August VoteSource Newsletter

Welcome to the August edition of the VoteSource Newsletter.

Missed our last edition? Catch up by clicking here.

Or click here to browse all previous editions.

Membership contact updates & email exports

With the current focus on membership we thought it an ideal opportunity to remind readers of some key point regarding the membership section.

Please be aware, not all recipients of this newsletter will have access to the Membership section.

Membership Preferred Contact Methods – Email & Mailing address

A person’s membership can have different contact details to their constituent record for both email and mailing purposes.

When adding new contact details to a member’s record, it is very important that you check you have also updated their membership contact details.

Some readers may have found that old mailing addresses have been appearing in current members reports or that email addresses do not appear at all.

The below user guides, found in the VoteSource Help Centre, will go through how you can check and update membership records to ensure the correct information is being exported in your reports.

It is important that membership contact information is kept up to date – not only in times of leadership contests but also for renewal purposes and contact from their local association as well as the wider party.

The following user guides can be found on VoteSource in the Help Centre section and will explain in detail how to ensure the member’s contact details are correct on their membership record:

Fundamentals – How to change the mail address within the membership https://votesource.uk/Management/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/222

Fundamentals – Email not appearing in the membership report https://votesource.uk/Management/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/221

A reminder about merging

With many users focusing on membership records at present it is possible you may find information that has split from the parent electoral record – the one with the electoral role number after the name.

What is merging?

Merging is the ability to combine data which has become split from its electoral record back together.

This data can range from a membership, voting history, contact details or other. The merge ability allows you to merge this data back with its parent record which contains the electoral roll number.

If you come across a record which has information, but no electoral roll number next to the contact information at the top of the page – it is split from its record and needs to be merged back to the parent record.

There are various reasons why information can split from its parent record, these include: the constituent having moved address, changed name, gender or others.

Whilst our team do run automated matching processes these can not always anticipate every possible outcome, which is where the human merge process comes in.

The following user roles all have the ability to merge records back to their electoral register record at any time.

• Local – Candidate
• Local – Member of Parliament
• Local – Councillor
• Local – Membership Manager
• Local – Local Administrator
• Local – Constituency Organiser
• Local – Campaign Manager
• Local – National Campaign Staff
• Local – National Voluntary Party
• Local – Field Director

The ability to merge records is available for all areas of VoteSource that allow you to access records: Membership, Donations, User Section and Constituent Search.

All of the above roles have access to Constituent Search and therefore the ability to merge records from there. But access to Membership, Donations and the User Section is dependent on role access.

Users guides are available in the Help Centre on how to merge and can be found at the bottom of the Help Centre under “Merging”.

How to merge a record
https://votesource.uk/Management/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/173

How to merge a membership record back to the constituent record
https://votesource.uk/Management/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/178

How to merge a donation back to its constituent record
https://votesource.uk/Management/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/174

If you merge two records together by mistake, don’t panic! They can be un-merged by following the instructions in this user guide:

https://votesource.uk/Management/HelpCenter#!/ViewArticle/179

Please remember to finish your merges once you start! We often come across half completed merges, some not completed because the conflicts cold not be resolved, others because the records were accidentally started on the merge process.

In either case, either resolve the merge or cancel it.

If you have any questions on merging, please contact VoteSource Support on 020 7984 8000 or votesourcesupport@conservatives.com

Reminder about user access – Not all recipients of this newsletter will have access to the user section.

A very important reminder that if you have access to the users section it is expected that you regularly check the list of existing users to ensure only authorised individuals have access.

You can easily check if you have access to the users section by logging into VoteSource and seeing if a tile labelled Users appears on your login homepage.

These checks should be carried out regularly throughout the year and if you have access to the Users section you have the responsibility of ensuring only approved individuals are accessing the system and the electoral area you have responsibility for.

To do this, go to Users, click on Existing Users, you will find lists of accounts recorded by the first letter of their last name. If you find a user account that is no longer required, simply click on their name and then click the Details option. This is found above User Security. The page that loads will contain a Delete Account option.

Please note: You may find a user that you do not recognise, this does not mean they necessarily have access to your data. Remember to check carefully their Electoral Area Permission. It could be that they are a registered elector in your area but have access to another area legitimately. If in doubt, contact VoteSource Support and we will be happy to investigate.

We can be reached on 020 7984 8000 or votesourcesupport@conservatives.com

Updated Audiences

Updated target audiences are being loaded to VoteSource this afternoon. These are the audiences that should be the priorities for upcoming campaigning activity. In addition to the vote-choice audiences (Likely Converts, Possible Defectors, etc) we’ve also added some demographic groups. Which should make it easier to target your campaigns to the right people.

And you should see some more Quick Selection tiles. These let you select different combinations of vote-choice audiences and demographic groups in just a few mouse clicks. All you need to do is give the selection a name and tell it which geographic area. The tile takes care of the rest!

If you have any questions about the tiles or the new audiences, please email insight@conservatives.com.

Marked Registers

Wondering what’s the best thing you can do to prepare for next year’s local elections? Find out who voted in this year’s local elections!

The marked register is the list of people on the electoral register with a line drawn next to the names of people who voted. You can buy it from your local authority.

Why should I do that?

It’s incredibly helpful to know which people vote and which people don’t. And when you combine it with registers from different elections it’s especially useful to know the people who sometimes vote but sometimes don’t.

It can help you target all sorts of campaigning activity - from canvassing to GOTV to membership recruitment. And it helps us at CCHQ help you as well, by making the audiences we load to VoteSource more accurate.

So don’t delay - and get your marked register ordered today. It really is the best thing you can do right now to help you make next year’s local election campaign a success.

If you have any questions please email marked.register@conservatives.com