We hit every precinct Republican for $200 and one evening...*pic heavy*

[mexicanpizza]

************************************************** ******
Detailed walk-through for excel newbies in post #72, here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=1117819#post1117819
************************************************** ******

Hey there....thought I would document what my wife and I decided to do in our precinct. We are both shy and very busy so canvassing has been hard to get time/nerve (but we're still going to try! ;) )

We decided to send out a personal letter to every Republican in our precinct. It's fairly simple to move the precinct addresses into a useful, automatable format...in my case I imported everything into Excel and filtered for Republicans and duplicates in the same household with the same last name. This amounted to ~450 voters in ~348 households.

Then we wrote and printed our personal letter, and put a candidate comparison and some RP quotes on the back. We addressed all of them using Word and a mail merge using Excel as the data source. Printing 350 double sided letters took less than an hour using our $99 laser printer.

Here is our precinct mapped using http://batchgeocode.com (AWESOME site for mapping addresses en masse):

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/precinctmap.jpg

Stack of letters...you can get an idea of the candidate comparison:
http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/rp%20%281%29.JPG

Stick in a slim jim:
http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/rp%20%282%29.JPG

Sit and fold/stuff for ~2 hours:
http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/rp%20%283%29.JPG

The finished product:
http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/rp%20%286%29.JPG


Total breakdown:



Joining voters.ronpaul2008.com $0
Download precinct voter info $0
Reformat in excel, filter Republicans $0
Map people @ batchgeocode.com $0
Ream of 24# bright white laser paper $7.99
Box of 500 windowed envelopes $18.99
Print 350 double sided b&w flyers $ ?? (cheap on home laser)
350 Slim Jims free from meetup
2 hours folding/stuffing with wife $0
Postage (350*0.41) $143
Total cost $170

Homes/voters reached: 350 / ~440


Our letter is hosted here (WORD DOC (http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/RP-Mailing.doc)), and (PDF (http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/RP-Mailing.pdf))

Get out there people. After I send these, I'm calling as many as I can this weekend.

If anyone needs help with list formatting/filtering, let me know!



************************************************** ******
Detailed walk-through for excel newbies in post #72, here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=1117819#post1117819
************************************************** ******

[SonicInfinity]

...

[faisal]

bump

[Opulen]

Awesome! awesome awesome Thank you so much. Go win Ron Paul!!

[amonasro]

Wow, just amazing :D

[Jmaths117]

Wow! :eek:


:)

[BreakYourChains]

Nice job!

[jonahtrainer]

That is awesome! I should use that letter for the houses where people aren't home. Currently, I leave the Founding Father's flyer.

[NOLA]

thank you...you guys rock!!!

[DirtMcGirt]

Nice work!!!

[hopeforamerica]

Great job!! I'm busy during the weekends when most people are home. So I burned 600 DVDs that I'm putting on my precincts door knobs. I also gave an email. Can't wait to see if I get any responses. If anyone is interested, this is where I got the idea:

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/27772

[Lord Xar]

Hey, can I have a pdf/word doc of your candidate comparision???

Also, did you 'hand address' each or did you print them out and put them in the envelopes window?

[Lord Xar]

Great job!! I'm busy during the weekends when most people are home. So I burned 600 DVDs that I'm putting on my precincts door knobs. I also gave an email. Can't wait to see if I get any responses. If anyone is interested, this is where I got the idea:

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/27772

Did you compile all the videos? where are the sources of the youtube videos? I am having a brain fart, ahhaha.. how do you compile them..

IF you did it already, can you post it somewhere for each download so we can burn our own?

[mexicanpizza]

Hey Lord, there is a link at the end of the post! And we did the latter...I would've liked to hand address them but I can't imagine how long that would take. :D Windowed envelopes, and the address printed at the right spot on the top of the letter.

hopeforamerica, how did you burn 600 dvds?! :eek:

[Lord Xar]

Hey Lord, there is a link at the end of the post! And we did the latter...I would've liked to hand address them but I can't imagine how long that would take. :D Windowed envelopes, and the address printed at the right spot on the top of the letter.

hopeforamerica, how did you burn 600 dvds?! :eek:

I was told to leave out the "war" issue - and that dvd, has an "end the war" video (second one)... how has your feelings been in San Diego? I am in Los Angeles.

