July VoteSource Newsletter

Welcome to the latest VoteSource Newsletter

Missed the last edition? Catch up with last months edition by clicking here.

Our New VoteSource Release

On June 30th, we released an update to VoteSource. Users are now able to edit address records and mark addresses as work, residence, full-time or holiday.

VoteSource release note, version 8.7

We are very pleased to be able to bring you the latest version of VoteSource. Users can now edit address records in a new, improved, format. Currently, all addresses on VoteSource are created using the Royal Mail PAF address data. That means all posted materials should reach their intended destination. There will, however, be residences where a PAF address cannot be used. For example, whilst a hotel will have a PAF address, a specific room number may not appear. Or an individual may have a vanity address they prefer to be used to contact them. Whilst this is not the address of the property according to the Royal Mail, you now can now amend the address if you deem it necessary. You are now also able to record if an address is a work or residence address and whether it is a full time or holiday address. We recommend recording this data if it is available. It means you will able to contact electors more accurately and reliably, when it counts most. And it means our Party data is more accurate for national campaigns.

The team have also fixed some related issues that have been reported to VoteSource Support.

Addresses exported to Excel will now correctly include the street number on the thoroughfare line of the address. Previously, this was affecting addresses like “303 – 307 Blogs Street”. The hyphen meant the system was leaving the numbers as part of the first line of the address rather than correctly adding it to the thoroughfare line. An issue effecting a small number of records, where an error message appeared when attempting to mark them as moved has also been resolved by the team. The team have also fixed an issue where Last Known Voting Intention (LKVI) Date was not appearing on canvass cards correctly.

VoteSource Support

Helpdesk has been renamed as VoteSource Support. There are some changes – but it’s still your one-stop-shop for technical VoteSource queries.

VoteSource Support is made up of three members of staff. The team leader is Oliver Patey, who has worked with the system since 2014. Rasal Ahmed, who joined just before the 2019 General Election and Kumba Bockarie who started in January 2020.

The team are ready and able to assist with any queries on how to use VoteSource or investigate any issues you have with the system. If the team can’t resolve the problem there and then, we can escalate your problem to the relevant part of the VoteSource department.

It should be noted that VoteSource Support cannot assist with specific membership queries, like late renewals or backdating memberships on VoteSource. Questions of this nature should be referred directly to the Membership Department.

Outside of elections, VoteSource Support work Monday to Friday from 9am until 6pm. The team can be reached on 020 7984 8000 or votesourcesupport@conservatives.com

Returning to Campaigning with VoteSource

As part of the phased return to campaigning, the Connect Team have put together a national survey that can be cloned and used locally to safely call constituents. This will allow for your volunteers to get back to campaigning for the Party in an appropriate, safe and effective way.

To set your area up for calling, go to the Contents section of VoteSource and then click on Surveys. You will be then taken to the National List of surveys available. The survey the Connect Team made available to clone is named “Local Issues 2020 (CLONE ONLY)”. Please only clone this survey! This will ensure that everyone can access and copy the script.

Simply click the Clone option to the right of the survey and the system will then prompt you for a survey name and area for the survey to cover. Once you have added that information your survey is ready to be used, in conjunction with a target audience, for Connect Calling. In-depth guides on cloning scripts and creating target audiences are available on the VoteSource help section.

If you have any Connect related queries please contact them at connect@conservatives.com

VoteSource Best Practice

Membership – Preferred method of contact

With digital AGMs coming up, this is an ideal time to familiarise yourself with the “preferred method of contact” section for members.

Members have the choice of deciding how they wish to be contacted by the Party for all things regarding their membership. In fact, when a new membership is created, the VoteSource user creating the membership record must specifically record the preferred method of contact for the member. That means it’s entirely possible for a person to have an email address against their constituent record - but when you run a current or former member report, no email address will appear.

How can you amend preferred method of contact for a membership?

1. If a member provides you with an email address that is not currently on the system, you will have to record it in the Contacts section of their record - and confirm they have consented to their email being held by the Party. Once you have added the new email, the system will ask if you want to make the email their preferred method of contact for all products. Simply click yes to update their preferred method of contact. Again, this can only be done with clear consent.

2. If a member decides to subsequently change their preferred method of contact, this can be easily amended. Simply go to their record and click on the rectangle with their membership number contained within. The next screen will list several details about the membership, including their preferred method of contact. You will also find an amend option that will allow you to change the record.

We have received many queries on this topic, and we would suggest that all associations go through their membership lists and contact members with no email address listed. You can then ask them to provide an email and consent for the Party to hold that information. There will always be members who only want to be contacted via mail, but now is an ideal time to encourage others to switch to paperless contact.

On the matter of mailing members. CCHQ are automating our postal communication. Whilst this will massively improve the efficiency of our messaging, it does mean that we are taking away the manual checking of data before we send on to our printing company.

It is therefore vital that addressee fields are entered correctly in VoteSource. Common issues we have experienced in the past are users entering “do not contact” in the contact name field and email addresses added in the salutation field.