Bingo Through Zoom

• Bingo Through Zoom
• How To Play Bingo Through Zoom
• How To Play Bingo Through Zoom

There are many games and activities that you can play over Zoom and one of them is Bingo. Bingo is one of the oldest and most popular games that is loved by people of ages. It is simple and easy to follow along and requires a bit of luck which makes it much more exciting. Zoom Bingo Game. Bingo would be WAY fun! I have this Bingo Game – if someone has that, you can mail out bingo cards ahead of time. Or you can find online printable bingo cards and email them to everyone. Then have one person as the caller and you’re good to go!

Introducing a new type of event

Bingo through Zoom!. Register. View Cart. Play Bingo in the comfort of your own home during Bingo through Zoom! Prizes for all winners. Please register online @simsburyseniors.com, call (860)658-3273 or email kmarschall@simsbury-ct.gov. We will contact you to pick up your supplies for Bingo. The classic game of Pictionary can be played over Zoom or FaceTime. You will just need to set up your phone or camera so the person or the team on the other end can see your drawings. See how we set up Boggle below for one idea. You can also do it on an easel white board. Join us on ZOOM for a fun evening of Bingo with friends! Materials will be available for curdside pick up at 6 southside rd in Danvers, Ma. Information will be sent out via email.

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, many Fundraisers are looking for alternatives for in-person events and ways to keep funds flowing for campaigns to continue their important work. There are two types of virtual events your campaign may want to run:

• Fundraiser (closed): Use Zoom or Google Hangouts for closed-door fundraisers to give your donor’s a private space to chat with the candidate directly about the state of the campaign.
• Town Hall (open): Use Zoom or Google Hangouts for open town hall type meetings to talk openly with volunteers, supporters, and possibly even reporters. Make sure your candidate is prepared to answer tough questions about the Coronavirus as well as potentially hard-hitting questions about the campaign from supporters of your opponent. Additional platforms like Maestro and Tele-Town Hall can also be used for larger phone-based events.

This guide is primarily written for the use of Zoom. If your campaign is set up on Google G Suite, Google Hangouts can be used in a similar fashion as Zoom’s Free and Pro versions, although there are fewer controls and video/audio quality are often not as strong.

What about Facebook or Instagram live for town halls?

Bingo Through Zoom

If your candidate is press-trained, nimble on their feet, comfortable with technology, and has a strong Internet connection at home, then a Facebook or Instagram Live is a great option for an open town hall. For candidates that do not satisfy those four criteria, it is better to use a moderated format like a videoconference or to post short selfie videos addressing specific questions. Those are much less daunting formats, less technologically fraught, and safer for campaigns that need to stay on message.

Good news! There are straightforward best practices to follow

1. 3-4 weeks ahead of time, find co-hosts for the event who are willing to send around the link to friends and neighbors who might be interested in attending a remote fundraiser. Give them a goal: for example, ask each person to invite 20 people. Make sure you find a time that works for all your co-hosts and the campaign to hold the event.
   Quick Tip: With their permission, list co-hosts on the donation page. A friendly name often helps encourage people to donate.
   
2. Once you have co-hosts, create a custom ActBlue or NGP link for the event as its signup page, including the date and time of the event in the page’s description. Don’t include the open Zoom link yet; this will help limit the number of people who didn’t pay entering the meeting.
   
3. Send out the invitations! Ask your co-hosts to send their invitations via email and follow up with hosts frequently about reaching out to their friends and neighbors about the event. The campaign should send the invitation to their own list of supporters. Be sure to have your candidate call donors who aren’t responsive to the emails!
   Quick Tip: Now is your chance to get face to face interaction with that donor who lives across the country and was always interested in attending a fundraiser. Don't limit by location when inviting guests, people can attend from anywhere!
   
