Looking for people to help to support this effort to support Meetup organizers

 

Endorsed by Joel Lemieux, Organizer for Ron Paul Organizers Meetup http://www.organizer.com/141

 

By Patricia Mikkelson

http:// www.patriciamikkelson.wordpress.com

 

Assistant Organizer, Ron Paul Meetup Organizers http://www.organizer.com/141

I am working on finding team members who are passionate about carrying out this mission:

 

Our mission: to support Ron Paul for President meetups in being the most effective grassroots effort that they can possibly be in order to elect Ron Paul as well as live and promote the values he stands for.

We support Ron Paul for President Meetups in being independent, self-organizing, and locally governed.

Our goals:

1. A meetup in every county in Arkansas by Jan 1,2008 and a meetup in every county in the US by Feb. 1, 2008

2. A meetup handbook and forum that can support the mission and goal by Dec. 24,2007

3. A strategy of the best practices, over all strategy and goals to share (but not dictate!)

I have been organizer of the successful Fayetteville Ron Paul Meetup, founded the growing the Arkansas Statewide Meetup, and have planted one successful meetup in Harrison, AR. I wrote a handbook for meetup coordinators, which includes instructions on how to plant meetups. I have been studying what strategies are the most effective in getting Ron Paul elected, including the “think precinct” approach that is spreading far an wide. I have seen a need for more support for the Ron Paul meetups so that they can support the over all grassroots movement and organizing efforts that are taking place.

I realize that I can’t do this alone. I want to be a part of a team working cohesively together on this project.

 

I am working on the following:

1. Creating a step by step guide for how to plant a meetup.

 

2. Actually planting meetups in every county in Arkansas to serve as a model for other states.

 

3. Raising money to get the meetup accounts so we can plant meetups

 

4. Refining a hand book I wrote a few months ago for Ron Paul Meetups

 

5. Finding others who want to plant meetups (I have found two others so far, Allison Lukens, Fayetteville RP Meetup Organizer and Jason Young, Jonesboro RP Meetup assistant organizer, and Corey Walsh, Harrison RP Meetup Organizer.

Main resources we are using right now which support Ron Paul meetups, and groups we want to cooperate with who are working to help create structures that can support the grassroots movement in being stronger:

http://www.organizer.meetup.com/141

http://www.Ronpaulmeetups.wordpress.com

 

http://www.ronpaulreveres.com

 

http://ronpaulfriends.bravehost.com

http://www.ronpaulfriendsusa.com

http://www.restoretherepublic.com

We are looking for committed, passionate volunteers who have had positive experiences in meetups or other groups who share our mission of helping Ron Paul meetups be effective and powerful.

1. highest priority: People who have organizational and team-bulding skills who can really bring a team together to be effective with all of us utilizing our best talents. A person who knows about servant leadership. self-organizing groups, learning organizations and can help us train group organizers quickly and efficiently

 

3. Web designers: People with web skills who can help with interfacing with other websites such as those listed above, including a forum, and a wiki for meetup planting. Someone to create a whole website completely dedicated to Ron Paul Meetups support which can be linked to other websites seamlessly.

4. Fund raisers who can help achieve our goals. The cost to plant 5 meetups per month is $17

5. Marketing expert who can help us get endorsement, and share the vision in a way that will take off like Nov. 5Money Bomb and the Tea Party Money Bomb

6. Someone who can present these ideas to people who could endorse them.

7. A person who can write ebooks, power point presentations and training programs

8. Contributions to the Ron Paul meetup handbook—best practices that work

9. Testimonies about how Ron Paul meetups changed your life

 

10. Feedback on the following priorities that we think Meetups could focus on:

1. Addressing voter fraud, getting people out to vote, absentee voting, early voting

2. Delegate process–which means starting with getting RP Precinct captains elected. Includes interfacing with other counties, statewide networking

3. Voter registration with first time voters, especailly high school kids and college;

4. Canvassing: who to target, materials management, effective ways to convass

5. Fundraising and responsible accounting

7. Meetup well being: Leadership effectiveness training for organizers and assistants–ever increasing their skill in empowering volunteers, conflict resolution, weekly meetup logistics, dealing with infiltration. Especially important: helping meetup leadership set an example and inspire members to represent Ron Paul in a positive light as we share his message with others.

