It's a Sign o' the Times
And the time for signs...
This week’s Serve60Sharp comes from Carol Lehman, longtime Mayor of Gardner, Kansas. Carol is the brightest smile in any room and makes everyone feel welcome!
She mentioned how one of the most obvious courtesies of a campaign was also a way to serve the greater community, as well as make it easier on those who work in our public works departments:
It’s one of the most basic things you learned in Kindergarten – and is reiterated nearly every time you eat a meal at home:
Pick up after yourself.
Easy, right? Not if you’ve spewed yard signs on every right-of-way “from here to kingdom come” as we say in the Midwest.
If we all pick up after ourselves, then no one has to pick up everything else – especially our public service employees. They have more important work to do and it’s a ridiculous use of taxpayer money to pick up your campaign litter. [Steps off soapbox.]
Here are a few ideas to ease the pickup:
Don’t do right-of-way signs. They’re tacky and it says you don’t have the support to get signs in actual humans’ yards. The fewer ROW signs, the fewer you have to pick up.
Recruit a sign captain for each precinct to be in charge of planting and removing signs.
Finders’ fee: Work with a centrally-located or multi-location business in your district. Promote to your networks that you’ll give the finder $1 for every sign brought to the location (could also use your home or office). It’s a bargain considering signs are upwards of $5 a piece!
If your kids are driving age, recruit a crew of their friends to pull the signs on election night – reward them with pizza (or the $1 finder’s fee, too).
Shameless plug alert: Of course all of this is easier if you have a map with the exact locations of every sign, here’s to VoteSharp users!
Thanks again to Carol Lehman for sharing her idea! Signing off for now…
Happy serving,
About Serve60Sharp
Serve60Sharp is a weekly, read-in-60-seconds newsletter, which provides readers with actionable ideas to serve their communities.