Caucus Best Practices

Global Caucuses

Please contact your IT Liaison at teams-helpdesk@democratsabroad.org for assistance.
Do not write to your Liaison at their personal Email address.
Provide the text and graphics as you would like them to appear in a Word attachment or a Google Doc.
Alternatively, the Chair can also approve web posting for the caucus for themselves or their comms person.
Autoreplies for RSVPS for Events can be requested from the helpdesk and will be set up to be emailed with the online meeting information 3 hours before your event.

Country Caucuses

Please coordinate with your country Excom and your Global Caucus leads to post News and Events for your caucus.

CAUCUS MEMBERS

Global Caucuses:

Write to teams-helpdesk@democratsabroad.org
Your Caucus IT Liaison will generate a list and send it to you.
This list will not include email addresses, but you can have all the other information in the member records.

Local CC Caucuses:

Write to helpdesk@democratsabroad.org and cc your country chair
The Helpdesk will generate a list and send it to you.
This list will not include email addresses, but you can have all the other information in the member records.

Do not retain lists of your caucus members for longer than one month.
Always make sure your list is password protected.
Do not store your spreadsheets on a public drive or public computer.
Caucus member lists do not include the email address of the members due to GDPR.
If you store your lists on a network drive (for example, DropBox, ICloud or Google Drive) make sure that access control to both the documents and the drive itself is strictly controlled.
- In other words, please don't store your member list in the same Dropbox/Google Drive folder that you share with your spouse and kids as well as anyone on your local committee.

- ALWAYS password protect the document, whether it is Word, Excel, or a PDF.
- Never send the password together with the list
- When sending passwords, we suggest using secret message services like https://onetimesecret.com/

- ANYONE with access to members’ data (spreadsheet, paper list etc.) must have a confidentiality agreement on file. People who have submitted a form to global DA are tagged with “Confidentiality Signed” in the database.
- Keep track of who you share spreadsheets with, even if they are lists on paper. Remind them that they are forbidden from using this information beyond DA Caucus purposes. When they no longer need the spreadsheet have them return the list to you and, if relevant, ask them to certify that they have deleted all copies of the data.

Every global team is limited to one email blast per month. This could be an event announcement, a single item message or a newsletter.
ALL email blasts: (mass mailings)
- must be sent from Nation Builder.
- Before they can be sent, you must use this form to request to reserve a date for your caucus email to be sent: https://forms.gle/gCvCiGG8JVS6ptFr8
  - Your date must be approved before you send it, so please plan ahead.
- This includes: Monthly newsletters, event announcements, sub-group meeting announcements - ANYTHING that is not a response to an individual member question or email.
- WHY: This ensures that emails are only sent to current members, and not people who have changed their minds about membership - in DA, or your caucus.

Reply to individual members from the official Global caucus email account, your official DA email account or the email account that you have set up for DA work.
In all replies and messages, clearly identify your DA role in your Sender name, also in your email signature, along with your DA forwarding address, if you have one.
If you receive replies from members in your own mailbox, delete the replies once they are no longer needed.

Global Caucuses:

Send your email text in a MS Word document or a Google doc to teams-helpdesk@democratsabroad.org
Your Caucus IT Liaison will send it out for you.
Please remember to send the text at least 2 days before it needs to be sent.

Local CC Caucuses: