Geoffolution: First Phone Bank

When I was asked to help out to make some phone calls, I said "yes" right the way.

21 volunteers showed up at the ALC office tonight. The mission was: making phone calls to past ALC participants, asking them to join our ALC Give Thanks potluck on Nov. 20, from 1-4PM at the Village.

briefing before the phone bank begins

Only half of us have had the experience of making phone calls, so Michael and Marni from the ALC office briefly went through the whole process, and shared some important points when making those calls. The briefing ended with a short practice before we break for dinner and start making actual phone calls.

look at those giant size pizzas!

my dinner - 2 slices of pizzas :)

phone, food, list, and script, lets roll!

Each of us get a few lists, filled with names and phone numbers and emails.

I made my first call around 6.55PM. My heart beats faster than usual. No one answered... phew... then it went into his voice mail, I left a brief message, short but clear with all the important information included.

Yes, we were give a script. If someone answered the call, we started a conversation by greeting them, asked them "how are you, is this a good time to talk?" Then invite them to the event. If they seem hesitated, there were few options how we should carry on the conversation. If no one answered, then we left a message.

The first 30 or so calls were either end up in voice mails or wrong numbers. In fact, we were told well ahead, "it's ok if you didn't talk to anyone," "it's ok if they say no, just don't talk it personal."

From sheet to sheet, my finger didn't stop dialing the next number. Finally, someone answered!!

"No, this is not a good time to talk, I'm on duty, I'm an EMT."

"No, this is not a good time to talk, I'm with my family on the east coast."

Still no luck on getting anyone to RSVP.

I decided to take a short break, finished a slice of pizza that has been staying cold on the table.

"I've told you guys multiple times to be removed from the list, but you're still calling...." I can totally understand his feeling. I hang up the phone after a quick apologize and promised him we would never call him again.

The next person on the list is Carolyn. The phone rang a few times, then someone answered "hello..." a very deep male voice, I thought. "Hello, good evening, may I speak to Carolyn?" "Yes, this is Carolyn" I literary paused for 1/100 seconds. I didn't know what to say, I was expecting a sexy lady voice of "her". Regardless she has a deep male voice or if she's a transgender, I've no right to judge anyone, nor I'm prejudice. I was just blaming myself for not being well prepared for this kind of scenario.

1/100 seconds was really fast, so I quickly gathered my thought and continued the conversation. I invited her to the potluck. Unfortunately she couldn't make it, she just got a job at the airport and might have to work all week long. I congratulated her for getting a job at this tough economy time, and invited her to our next event, the Holiday Party instead.

The evening continued with more unanswered phone calls. We have to fill up a tally sheet while making phone calls, and learning to use all different kinds of codes. LM for left message, D for declined, NA means no answer, W# for wrong number and so on.

While I started to get use to leaving messages, some one answered my call, again! "Hello, are you here?" Emm, I didn't know what to say, was she expecting me? "Hi, I'm calling from the AIDS/LifeCycle office..." "Oh, you're not the pizza guy? I thought you were him.... haha" We both laugh out loud. "Well, we do have pizza here, do you want to join us?" I joked. Then I asked "is this a good time to talk?" She said "No, not a good time, I'm waiting for my pizza, I'm starving... hahaha" Yea, I could understand that.

debriefing after the phone bank

Marni shared the results! Way to go WNC!!

I made my last call around 8.30PM. As expected, it went into the voice mail too.

We then gathered for a debriefing session. In less then 2 hours, 21 volunteers made 1102 calls! (slightly over the 50 calls per person average) Of those calls, we had 214 conversations (again, slightly over the 10 per person average). And, most importantly, we go 65 people to say yes over the phone.

my tally, aka score sheet :)

Personally, I made 58 calls, had 10 conversations, left 28 voice messages. And yes, I did get ONE person to RSVP, yay!

Overall this was a great experience and I had great time volunteering for ALC. Every Wednesday night, volunteers gather and help out with all sort of things at the ALC office, ranging from phone bank, stuffing envelopes, mailings etc. The Wednesday Night Crew (WNC) rocks!