Health

Five Tips for Getting Results on Your Petition #ABHC4IVF #Abpoli

One of our amazing motivated Generations of Hope community members has taken the petition challenge to heart and filled three full pages with signatures already. So, based on her experience and my history of advocating for others I thought we’d share some of the incredible tips we know work well for collecting signatures on a petition. Here is the original Alberta Generations of Hope petition challenge post I shared June 1st. We know 1 in 6 people (or couples) struggle with infertility. We also know infertility is a complex health condition as recognized by the World Health Organization. Want more information about why public funding for in vitro fertilization makes sense? See this post I wrote about Five Reasons Why Public Funding for IVF Makes Sense in Alberta. 

Five Tips for Getting Results on Your Petition

  1. The Letter P Protocol: Print the Petition and Put it in your Purse: The trick is to always have a sheet in your purse, ready to access when you strike up a conversation. Lots of people are motivated by the idea of changing the world and making it better, so they are often happy to sign a petition that helps other people. For this petition challenge which clearly has a goal of helping people build healthy families the ask is easy in one sense. Take the opportunity to talk about what we are doing to ease the way for the next generation of couples who will need medical help conceiving. 
  2. The Hairdresser/Salon/BarberShop Effect:  One of our clever members says she filled a whole page just getting her hair done – “young women are so interested in the stat of 1 in 6 couples needing help and the costs associated if they need medical intervention. My stylist took if all over the salon and collected signatures and will be collecting more signatures.” Women going to any kind of salon – hair, nails. Take the time involved in sitting in a chair to build a conversation. Hairdressers like to chat and this is a great opportunity to use your time to share the message.
  3. The Mall: Long gone are the days of standing outside the door at the mall and selling things or asking people to sign a petition. The great thing about this petition is – that when we succeed we are helping to build futures and healthy families for Alberta. Take your petition out of your purse when you are at the checkout. Says one of our members: “The sales staff in Gap were young women – they all filled it out – and were happy to talk.” That said, maybe saturday at 1 p.m. when traffic is extremely high at the cash register is not ideal. Aim for a midweek or early time in the day before the sales people get too busy to converse.
  4. The Tea/Coffee Shop: Young women are most often the servers and the people inside your local David’s Tea or Starbucks. They are happy to sign and share.
  5. Show Don’t Tell: There are so many ways of doing this that make the story jump right off the petition page that this one makes my story-telling heart happy. Take the infographic with you. Print it out and carry it in your purse with the petition. Take your iPad with you and show them the Rachel and Brandon video, or this video here about signing the petition. I have seen this approach work really well for people promoting an on line business. I personally love how handy iPads and tablets are for this type of conversation. Show, don’t tell. Petitions these days don’t have to live on line or stay stagnant on the page. They have a whole lot of potential as living breathing tools we can use to grow advocates and share our message. “There is generally a whole lot of enthusiasm out there if we can get people to take the opportunity to talk about it and have the signage sheet readily available,” says another member of the GOH group. 


I am community manager for the amazing group called Generations of Hope. As such I receive compensation to share and post. My opinion is my own and I fully support this as an initiative that is good health care policy and one that saves money for all Albertans. 


Do you have any tips to share one how to collect signatures on a petition? 

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.

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