What exactly do ambassadors do?
Most people, when asked that question, would say something like “They represent their nations wherever they are located.” Describing Braver Angels’ ambassadors in particular, James Coan took that definition a little further by adding that they present to groups. “I started with a somewhat narrow perception of what our ambassadors would do,” he smiles.
His definition shifted and broadened substantially soon after he teamed up with Linda Beck. “What if our ambassadors were calling and trying to recruit people? What if they were trying to start an alliance? Or if they were trying to talk to friends and family about Braver Angels? All of those questions started to come up,” he says.
James and Linda and their colleagues make up the powerhouse team that equips Braver Angels to properly and effectively represent the organization. Says Linda: “The question has come up: isn’t every Braver Angels member essentially an ambassador? That’s true, but we provide people with what they need to become ambassadors with a capital A.”
It’s still early days – BA members formally listed as ambassadors number in the hundreds – but this proactive pair has already built out a program that has real potential to amplify Braver Angels’ ideals and methods across the country. Not only have they developed a comprehensive toolkit of easily accessible resources but they have set up regular orientation sessions online, recruited experts in everything from public speaking to writing op-eds, offered an eight-week Toastmasters presentation program, and more.
In short, James and Linda have put together a program that can be scaled far and wide, and quickly.
The ideas for such a program began to coalesce a couple of years ago. Early in 2020, Braver Angels leader Donna Murphy had seen Linda give a TED Talk on fact-checking in social media; soon, she had paired Linda with James, who already had been serving in several volunteer roles, notably in exploring social media tools for promoting Braver Angels. “I’ve always been very interested in how messaging can reach thousands and maybe millions of people,” says James.
Together, he and Linda began a series of conversations about what it would take to scale the organization’s outreach nationwide as quickly and effectively as possible. One of those conversations included field organization leader Lynn Heady, who provided excellent insights. “One of the sticking points early on was how difficult it would be to actually run an ambassador program,” recalls Linda. “We didn’t want to have this very rigid system where people had to go through training and be observed. We’ve really worked hard to make the program structured but flexible.”
Linda took the lead in developing the toolkit, which includes everything from tips about content delivery to how to analyze an audience. That job came naturally for her; Linda is a communications consultant and an adjunct professor and instructor at several Central Pennsylvania colleges. “I teach the dreaded public-speaking course as well as business communications,” she laughs.
But just having a detailed and easy-to-follow toolkit didn’t mean there was a rush to use it. “We kicked off the program in the summer of 2020, but we soon realized we had a program that didn’t have a lot of tie-ins to other Braver Angels groups,” notes James.
So together with Yvonne Boyd – an organizer from the Eastern/Central Washington Alliance – Linda and James began reaching out to other groups across Braver Angels to help ensure that alliances, special groups, event organizers, state coordinators, and many others were aware of how the ambassador initiative could help. Pivotal to that outreach: deeper engagement with the entire field operations group.
The ambassador team then effectively relaunched the initiative early in January 2021, beginning a series of monthly orientations online and becoming a recognized resource on the Braver Angels website this past fall. “We’ve done a number of things that have given the program better structure,” says Linda. “Having our orientation online means we now include four videos and a checklist of what people need to do as ambassadors. We’ve also helped update the Public Outreach page on the BA site so it better organizes what’s available to members.” (The page is live as of last week.)
Linda, James, and Yvonne are pleased with progress to date. They see lots of new faces turning up at their monthly orientation sessions, and they can point to several individuals who have turned into ambassadorial whirlwinds in their communities. “We’ve had a small group go through a Toastmasters program; we’ve also hosted Lorraine Howell who has published a book on elevator speeches,” notes James.
Their “poster people” thus far are Barbara Thomas and Rick Hotchner, the Red-married-to-Blue couple from Minnesota who have become deeply invested in Braver Angels and who went out of their way – 600 miles out of their way – to represent the organization at FreedomFest in South Dakota. “Barbara told me she and Rick were so impressed by our program that they decided to become ambassadors,” says Linda.
But there is so much more for this team to do. They know they have the potential to enlist thousands of ambassadors, but that is more dream than destination right now. There is still work to be done to coordinate better with the field leaders (“We’ve learned that some are still unaware of our program or exactly what to do with it,” says Linda) and they are working the data to better identify which members are active ambassadors, and what they are doing.
Now that the basic structure of the Ambassador Program is in place, the team is working on how to better synthesize it within Braver Angels. The end goals are to create more awareness and to incentivize continued and ideally greater involvement throughout the organization.
Hats off to Linda and James and Yvonne for a well-designed and well-run program. But they need your participation too. Think about how you could present to your church, your club, your organization, your neighbors. Think about the op-ed you could write in your local paper or the quick interview or podcast you could do with your community news organizations. And then think about how the Ambassador Program could help you spread the Braver Angels message.
Linda and James have the tools you need to do it. What are you waiting for?!!
