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When it comes to school finance campaigns, add this to the conventional wisdom: It is the citizens themselves who sell the referendum. "You have to get the citizens involved," says William Seiple, managing director of LaSalle Capital Markets in Naperville, who has worked on more than 300 referendums since 1962. "And they have to get it out to the public."

Each campaign really has two phases -- the education phase and the actual campaign, according to the National School Boards Association's School Boards and the Ballot Box. Informing the community of the need for a building project or of the district's financial condition occurs mostly during the education phase, and volunteers should be involved from the start.

"The thing we've found to be very valuable is citizen involvement in the decision making process," says Steve Larson, president of Illinois School Consulting Service and an independent public finance adviser who has worked on more than 75 referendums. "Somewhere in the process they take part in determining what should be presented to the voters after they've studied it themselves."

Many districts establish community task forces to study building or educational needs, review already existing reports and make recommendations to the board, according to Jeannie M. (Sissy) Henry, deputy executive director of the South Carolina School Boards Association and a nationally recognized authority on school finance campaigns. "Often these people then become powerful voices for the referendum."

Since they have been involved in exploring and exhausting other alternatives, these citizens will be able to intelligently discuss why the proposed referendum really is the district's only option. They "gain an understanding of exactly what is happening," Seiple says. "They would know the pros and cons."

Of course, once the decision has been made to put a referendum on the ballot, one of the toughest jobs lies ahead -- convincing voters that their schools need the extra money more than the household budget does, and that the district will use it to accomplish goals the voters think are worthwhile. Then comes the monumental task of getting potential "yes" voters to the polls.

In today's most successful campaigns, volunteers do the lion's share of the work. The biggest advantage of involving volunteers at this point is the sheer amount of work involved. While our information society has developed ever more sophisticated ways of reaching the public, consultants agree that the most effective school finance campaigns still involve good old-fashioned personal contact -- slide shows and presentations to civic groups, door-to-door canvassing and telephone polls, and get-out-the-vote efforts.

While school board members have never been afraid of hard work, allowing the campaign to be run mostly by volunteers has other advantages as well. First, volunteers are not viewed as members of the "establishment" the way school board members and other administrators are. Research shows that people tend to decide issues such as finance elections based on information from friends and neighbors. Second, the more people you involve in the campaign, the more people you have with a personal investment in winning. Third, volunteers don't face the same legal restraints school officials do (see "Staying Within the Law," on page 16).

Experts advise limiting the campaign to two or three months. "Most communities we've worked with start about 10 or 12 weeks in advance with their actual committee work," says Gayle Russell, co-owner with Janet English of Victory Campaigns Inc., a nonprofit corporation in St. Charles that assists taxing bodies in passing referendums. "This is enough time. If it drags on, if you involve your volunteers any more than 10 to 12 weeks, you tend to burn them out if they become too intense too far in advance." The community is also more likely to pay attention during a short campaign. "The public's attention span on this kind of thing is not really long," Seiple says.

Consultants suggest staying low-key in the initial stages of the campaign so as to minimize both opposition and excessive stress on volunteers. Your campaign should build in momentum and peak on election day, Henry says.

How many volunteers you need will vary, of course. Numbers have ranged from a couple dozen to several hundred, depending on the size of the district. However, there are some common tasks that need to be done. In addition to a steering committee, most citizens' groups set up subcommittees to take charge of fund-raising, publicity and promotion, voter registration and election day get-out-the-vote efforts.

The steering committee plans the overall direction and theme of the campaign and coordinates

the activities of all the other volunteers. This committee works closely with the school board and other school officials, and requires the heaviest time commitment. Volunteers should expect to contribute at least 20 hours each during the course of the campaign.

While it doesn't cost a great deal of money to get out the "yes" vote, some funds will be needed for direct mailing expenses, and to print brochures and fliers, yard signs, buttons, bumper stickers and other promotional items. Some of the tasks performed by a typical finance committee include writing appeal letters to local businesses and other community leaders for cash or in-kind donations, arranging other fund-raising activities such as raffles or bake sales, depositing and dispersing funds, completing appropriate political action committee forms, and writing thank-you letters to donors.

The publicity committee's job can be summed up as getting the word out. They will design a logo and slogan, and develop brochures, fact sheets, mailings, buttons, bumper stickers, yard signs and other promotional materials limited only by their creativity. They may develop a speakers' bureau and arrange slide shows or special presentations for community groups, organize neighborhood coffees and coordinate tours of the school for the public. They will also write press releases and work with the news media, develop a pool of people to write letters to the editor and coordinate the timing of the letters, and help the steering committee prepare responses to any negative publicity.

