A house party is a gathering of your friends, family and neighbors to discuss Mark's campaign, exchange ideas, and recruit volunteers and donors.  House parties are easy to plan and demonstrate the broad and diverse support for change so prevalent in the 5th District.  These house parties are grassroots organizations at the local level and allows participants to discuss the issues that matter to them in a local and friendly atmosphere.

Planning Guide

Planning a house party is simple.

1. Choose a place to hold your event. Your home may be the best and easiest spot, or you may decide that a friend’s home, school or local church would work better for you and your friends.
2. Develop your guest list. The rule of thumb is that 1 out of every 5 people invited will attend. If you are hoping for 15 people to turnout, you need to invite 75. Include friends, neighbors, family and co-workers (old and new). Your address book, rolodex or holiday card list are often excellent starting points. Think broadly! You might be surprised at which of your friends are interested.
3. What kind of an event would you like to have? Try to focus more on your guest list than on the food. Some people serve simply juice & cookies, other’s serve full meals, Sunday brunch or dessert. The most important aspect of the house party is that your social network is gathering to talk about better healthcare, stronger public education and the future of the Democratic Party.
4. Send out invitations to your guests a few weeks before the party. It is important to send a simple paper letter that confirms the date, time and address of the meeting, even if you are using other methods to invite people.
5. Use the telephone. Be proactive about making contact with your friends.  The sooner you get the word out, the better. 
6. Send an invite via email. This is an excellent way to contact people in a small amount of time.  Your friends and invitees can also forward these emails to help grow the house party attendance list.
7. Make reminder calls a day or two before the event. This is extremely important! Sometimes people will become busy and simply forget about your event.  A reminder call is crucial to invitees or you may find yourself with an empty house.

Hosting Tips

	Encourage the invitees to bring friends, relatives, and interested parties.
	As people to give you a firm commitment as to whether they will attend.  In most cases, people who respond with "maybe" will not show up.
	Ask those invited to the house party to check the website for any additional information.
	Keep our campaign updated on the planning, execution and results of the house party.  In addition, please let us know if we can provide your house party with any additional information.
	Thank you and have fun!