8. Volunteer Coordinating–welcoming new volunteers and helping them to get involved.

9. Name recognition for Ron Paul (includes one on one talking to people, sign waving, yard signs, media coverage, service projects, 1001 ways to promote Ron Paul etc,)

10. Cooperation with other meetups, including: Expansion–helping plant meetups in every county in state. Working with others to make sure the delegation process is understood, enough delegates are available, etc. Regional/statewide rallies. Information exchange. United efforts.

11. Education about the issues including the Constitution and all that it means to us.

In conclusion, here are ways you can help:

1. Apply to be a team member. (If I don’t know you, tell me about yourself and supply some references)

2. Apply to be on the advisory board.We will call upon you for your counsel and advice in our overall policy decisions.

3. Donate money to help pay for the actual meetup planting. (I am in the process of creating a chipin account)

4. Help with editing the meetup handbook or just offer your ideas

5. Tell me what you think the most important over all strategy is.

Please contact me if you can help! Patricia Mikkelson, livablefutureproject@gmail.com 479.225.0047

If you want to learn more about who I am
http://www.patriciamikkelson.wordpress.com

 

 

Favorite Ron Paul Campaign Resources Online

An open letter to Fayetteville Ron Paul Supporters Meetup

I have been a member exactly 4 months and one day, having joined on August 16.
These four months have been the most exciting, rewarding, fulfilling, and joyous days of my entire life. Our combined efforts contributed to this record breaking, history making day. Hurray for us! Even though I am no longer organizer of this meetup, having resigned last Thursday, I will continue to support Allison, our new organizer (thank you for taking over!) and the whole group in any way I can. I also look forward to fulfilling my new role as a meetup planter–and organizer of Christians for Ron Paul Meetup serving NW Arkansas, 3rd Congressional District.

To be able to be part of a team of people who could work together to make a better world has been a dream of mine for over thirty three years. To do something that seemed like it was going to make a huge difference is something I have wanted to do ever since I was 21 and dreamed of being president of the United States. To find a cause big enough to include everyone on the planet has been something I have yearned to do ever since the Gulf War started about 18 years ago. Being able to support Ron Paul revolution along side all of you is the fulfillment of my dreams.

So I thank you each of you for following your heart and for responding to the call of freedom which is sounded by our dear Dr. Paul. I thank you for your passion, your commitment, your creativity, your wisdom, and even your weaknesses. None of us is perfect–including Ron Paul–yet we can encourage each other. Where one person is weak, another is strong.

We haver 128 people in this meetup. I hope that all of you will share your stories with me and the group so that we can continue to feel encouraged and get new ideas. In sharing the message of Ron Paul for President. I have always felt enthusiastic. But today there was a turning point for me. I really “got” that whenever I plant the seed of the Ron Paul revolution, there is a really good possibility that the seed will grow. More than ever I believe that in sharing the message of Ron Paul, I share a gift of hope. Every time I hear a hopeful story, my hope grows. My faith in the ability of the American people to rise up and help transform our government into one that is for the people and by the people, for freedom, is strengthened.

I believe that God has answered the cries of those of us who have been crying out for mercy. I believe that Ron Paul is an answer to our prayers. I have been praying for a leader who could help unite us and lead us. A Ghandi, a Martin Luther King, Jr., a John F. Kennedy. Yet now, we are even more powerful, because we have the gift of the internet and other technologies like easy to use video recorders and dvd duplicators so we can share powerfully a message of freedom. Not only can we share the message of our fearless leader, but we share our own message as we use our creativity to transmit the message. We are not dependent upon the charisma of one leader. In fact, Ron Paul is not all that charismatic! This is a thrilling moment in history where we all have the possibility of being leaders in our own communities.