Getting potential "yes" voters to the polls is, of course, the aim of the entire campaign. A voter registration and/or Election Day committee may conduct telephone surveys or door-to-door canvassing to identify potential "yes" voters and "undecided" voters, check voter registration lists to identify potential supporters who are not registered and help those people who will need absentee ballots. (Members of this committee may wish to become deputy registrars.) On election day, they may serve as poll watchers, make phone calls or go door-to-door reminding people to vote, and offer babysitting services or transportation to the polls.

And don't forget students and staff. Even if they aren't old enough to vote, young people can be a tremendous asset to your school's referendum effort. Internally, make sure principals, teachers, parent-teacher organizations and other staff understand the need for the referendum. Often, voters go to district employees to ask their opinions if they are undecided on how to vote, Henry says. Students can help with distribution of promotional materials such as buttons, bumper stickers and yard signs, brochures and fact sheets. They also can write letters to the editor, help the publicity committee with endorsements or radio spots, include facts about the referendum in the high school newspaper, create posters to hang in store windows and restaurants and remind parents and grandparents to vote. (Note: All student and staff involvement should take place at times other than school hours.)

Consultants suggest creating a time line for your campaign. Include everything you or your volunteers need to do--no matter how large or how small the task--and who is going to do it. What promotional and informational items will be sued? Who will develop them? Will you hold a press conference? Do you plan an organized letters-to-the-editor campaign? Will you invite the public to tour your schools? Where and when will your volunteers register voters? This kind of advance homework pays off. Not only are you less likely to forget something, you're less likely to see your volunteers reinventing each other's wheels.

You'll also want to make sure your volunteers are armed with slides, fact sheets, brochures and other materials they'll need to present your case to voters. No matter how big or small a role they play, volunteers should be able to answer common questions. What are the school's needs? How exactly is the money going to be spent? What will happen if the referendum fails to pass?

How do you find all these volunteers? Ask them directly, say the experts. "You need to ask them," says Sissy Henry. "Your board might have to go after them." Steve Larson adds, "You're more likely to get people to work on something if you talk to them individually rather than just putting something in the newspaper or newsletter asking people to volunteer."

Superintendents, principals and board members may use a brainstorming session to identify potential supporters. Pay attention to people who seem interested in community and school affairs, who volunteer in the schools and who attend board meetings--these are people who already have an obvious interest in the outcome of a referendum. They may be able to recommend friends as well. Some districts have successfully used the "pyramid approach," in which each volunteer solicits help from additional supporters. Some school districts have also found it helpful for the superintendent or another school official to write personal letters to potential volunteers, especially for the steering committee.

Consultants suggest selecting leaders of your citizens' group carefully, especially the steering committee. "You need to involve workhorses, not just figureheads," Henry says. Russell recommends "people who are energetic, who have demonstrated responsibility and accountability in their volunteer histories with the school district, who are flexible enough to work with other people." Russell also warns, "You need people who are noncontroversial. You don't need people at the helm who are going to be their own issue."

Another important factor to consider is diversity. "You need a real cross section of the community -- not just Chamber of Commerce and Rotarian types," Henry says. Include both women and men, and make sure other interest groups in the community -- including senior citizens and racial or ethnic groups -- are involved. "You've got to identify the leadership in each group," Henry says. "Often we don't know the leadership, so we have to sit down with different people and different groups and say, who in your community is credible? Who do you consider to be a leader?"

How involved should the school board and superintendent get in the workings of the citizens' committee? This may vary, depending on your community and how much cooperation the citizens' group wants, but consultants agree that school officials should avoid the temptation to micromanage. Henry recommends that school board members and other officials get ""very much involved, behind the scenes."

Board members "have already made a decision to have a referendum, and they have enough work to do just getting the facts out," says Russell. School officials should be available, however, to answer questions and provide whatever help is needed. Some citizens' groups like to have a team consisting of a school official and a volunteer make presentations at forums, at coffees or before community groups. In some districts, board members have also served as liaisons to the various committees. Another way school officials can help the effort is to maintain good morale among the volunteers. "It's a very intensive time and people go crazy, but it's a fun time," says Russell. "Try to make it a good time and a productive time."

A sense of humor always helps. One school district's steering committee included two aspirins with packets handed out to volunteers.