[MikeStanart]

For those of you with kids...

This would be a great way to make them earn their allowance!

[Highstreet]

Book mark

[hopeforamerica]

Hey Lord, there is a link at the end of the post! And we did the latter...I would've liked to hand address them but I can't imagine how long that would take. :D Windowed envelopes, and the address printed at the right spot on the top of the letter.

hopeforamerica, how did you burn 600 dvds?! :eek:

Well....... a friend let me borrow their duplicator. 22 at a time. It took me about 3.5 hours to burn them, and another 1.5 hours to put them in sleeves and label them. Probably another 20 hours to deliver them.

This DVD has been used by another in my group and he is getting a 30 to 50% positive response rate!!! I can't wait to see if it holds true for the ones I put out. I've got my map ready to go all day tomorrow!

[dvictr]

AWESOME

thats grassroots support!


-

[zcopley]

Thank you very much for posting the letter you sent. I'm a precinct leader and a former Democrat who registered repub (in CA) just to vote for Paul on Feb 5. I'm kinda shy myself, but what has really kept me from doing what you have done is that I feel like I don't feel like I know what to say to Republicans. I just have a sense that I need to somehow appeal to common sense. I'm half afraid that I'll do more damage than good. Maybe I can use your letter as a model.

Very inspiring post!

Zach

[jasonjasonjason1]

aa

[AdamT]

How do you use a "mail merge" to access addresses off an Excel file when printing out each letter copy with a unique address??

[Airborn]

nice!

[gpickett00]

I'm in Tallahassee, FL. Tomorrow I will be standing outside the polls with a sign and literature. What are the exact election laws as far as handing out slim jims and campaigning outside of the polls as far as proximity? I want to have something printed with me in case I have a run in with a poll worker or something so a link would be awesome.

Any suggestions for what I should be doing while outside promoting Ron Paul? Should I directly ask every person something or should I just stand and say hello. Thanks everyone!

[ckhagen]

Nice job!!

Am I the only one who had almost 3,000 registered Rs in my (semi-rural) precinct?!? I didn't realize some people had so few people in their precincts.

[cheese]

we have the strongest grassroots in the history of the world. not exaggerating... it's insane

[AdamT]

I'm in Tallahassee, FL. Tomorrow I will be standing outside the polls with a sign and literature. What are the exact election laws as far as handing out slim jims and campaigning outside of the polls as far as proximity? I want to have something printed with me in case I have a run in with a poll worker or something so a link would be awesome.

Any suggestions for what I should be doing while outside promoting Ron Paul? Should I directly ask every person something or should I just stand and say hello. Thanks everyone!

In our state (WI), you have to be 100 feet from the door of the polling building.

[Nyte]

Nice work!

Only one picky suggestion: You could have used the "Forever" Liberty Bell stamp (http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=18401&productId=29351).

[noiseordinance]

This is a very inspiring post. With full time work and half time school, this seems like an avenue of promotion that I can invest in. Furthermore, I have some friends who I can't get to canvass for the life of me, even though they are unemployed, yet they have no problem shelling out money. I will recommend this thread highly.

[tx08]

Thanks for the inspiration!!! I don't plan on canvassing, but I do get 1,000 prints every semester from my college...now I know what to use them all for!

[torchbearer]

grassroots rocks.

[noiseordinance]

Thanks for the inspiration!!! I don't plan on canvassing, but I do get 1,000 prints every semester from my college...now I know what to use them all for!

Amen to that! I will suddenly have a use for my prints now too!

[dblee]

I love your mac.

[mexicanpizza]

That is incredible. Thankyou so much!!!

Oh, and I know this kinda misses the point but: was that flight of the conchords on the computer screen?

Cheer up Murray, don't let it get you down! ;)


How do you use a "mail merge" to access addresses off an Excel file when printing out each letter copy with a unique address??

It's actually really easy...in word...Tools-->Letters and Envelopes-->Mail Merge and there is a really easy wizard. I can send you some links if you can't figure it out. Basically just make sure mail merge is pointed at the right excel file, and that it knows which columns are which.


I love your mac.

Hehe...thanks. I'm a 100% PC/Linux guy, but got this as a gift and I actually really love it. Running XP also in Parallels...I might never go back... :eek: :D

Glad everyone likes this...I just emailed all my local precinct leaders too...!

