Mapping and Routing House Visit Packets
PRINTRouting Packets
The Mapping and Routing Module in Organizers’ Tool 7.0 can save your organization many person hours that could better be used talking with workers instead of looking up directions in a Thomas Guide. Mapping and Routing in Toolbox is an automatic process where you enter a few keys pieces of information and the Toolbox automatically divides the people in your house visit turf equally and creates the most efficient point-by-point routes and driving directions along with maps to get your organizers around town. This article will explain Mapping & Routing so that you can make the most effective use of the data in your Toolbox and your campaign resources.
From the main screen of OT, click on the House visit icon
Figure 1 - Accessing the House Visit Module
A new form will open. Click on the “New house visit” button.
Figure 2 - Create new house visit
Next, fill in the stating address where everyone receiving the packets will be leaving from. The house Visit date will be auto-filled with the day the house visit packets are run but you can edit that if you choose.
Figure 3 - Enter Starting address
You’ll next need to select the group of people you’ll be house visiting by clicking the “Select People to Visit button. This will bring up the familiar Filter Form which will allow you to select people base on specific (or general) characteristics. Depending on where you are in your campaign, this may be based on an Assessment, whether people belong to a certain list, or if it’s early in a campaign and you are doing initial house visits, you may choose to house visit anyone in a certain geographic region (or everyone you have an address for).
Figure 4 - Selecting which people to visit
Click next and the screen will switch to the Auto-Packetize screen (Figure 5). Here you can set the specifics of how you’d like Toolbox to put your packets together. There are two ways you can chose to have packets routed:
- Number of packets: this is useful if you know how many organizer will be house visiting workers.
- Maximum packet size or area: if you have a handful of organizers and a lot of turf to cover, this is probably the best choice. You can either select the maximum number of people to visit they will get in their packets or the maximum area they will drive or walk.
Figure 5 - Auto-Packetizer
Click next and Toolbox will begin working to determine the most efficient route from house to house and automatically divide the people to visit into packets. Figure 6 displays the list of packets along with any addresses that it could not locate on a map (there are various reasons Toolbox may not be able to locate an address Please see notes at end of article.)
Figure 6 - Packet Adjustment
Looking at packets 1, 11 and 12 in Figure 6 you’ll notice that these packets have fewer people to visit than the rest, so you may want to combine them into one packet. To merge them into on packet select each item in the list while holding down the shift key on your keyboard and then click “Merge.” These handful of records will be put together into one packet and Toolbox will re-run the and optimize the routes. (Please note: Toolbox does not require merging of packets, you may choose to leave them as separate packets. We’ve developed the merge feature as a convenience not a requirement to run packets).
After you’re done with any manual packet adjustments, click next to select your report (person sheet) and report options and then click next.
Figure 7 - Select report Options
Figure 8 shows Toolbox creating the maps (for each person sheet, if you’ve selected a person sheet with a map on each page) while Figure 9 displays toolbox creating and optimizing the driving routes.
Figure 8 - Toolbox locates addresses on a map
Figure 9 - Creating packets
After Toolbox has routed the packets click “Save and Close” and you will be asked to name the House visits. After naming the house visit packet you’ll receive a message asking if you’d like to route the packet now or to save without routing. Click OK Toolbox will route the packets and then close, returning you to the beginning screen of Mapping & Routing. Highlight the house visit packet you just created and click “Run Reports.”
Figure 10 - Run Reports
After a moment a new screen will appear (Figure 11) asking you to select a map style.
Figure 11 - Select Map style
After a few moments Toolbox will display two reports:
- Person Sheets: these are the numbered house visit packets with divider sheets
- House Visit Maps and Routes
Print both packet and then collate the person sheet packet with their matching Route packets.