It won’t be long before Ron Paul supporters start organizing seriously to run for office in our own communities and states. It won’t be long before mayors, city council people, elected judges, congress people and more have Ron Paul supporters running for office and winning. They will be elected based on their performance of being accountable and in integrity as they campaigned for Ron Paul. They will be elected based on their ability to be responsive to their fellow meetup members and the needs set before them. They will be elected based on their ability to demonstrate that they understand and will implement the values expressed by Ron Paul of small government abiding by our constitution. They will serve the people, not monied interests.

These are exciting times! We will look back, when Ron Paul wins the presidency, and say, “It was challenging and sometimes stressful–but our efforts paid off!” When we are at the watch party that many of us are scheduling on the eve of the Iowa Caucus, and we see that Ron Paul wins Iowa, we will be shouting in excitement, giddy with joy. When we watch the popular vote in New Hampshire, the live free or die state, and Ron Paul wins by a landslide, we will be jumping up and down with happiness. When we have a huge watch party on Feb. 5, Super Tuesday, in Fayetteville, we will feel almost overwhelmed with amazement and gratitude when we see our beloved Ron Paul win by a landslide. And finally, on Nov. 5, 2008, when we schedule some huge place for the final watch party, and Ron Paul wins the popular vote hands down, we will be blown away with the feeling of fulfillment and victory because all of our hard work paid off. And when the delegates vote him into office, finally–then we will breathe a sigh of relief as well as experience a deep satisfaction. Ron Paul, president of the United States. Can you imagine it all? What man can conceive, man can achieve. With God, nothing is impossible.

And so, dear Fayetteville Meetup members, I hope that you will take a moment to write down how being part of this meetup has touched you, has inspired you, has encouraged you–if it has. I want to share with other meetups a book about our Fayetteville Ron Paul supporters meetup so they can be inspired and motivated. I want to encourage other meetups to share their stories. Our stories are important. They are powerful.

Finally, I want to acknowledge my God who has offered me strength as I work to continue to help the Fayetteville Ron Paul Supporters meetup the best that it can be. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Sincerely,
Patricia Mikkelson

www.ronpaulmeetups.wordpress.com

A Ron Paul Meetup in every Precinct. Together we can do it!

 

 

Look what’s happening with Ron Paul 2008 Meetups!

79,135 Ron Paul Supporters in 1,358 Groups from 1,042 Cities
…and 8,036 more waiting to hear when a new Meetup starts!

Can we harness the energy of 8,036 people? Yes we can!

The purpose of this website is to inspire people to start Ron Paul Meetups everywhere, including in their own precincts, so that by Feb. 3 there is a Ron Paul meetup in every precinct. Then, if every precinct had a Ron Paul  meetup, canvassing, delegate or caucus selection, voter registration, and cooperating with the Republican Party could be decentralized and effective. City wide meetups could support the precincts meetups and vice versa.  I am in the process of creating a plan so that this can happen.

I am totally in agreement with the Ron Paul 2008 Campaign Headquarters website, where it states,

“Meetups are the viens of the Ron Paul campaign. Each vien is important no matter the size. Your meetup can have as little as two members, but hang in there. Your meetup is important!”

When I see all the seemingly impossible things that are happening with the grassroots Ron Paul freedom revolution, I feel inspired to set a goal that might before have seemed far fetched. Trevor Lyman has really set an example for me, and I hope that folks like him will get on the bandwagon and join me in this goal.

If there was a meetup merely in every city in the nation by Feb. 5, well, you could imagine how much more energy, money, ideas, would pour into the campaign, right? Like networking marketing, the expansion would be geometrical. Our numbers of people donating in the next money bomb (surely there will be another!) could be in the millions if we just had a meetup in every city! And if we had a meetup in every neighborhood, well…that would be history making. Shall we make some more history?

Here is how I see this happening:

1. People (like you!) send this message out to others. You talk about it in your meetup. Perhaps you even join the organizer’s

Ron Paul Meetups are the foundation of how people connect and energize and fuel the grassroots efforts.

What I don’t see happening anywhere else (if it is, please tell me) is a plan to multiply our meetups.

This is how I see it happening:

1. I write simple instructions (see the page in the right hand column) telling exactly how people can “plant” meetups.

2. You spread the word encouraging people to plant meetups.

3. The idea spreads like wildfire and many talented people come on board, forming a team. (Let me know if you want to be a part of this team! Web designers and people who know about viral marketing are most welcome.)