[mexicanpizza]

Up for the mornin'.

[limequat]

We could also use a postcard to save on postage. I'd like to see someone design something that could be printed out and mailed for 26 c.

Maybe I'll start a new thread...

[newmedia4ron]

bump

[Laja]

Thanks for the letter. Do you have a link for the candidate comparison? This is exciting.

[Detonator]

That must have been a lot of work. Thanks for your time and effort. ;)

[Laja]

Thanks for the letter. Do you have a link for the candidate comparison? This is exciting.

oops! i just found the candidate comparison on page 2 of the word doc. thanks!

[slamhead]

Way to go...I am just up the coast from you in San Clemente. Don't forget to talk to the Marines in Oceanside.

[mikeycapz]

great job! we should all be doing this in every state

[btwilli1]

I only have 273 in my precint. I think I'll do this as well.

[btwilli1]

Has anybody had anyone come to their house or vandalize after sending out letters?

[RonPaulJunkie]

Great job! I was wondering how long it was going to take me to write all the addresses down. Thanks for the information, and showing everyone how easy it is!

[ziggrl]

Very nice. But where is Guiliani in the comparison matrix?

[Coola]

Very nice. But where is Guiliani in the comparison matrix?

Guiliani? ;)

[pinkmandy]

Thank you for this, I was calling first because of the sheer numbers and cost of postage! I didn't think to look and notice that many people share addresses! Woot! I just went out and bought envelopes and a ton of paper. Working on mine tonight! Thanks for pointing out the obvious...

[btwilli1]

How much more effective would it be to handwrite addresses? You think it makes a difference?

[mexicanpizza]

Very nice. But where is Guiliani in the comparison matrix?

Nowhere in CA. ;)

Subliminal. They won't get it until after FL as I'm mailing tomorrow.

[Coola]

Also I think a lot more people would become precinct captains if they are able to apply this to their area.

[jake]

what does it take to inspire everyone on this forum to do this? meetups should be doing this!!! this is Ron Paul's election to win - if the word is out to the people, he will win. if supporters sit by spamming the internet and waving a sign every other weekend, he will lose.

[UK4Paul]

Thanks for your hard work in support of Ron Paul.

[AdamT]

Here is our precinct mapped using http://batchgeocode.com (AWESOME site for mapping addresses en masse):

In your process, what is the point of this step and what role does it play?

If you could give a more detailed rundown of all the steps you did it would be really helpful to many of us. I use Word and Excel but not that often (Mac user - I try to stay away from Microsoft software :)), so seriously, hold my hand and walk me through it. I just downloaded my precinct data file (Excel .csv file). How do we sort/filter the data?

WE NEED A WHITE PAPER ON THIS PROCESS.

Thanks for the help!

[BIG_J]

A true American Patriot!

[AdamT]

bump

[jacmicwag]

Great idea - the calls and door knocking in my precinct are more miss than hit. I might add your program to the agenda for better coverage.

[Thumper]

I would gladly do this. I used to do a ton of it professionally. I thought everyone was handwriting letters and my penmanship stinks so I didnt volunteer for the letter writing campaign. Knowing that printing is okay means that I can crank up the network laser printer and blast off hundreds of letters easily.

Thanks so much for posting this and for sending out all of those letters!!!

[Benaiah]

///

[MayTheRonBeWithYou]

Amazing, Amazing...

Great work!

[bluemarkets]

Thank you!

we need more of this "in the trenches" effort on display ...

I just ordered 2,000 flyers today hoping to get them out in my area as well.

BTW ... the flyers I ordered are now 50% OFF .. go get some ... link below

http://www.paul-mall.com/mall/ronpaulflyers/index.html

[mexicanpizza]

In your process, what is the point of this step and what role does it play?

If you could give a more detailed rundown of all the steps you did it would be really helpful to many of us. I use Word and Excel but not that often (Mac user - I try to stay away from Microsoft software :)), so seriously, hold my hand and walk me through it. I just downloaded my precinct data file (Excel .csv file). How do we sort/filter the data?

WE NEED A WHITE PAPER ON THIS PROCESS.

Thanks for the help!


