening, it allows people to more easily think about it and get thexcited about it. For example, are people excited about Obama’s inauguration on January 20? You

    could create a “*Your High School Team+ for Obama” team on the Energy Challenge, then create a thFacebook group about it and tell people that if 100 households sign up for your team by January 20,

    you’ll throw a pizza party to watch his address that afternoon. Or if Valentine’s Day is big at your school, center your campaign around that. Get creative!

     www.mnenergychallenge.org Page 2

    Neely – ncranesmith@mncee.org, 612-335-5852