4. We have a website similar to the Dec. 16 Tea Party website, with a maps that show our progress.

5. On Sunday, Feb. 3 we get huge press coverage about all the meetups for Ron Paul, and this promotes Dr. Paul for all of the Feb. 5 primaries

C’mon everyone…can you see it? Not only will we get national coverage for Ron Paul, but we get national coverage for the meetups–then we get more members for our meetups, whether they are on line or not!
You can find more training material and forums at Campaign Headquarters here: http://grassrootsronpaul.org/meetup.html I found this information after I wrote my handbook which follows. I recommend that you read both their information and mine–all of the ideas are in sync, and are helpful, with some overlap.

If you want to support me so that I can have the resources to get this project going full scale, please check this out

support meetup planting

Weekly Meetups: Purpose and outline

I strongly suggest that you have a weekly meeting for your meetup groups for these purposes:

1. To encourage/motivate/engage experienced members
2. Help newcomers be welcome, and meet them where they are at, whether they are on fire to help or not quite sure they even support Ron Paul.
3. Have a place where it is easy for folks to pick up materials for activities such as slim jims; sign waving; canvassing materials; yard signs; meetup fliers
4. Make it easy for everyone to connect, network, build trust, have fun.
5. Have a place where people who are not on line can get connected.
6. Have a place where you can easily invite anyone to get involved. It’s easy to say, we meet on Thursdays at Qdoba’s on Dickson!

Here is a sample of a weekly meetup format which is still under construction, but which has proved very successful:

6-6:30 Highest priority: everyone gets to know the newcomers.

6:30 Intro to the meetup and overview of agenda
6:35 One sentence intros by everyone. (Ideally, write this out on a big piece of poster board: My Name…, I live…, Most of my time is spent…, I am here because…(if you support Ron Paul, please state why) My main focus in supporting Ron Paul is…

6:45 Celebrations: Things that our meetup and us as individuals have accomplished; good news, challenges overcome.

6:55 Announcements: Quick announcements about upcoming events, both local, regional and national.

7:00 Needs: What do people need in order to become more effective? Try to limit each person to about one minute–(we haven’t done this before–but I am seeing that it is probably important)

7:10-7:25 Brainstorm and strategize a few topics: for example, asking questions like:
How can we make more money for materials, and also get more materials?
How can we do more effective precinct walking?
How can we get more people involved?

7:25-7-55 Break into small groups to discuss what people are passionate about and do actual work. Be sure to have one group for people who aren’t sure they want to support Ron Paul. Have another for new comers–really get clear on what they want to to do and how to plug them in. Others might be topics like activity planning; improving the meetup; materials. People can burn dvd’s, put rubber bands on slim jims, write editorials, or even call their friends to invite them to the next meetup. Others might like to walk down the street with Ron Paul signs, or pass out slim jims to passersbys. Try to do something for everyone!

If a newcomer has a burning desire to sponsor some new activity–like a gun show or county fair, encourage them to facilitate a small group. Have flags on each table to show the topics. (we made them out of small coke cans, a dowel taped to it, and a 3 x5 card taped to the dowel like a flag)

7:55-8 closing comments, reflections, celebrations of the groups accomplishments
8-8:30 Hang out, network, get to know newcomers.

Organizational Structure

Step 3 Have a clear organizational structure which empowers those who want to help steer the meetup do so harmoniously. Here is one suggestion:

1. Meetup organizer has final say in matters, but takes advice from the steering committee when it identifies itself. This insures that if an emergency situation arises, the organizer can “legally” take action.

2. Start out by having an organizer and one or two assistants to grow your groups. Then, as passionate people come forward who demonstrate leadership skills, grow a steering committee which makes decisions about overall strategy, focus, meeting the press, and other issues which effects the group. In order to maintain unity, organizer should very strongly consider the advice of the group, and do your best to get consensus.