Hey there Adam. My original intent was to hand deliver as many of them as I could...hence the mapping of the houses, but I just decided to mail all of them.

I will try to post some hints tonight about how to filter in excel. When I got the list I only had a PDF of my precinct, so it should be easier for you. Worst comes to worst you can send me your .csv and I can fiddle with it. :D

[mexicanpizza]

Another thought...If the .csv format is consistent across the country, I can write a simple macro to do the formatting/filtering...

[Soccrmastr]

thanks for the info. that site is awesome! Trying tog et my XML file formatted correctly. Some tips would be greatly appreciated.

[justatrey]

Wow. I feel inspired. Thanks for all your hard work and for posting this. :D

[sgrooms]

bump

[Mauiboy86]

Wow that must have made a huge difference! I think that we should all do something like that!

[transistor]

awesome!

[MrAustin]

Way to go! I love hearing stroies like this...

Thanks you guys!:D

[spm1024]

I am doing this same exact thing.

I decided to send letters to people with scores of greater than 60 instead of just republicans.
That ended up being about 130 in my precinct.

I wrote all of the addresses by hand, just to increase the number that actually get opened. I know that if I get a piece of mail with my name hand written on it...I am much more likely to open it and actually read it.

I am really interested to see how many people call or email me for more information.

Some people seem to think that sitting around watching youtube clips and talking on a forum are going to get votes. GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO SOMETHING!

[idrake]

I would have done the mailing thing, but my town has PO boxes and the campaign didn't have that info.

[mexicanpizza]

If you could give a more detailed rundown of all the steps you did it would be really helpful to many of us. I use Word and Excel but not that often (Mac user - I try to stay away from Microsoft software :)), so seriously, hold my hand and walk me through it. I just downloaded my precinct data file (Excel .csv file). How do we sort/filter the data?

WE NEED A WHITE PAPER ON THIS PROCESS.

Thanks for the help!


Ok...I'll give a quick rundown which should help most with a little experience with excel. I won't go into how to parse out duplicate houses with excel, because it's almost easier to do manually. (and it will take forever to explain in detail)

1. Download your precinct's spreadsheet from voters.ronpaul2008.com (.csv format), and open it in excel.

2. Click on the label "1" for the very first row containing the column headers to highlight the entire first row.

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/excel1.jpg

3. Then choose Data-->Filter-->Autofilter, dropdown menus will appear on every column heading

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/excel2.jpg

4. Filter as you like, I typically just select the "R" to filter republicans only. Then you can copy just these guys to a new sheet to make it easier later, leaving out all the info past column L (favorite issues, etc). If you want to work with that too to target slim jims to people, you can.

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/excel3.png

5. Now the fun begins. You should have all your republicans in a new sheet with columns A - L, as below:

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/excel4.png

The goal here is to format this so it ultimately looks nice on the envelope/letter. That includes making the street name and city name proper case, and adding "Unit" or "Apt" ahead of the apartment column (as you can see in the above pic). This is easier than is sounds.

The way I did this may not be the best way, but it's fast. As you can see I added five columns, "Unit", "FullAddress", "FullAddress2", "First2", and "Last2". You basically just need to type formulas into cells M2, N2, O2, P2, and Q2 and then fill downwards throughout the whole documen:.

Cell M2: =IF(ISBLANK(H2),"",CONCATENATE("Unit ",H2))

This basically looks at cell H2 (the apartment/unit cell), and if it's empty, does nothing. If there is something there, it adds that value to the end of "Unit ". So Column M will contain a value only if you're dealing with an apt.

Cell N2: =CONCATENATE(C2," ",PROPER(E2)," ",PROPER(G2)," ",M2)

This basically slaps together the address into one cell, takes the number (Col C), the street (Col E) with proper formatting, the suffix (Col G) with proper formatting, and then adds the Unit (Col M)

Cell O2: =CONCATENATE(PROPER(I2),", CA 92054")

Properly formats the city (Col I), and slaps on the state and zip code.

Cell P2: =PROPER(A2)

Properly formats the first name.

Cell Q2: =PROPER(B2)

Properly formats the first name.

Once you have that working for the first row, you can highlight all five M2/N2/O2/P2/Q2 and copy/paste them over the rest of the column (excel whizzes, just double click on the lower right corner of the five cells after they are highlighted to autofill down).

