Introduction


Why you should create users

  • When ODP creates a committee - campaign, county party - they will typically only create one Admin Account.  It is then up to the committee to create accounts for anyone else who might need to use VAN.  
  • Everyone using VAN will need their own account tied to their individual action id. Folks will keep a singular action id across campaigns - ensure they use an email address they will have forever. 
  • This is very important to ensure we are compliant with all security policies.
  • Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) must be set up with all Action IDs in order to log into VAN accounts to which the Action ID is linked.


Who should create users?

  • Every organization - campaign, county party -  should develop a consistent policy on who creates users. Typically an organization will decide to have a small group of people creating accounts so that they can standardize on boarding, naming conventions, and other access. 


How do I add new users?

  • Under the Administrative Menu, you will select Users. Then from the drop down, select Users. 
  • After you click on Users on the Administrative Menu, this screen shown below will appear. It allows VAN Admins to search for users by name, committee, voter profile, and a number of other search criteria.
  • In the upper right of the screen, you will click the blue Add New Users button. The next screen (shown below) will allow you to add in all the necessary user information about the new user.
  • Select your committee (e.g., county party, campaign) under the Committee drop down menu (screenshot shown above) to add the user to their committee.
  • To assign a profile, you rank a user. Ensure that you assign a user profile of the same level to both My Voters and My Campaign.
  • Before you Add New User, remember to set the account to expire after the election is over!
  • Once you have selected what level of access the user will have, you will now have the option to assign access by District Type


Assigning Access 


Campaigns and in General

As candidates or campaign staff, you'll have access to your whole district. Unless it's very large, you'll generally be giving VAN users district-wide access. However, if you wish to break up your district for some users, you can give them access to precincts or counties within your district. 

  • If a user needs access to precincts in multiple counties, each county must be added individually:
    • Select Precinct as District Type
    • Wait for County to appear, then select your county, then hit select all
    • At this point, create the user. (you can’t assign specific precincts from multiple counties on the create a new user screen)
    • If you still need to add precincts from another county (because you are multi-county), once you click on the blue button of create user, you will be brought to the screen of that new user’s profile. 
    • Scroll down to the Assign Precincts/Assign People area and click on assign people. Repeat the process you earlier for the new County: “Select Precinct as District Type — Wait for County to appear, then select your county, then hit select all...” and scroll down and hit the blue button. Repeat if there is a 3rd county or more.


County Chairs

No user can give wider access than they have access to (e.g., county chair with countywide access can give access to the entire county or precincts in that county). 


Precinct Chairs 

If you are creating a user profile for a Precinct Chair, simply:

  • Select Precinct as District Type
  • Wait for County to appear, then select your county
  • Finally, select their precinct number (note: for volunteers and organizers, you can select more than one precinct)
  • The new user will automatically be sent an email with an Action ID invitation to access their account/committee!


Who can I create accounts for?

Whether you are the admin of a campaign or a club will determine the user types you create in the following ways: 

Campaigns can create users who are staffers, fellows, volunteers

Clubs can create users who are precinct chairs, clubs, activists 


User Groups


What are User Groups?

User Groups are exactly what they sound like - groups of users in your VAN committee. You can create and name these groups to better keep track of users in your committee.


Why you should create User Groups

User Groups make a ton of tasks in VAN both quicker and easier, including: 

  • Sharing folders and saved lists to User Groups instead of having to share them with individual users, granting your whole team immediate access. 
  • Sharing Virtual Phone Banks with specific User Groups as well, allowing more people to make calls faster.
  • Grouping teams of users together with User Groups, which will make getting lists of emails and other information for your teams faster.


How do I create User Groups?

  • You can find User Groups in the Administrative Menu on the front page of VAN, right at the bottom of Users.
  • You can create one by selecting User Groups in the above menu and then “Add New User Group” in the top right. Be sure to name your group something you’ll understand later. 
  • Then, you’ll need to add the users you want in your User Group. Remember, information such as searches, lists/folders, and VPBs shared to a group will be visible and editable by everyone in them, so only add folks you trust with this access.
  • Finally, you’ll share the folders and Virtual Phone Banks you want shared with your User Group. One common issue VAN users ask about is how to view each others’ folders. Sharing them with a User Group is the easiest way to do so.