3. Have separate meetings–conference calls or potlucks–from the weekly meeting for strategic planning and prolonged discussions. Determine as a group how often to meet. Make a roster of phone numbers and emails available to all steering committee members so that communication can be fluid. Encourage members to discuss things on the message boards. Hopefully soon there will be forum for every meetup on the state wide group. I will be writing more later about the various roles of steering committee members including treasurer, activities support, materials supply, canvassing, signs, etc.

Step 1: Goals and mission

Get clear on your goals, and add to your meetup page. I suggest that they be:

1. Get Ron Paul nominated and then elected at President of the United States 2008
2. Grow a Meetup which mobilizes and empowers every Ron Paul supporter in your area to effectively work to achieve this goal, together and individually.
3. Achieve these goals with non-violent, legal methods (This disclaimer should be repeated over an over again in your website, in messages, in calendar items)

Online communicaton

Online communicaton:

Our biggest source of conflict and reason for people leaving has been simply two many emails in their email in box. Here are some ways you can alleviate this problem:Switch your settings to Moderate emails. Then the organizer will decide what emails should go through. Many groups do this.

Change your meetup settings to disable the ability for people to send emails to the whole group. After all, some groups have a thousand members! Create a special yahoo group to go along with your meetup. www.yahoogroups.com it is pretty simple to set up a group. People who want to freely communicate and don’t mind a lot of messages can sign up for this. Make sure you let new members know about this option.

Encourage use of message boards. There are creative ways to utilize the message boards. I have set ours up so that there are various goals and ideas that can be built upon. I am hoping that the ideas set forth in the messages can be somewhat organized so that people can use this as a resource to learn about our group, celebrate what has happened, get new comers up to speed, and feel free to be creative.

Set up a forum. You can set up a free account at www.freeforums.org. I could not for the life of me figure out how to do it, but another person took this on, and it has a lot of potential. We decided to make a state wide forum, then have sub groups of city meetups so that we can get cross pollination and cooperation going.

Have a newsletter which you send out to the whole group. If you can find someone to do this, it would be so great–then just one email every few days could highlight important things. This can be consolidated to make a weekly hand out to give out at the meetup.

Calendar items: The great things about meetup is that calendar items can be sent out automatically. You can also make calendar items just to remind people about doing things like especially precinct walking, or talking to everyone you meet.

Agenda Items: It is really helpful to let people know what the focus is going to be at the meetup–helps them make the decision to go.

Needs for upcoming events or for projects you are working for

Activities related to Ron Paul and Freedom Movement happening in our region. Preferably we can get these in our calendar section–if you are not an assistant organizer, send them to allison alweeson@yahoo.com or me livablefutureproject@gmail.com If you want to be able to list calendar items, you can become an assistant organizer–contact

Reports and agendas for weekly meetings

Reports and reflections about activities.

Urgent requests for national coordination–like the Nov. 5 donation drive.

If you are working on a big project, put together a list of needs and announcements in one email if possible.

The best of the best of the late breaking news such as local stories about us, Ron Paul successes. But we need to limit these and put them on our Forums if possible.

All of the above could be put both in the forum www.ronpaulmeetup555.freeforums.com in order to make them easy to discuss.

I encourage you to post acknowledgements of each other in the shout out section–welcoming new people, encouraging positive actions, and celebrating each other in general. This will make our group appeal more to those who are considering joining us.Any acknowledgements I receive will strengthen my ability to be a meetup group “planter” and support others in being more organized. Okay, I do appreciate the positive strokes–they give me a lot of energy!

If you want to be an assistant organizer which gives you the ability to post calendar items, please let me know.

OVER ALL STRUCTURE, MEETING AGENDA, AND ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
To the Steering committee and potential steering committee members:

Please address all feedback to the whole group if you would. This needs to be a group discussion. I prefer not to have this discussion put out in a public venue.

If anyone wants to reorganize this very unwieldy document, please feel free to do so–just try to recreate most of the information included–but I know it needs to be in a better kind of flow chart. Okay all you engineers–get to work. We may need to have one more meeting to discuss and finalize this–I think it would be a good idea to meet next Tuesday. Then people who missed this meeting could come, and we could meet face to face with more possibility of effectively finalizing this. Who is willing to attend, and who is willing to host this? I promise I will start the meeting on time!