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/excel5.png

That's basically it for excel. To make it easy, you can copy just columns N-Q into a separate document and save it for the mail merge.

http://scaryknife.com/images/ronpaul/excel6.png

WORD PART

1. Open word.

2. Click this link and read it: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA010349201033.aspx ;) ;)

Basically you'll open the mail merge wizard and point it at the excel file, make sure word knows where the addresses, first, and last names are by selecting the column headings, and then inserting the placeholders for the data in your letter. (from my example word .doc, this is the <<Address Block>> near the beginning).

3. Print shedload of letters.

Whew....hope that helps!! I'll do my best with questions. :D

[AdamT]

You seriously rock! This helped immensely and I now have all my letters ready.

We did it a bit different, and modified the letter to relate to both Dems and Repubs. So we have letters going out to our entire list, minus duplicates at the same addresses. Here is our modified letter. (alcpac.com/precinct_docs/RP-Mailing-mod.doc)

I also used Mail Merge to include people's scores (0-100) and interests (G = guns, etc), and put this data in very small text at the bottom right corner of the letters. That will assist in adding the proper slim jims when stuffing the envelopes.

I'm going to make up a new chart to include Obama and Clinton.

[Nic4Truth]

yay! i was just scratching my head on how to do this, lol

[Lord Xar]

You seriously rock! This helped immensely and I now have all my letters ready.

We did it a bit different, and modified the letter to relate to both Dems and Repubs. So we have letters going out to our entire list, minus duplicates at the same addresses. Here is our modified letter. (alcpac.com/precinct_docs/RP-Mailing-mod.doc)

I also used Mail Merge to include people's scores (0-100) and interests (G = guns, etc), and put this data in very small text at the bottom right corner of the letters. That will assist in adding the proper slim jims when stuffing the envelopes.

I'm going to make up a new chart to include Obama and Clinton.


I have not been following the whole thread thru.. what is the benefit of the mail merge and all of that? Are you not "handwriting" the envelopes?

are there any parts you are handwriting on the letter?

AdamT, what are you putting in your mailers/walking packages?

[smartpeople4ronpaul]

Good job.

[Nic4Truth]

I need to get these printed and mailed by tomorrow!

I followed the directions, however, my first problem:


-I am using Vista, Microsoft office 2007, to do my mail merge. I have to the best of my knowledge, done it correct, but when i preview my letters, the addresses are missing.. (blank)... totally defeating the purpose of the merge!

What might i be doing wrong here? Please help asap. Thanks! PM me or answer here.

[thehighwaymanq]

Amazing!

Great!

[Nic4Truth]

Can anyone help me please???????????????????????????????????????????? ????

[Eric21ND]

Where did you get your orginal list of voters in your precinct?

[Nic4Truth]

I am trying to do mailmerge to save time. Do you think handwritten is better? Im almost ready to return the envelopes I got for plain ones and just write them out by hand. I cant figure out the mail merge. :(

[JT1]

You and your wife are AWESOME!

Imagine if this was done in every single one of the 180,000+ precincts.

[JT1]

More people have to read this so go to the first post and read it if you haven't. :D

[spm1024]

Where did you get your orginal list of voters in your precinct?

become a precinct leader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It will give you access to the data that you need.

[Mahkato]

2 hours folding/stuffing with wife ..... $0

Hey man, I'm happy for you and all on your marital bliss, but was this really necessary? :D

[AdamT]

I have not been following the whole thread thru.. what is the benefit of the mail merge and all of that? Are you not "handwriting" the envelopes?

are there any parts you are handwriting on the letter?

AdamT, what are you putting in your mailers/walking packages?

Mail merge just speeds up the process by taking data off the Excel file and adds a unique address to your "form letter". It creates a new Word page with the same letter, but with a different name/address for each new page. You end up with hundreds of new pages, and then print them off. Then you fold the letters so the address shows through the windowed envelopes. There is no handwriting involved, unless you want to do it. It's still personal since it's coming from someone down the street or around the corner.

Lord, I'm putting the letter, a targeted slim jim, and a couple other info pages in the envelope.

[JT1]

http://www.ronpaul2008.com

[JT1]

This needed to be brought back to the first page for those that need some inspiration to get involved.