4. Before the event, put together a visual aid or presentation. Videoconferencing does not have the same degree of natural interactions that in-person events do, so it will fall on the campaign to fill the gap. Here are some suggestions on what to include:
   1. Updates: An update on your district’s/state’s response to the coronavirus. Offer up helpful links and resources. (If you have a lot of out of district donors, a message about unity might be the way to handle this topic instead of specific updates.)
   2. Electoral Reminders: Why your race is still important this year. Is your race very competitive? Is your seat one that might flip a legislative chamber?
   3. Visuals: Use Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Keynote to control the flow and present your screen. Use screenshots of recent local news articles, photos, and avoid text-only slides.
   4. Surrogates: Are there experts or community figures that would help the candidate create interest in the event and drive home your points? They may be easier to recruit and schedule now, including folks not in your region.
      

5. Send out the details for the Zoom conference one day in advance. This allows you to control distribution while creating a reminder. Optionally, include in the email a calendar invite with the login. You can use the function in Zoom to automatically send a reminder a day before but it often goes to spam or promotions tab. We recommend you use Mail Merge on gmail to automatically send a personalized email to everyone who is signed up. There is a greater chance they will open and read the email before the event, growing the number of people who are on the call!
   For people who already donated to the event, thank them in the email. For supporters who RSVP'd to the campaign but haven’t donated yet, this is a great time to send them the link again to the event page.

6. 30 minutes before the call, have the candidate and moderators sign on early to test the microphone and camera. Check it in the same spot the candidate plans to do the event. (Sometimes you don’t realize what’s behind you until the camera turns on!) Be aware of the lighting and make sure their computer is plugged in and ready.
   

7. Have a staffer ready as a moderator and “Co-Host” in Zoom to keep the conversation moving along. The staffer, if enabled as a Co-Host, can mute loud attendees and sift through any questions submitted via text. The staffer should read questions aloud to the candidate, so the candidate can focus just on answering rather than navigating the software.

8. Have a great event!

Sharing visual content is a great way to keep viewers engaged

How to open the event

• Give attendees a few minutes to get everything loaded -- for example, start at 3 minutes past the hour.
• Set an agenda at the top of the call to give everyone an idea of what to expect timewise and when they can ask the candidate questions

The update and pitch

• The candidates’ talking points or presentation should be at least 15 minutes, ideally with visuals -- a 10-minute stump speech is less effective in this format.
• Seed a few key supporters with questions to kick off the Q&A period - silence can be intimidating!

The ask

• Take advantage of that you know all the attendees are at their computer and able to fill out the checkout form.
• Attendees who donated prior to the event: recognize those folks, and get reliable supporters to say in the chat or verbally that they donated
• Attendees who did not donate prior to the event: The staffer should paste the ActBlue link in the chat and use the audio track to call the audience to action -- “Go there right now, I know you have your credit card ready”, and encourage attendees to say when they donated.
• Give donors the option to donate in other ways, sending a check or calling a staffer to give their information over the phone.

After the event

How To Play Bingo Through Zoom

• Have language prepared so it’s easy to individually send emails to supporters after the event. Thank all the participants for joining and be sure to include any upcoming events or information provided during the presentation part of the event.
• If there was a link/article your candidate mentioned that people responded positively to, considering including it in the email. If there were folks on the call who said they might want to support the campaign further or may have friends who can support, make sure to send them the link to donate again so they have it readily available.
• Keep notes on donors' expressed interests and preferences

Mark your calendars – It’s “Parking Lot Bingo” with It Takes 2 on Sunday, November 1st at the Saint Joe’s Catholic Church at 2pm.

You’ll be playing bingo from the comfort and safety of your own car!

How To Play Bingo Through Zoom

Here’s how it’s going to work: You register below, arrive as early as possible, bring your phone, a bingo dauber (or pen) and some willing – and fun – participants!

Only one person per car needs to register. When you get to the parking lot, we’ll assign you to a parking spot (at a safe social distance from other vehicles), we will supply each player with 5 bingo cards. At 2pm, call into our zoom conference and let the games begin! Amy & JJ will be calling the numbers… and, when you get a bingo: HONK YOUR HORN!

So, let’s go over the basics again:

1. Register your car below. Bring the whole family or just yourself! Only one person needs to register for Bingo, but feel free to pack your car with as many as you can SAFELY fit.
2. What you need: Fun and willing participants, a phone, and a bingo dauber (or a pen!).
3. We will start accepting participants at 1pm, bingo starts at 2pm.

Please wear a mask as you enter the parking lot and secure your bingo cards!