The time we put into this is invaluable. This will be put on a national website for meetup groups to use if they wish. I understand from many sources that RP meetups are struggling–they could use some guidance about these things. Thanks to all of you who are willing to deal with these process details. We marveled at our meeting last night about how many engineers we have–and others who have experience with organization, logical thinking, and big picture planning.

I wish we had a private forum where we could make this a bit simpler–if anyone has any ideas, I would welcome them. In my experience it is better to have these decision discussed with people who have gotten to know each other, who trust each other, and have had some good experiences working with each other. We also don’t want to burden new members with all of this information! Let’s get them working on canvassing. We will be tinkering with our structure for the rest of our lives–that is what the free market is–always improving and growing. But if we can start with a foundation–then it will be easier to fine tune, reflect, learn, improve.

I have added much to our decisions last night. Our meeting was too short to go into all of this. As is the usual case, we don’t have enough time to speak about process

Layout of meeting place

Layout

1. Tables should be moved in such a way that everyone can see each other during the initial part of the meeting during intros and announcements–as much a circle as possible.

3. Tables are needed for campaign materials and for other purposes–take away the chairs, put signs on them to denote what they are. If people need to pay for materials, make that clear.

5. Table for roster sign up, questionnaires for newcomers, sign up sheets for various activities and name tags. Have markers and pens available, and ideally someone at the table to help encourage people to fill out the appropriate things. Project coordinators can have an extra name tag to denote what they are in charge of to help newcomers get more connected.
6. Flags can be placed on tables to show the following:

A. conversation café’s where people can discuss issues–especially newcomers who aren’t sure that they support Ron Paul but want to learn more www.conversationcafe.org

B. Activity organizing, including precinct walking (or this can be separate if there are enough people)

C. Improving the meetup, steering committee topics

D. Getting new activists up to speed and on board. Find out their talents, gifts, spheres of influence, ideas. Whomever works with new volunteers must be a good connecter, networker, know what is going on, preferably the meetup organizer.

Choosing a place to meet

Step 5 Choose a place for your weekly meeting

RP meetup handbook choosing a venue

Choosing a venue

Ideally the weekly Ron Paul meetup could be a potluck at a church or some other place where some people could bring extra food for those who don’t have time to prepare food. But I have found it is almost impossible to find a church or other space which is large enough to accommodate children, and is available on a weekly basis. So when I decided to look for a restaurant, this is how you can select a spot. It is essential that you look around to find an ideal place where you have a good rapport with the management.

Management: Ideally a locally owned company. Not absolutely necessary. Once you have found the idea place, find out who makes the decisions. Tell them that you want to meet once a week on a night that they are not too busy. Sell them on the idea that they will get more business, and that you will encourage people to attend to spread the word.

You will need to ask them if they are willing to either turn loud music or televisions off or low–it is essential that people can hear each other, especially during the group meeting.

Ask them if tables can be moved around in the area, and if you need to move them back where they went.

Location: Find a place which his centralized, especially for students if you are in a college town. Even though they may have their own separate meeting place on campus, student will want to attend your weekly meetup, and it is important to make it easy for them. Ideally, parking will be fairly easy, but not absolutely necessary.

Layout qualities:

1. Spacious and open
2. Lots of small tables which can be moved around. Booths are not good–too hard to get in and out–ability for people to flow and move around is important.
3. A section of the restaurant which has a natural separation, but which his still open to the restaurant. (This makes it easier for people to flow in and out, and customers get a sense of our dynamic and energetic group, gives a good impression of Ron Paul, hopefully!)

Food:

1. Inexpensive options. We enjoy Qdoba’s because taco’s can be purchased for as little as $2, chips and salsa are inexpensive also.
2. No waitresses. We don’t want to be interrupted by wait staff, and don’t want to keep them from having new customers.
3. Vegetarian and healthy options are nice for the health conscious.
4. If people don’t want to eat, they don’t have too.

Acoustics:

1. Make sure that people can easily hear each other and converse without shouting
2. A very small microphone and amp might be useful–just so it doesn’t impose on other customers. We haven’t done this yet, but are thinking about it.