tangent4ronpaul
08-04-2007, 07:46 AM
Dear Meetup Organizers,
Many, if not most of you, have had a couple of files dropped in your Meetup file areas by John Vidurek that people have written to me about, describing them as “Disturbing” and “very depressing”. It is hyping a “new” organization, which he's calling “Ron Paul Minutemen”, but is in fact Dick Mills “Ron Paul Friends USA” group. It's not clear that Mr Vidurek knows that yet.
One of the files, an mp3, is the audio of their first meeting held on July 31st, 2007. It contains many inaccurate points that I'd like to clear up here. If you have not heard it yet, that audio can be found on this page: (it's over an hour of audio)
http://www.xylem.net/Files/RonPaul/Minutemen.htm
First the claim is made that there are many failed Meetup groups and that this could be prevented if only they were given direction. I have watched and tracked the growth of the Meetup Groups since their inception and know of no single case where a Meetup has failed and closed shop due to the inexperience of their organizer or it failing to catch on in a community. Meetups have closed for 2 reasons:
The organizer created it and then realized there was already a Meetup in their area, so their group was redundant. It is very obvious that this has happened many times and is responsible for most of the closed Meetups.
A bug in Meetups software, where if after forming your Meetup, you go to the page with prices on the form a new Meetup page - if you do this and back out, it creates another Meetup with your current Meetup Name and location and you have to contact Meetup to get the second group removed. This has happened to me and others, so one of those closed ie: “failed” Meetups is mine.
In either case, a permanent “hole” is created in the Meetup numbering for the closed group.
As to needing help and advice – well, a minority of Meetup organizers have not been shy in posting to the Organizers forums that they are new to this and would like some advice. The response has been good, on all occasions of this happening. By stepping up to organize a Meetup, you are a leader – not a sheeple to be “led” and “directed”. Not lemmings. You are someone yelling “follow me!” - there is no shame in asking for some help and advice, but if you are incapable of functioning without someone telling you what to do – you shouldn't be in your current position.
He points out the need for press attention. Organizers are reminded that we have received guidelines on this matter from the official National organization in both teleconferences and through their guidelines documents available here:
http://ronpaul2008.com/get-involved/ (see the sub pages to the right)
The teleconference notes are in the file area of RPMeetupOrganizers and the streamed broadcast of the second teleconference has expired from the archives of justin.tv, unfortunatly.
They basically say refer to the official organization and web page for official views and only talk to reporters about your group and what they are doing from a human interest angle.
Obviously, LTE's from individual supporters are a bit different, but from a Meetup Organizer standpoint, national does not want us (mis)representing Dr. Pauls views or speaking on his behalf.
He identifies a need to mobilize in mass, and the ability to organize in this way. He's obviously not familiar with Meetup 511, that was created for this purpose and you all have been invited to join. As to sharing information and resources, RPMeetupOrganizers already does that. Between the two groups, we have roughly 200 unique Meetup Organizers represented and have requested that you contact other organizers in your state to get everyone talking on these forums. We provide a venue for communication and will censor off topic discussion, especially attempts to recruit for private coalitions, we will NEVER tell you what to do. Requests and suggestions, sure – but TELL you – NEVER! The decision to follow those suggestions or ideas thrown out is completely up to you.
He identifies the need for state groups to be formed, which we have already requested that you do, and some states have pro-actively done before we asked you to. There are currently about 16 of these groups, and growing. In general they are for Meetup organizers only, but some are open to anyone in the state. Please post to the forums if you have a state group so we can add them to the list and announce them as well as include them in a comprehensive listing for the file area.
This brings up that huge difference between grassroots, bottom-up organizing and hierarchical top down organizing once again. We don't want to tell you what to do! Might ask that something be done, like create INDEPENDENT state groups that YOU, the local organizers control. We want absolute control to be at the Meetup level. We encourage sharing of ideas, and putting out resources that you may or may not use. What you do as a Meetup or through a voluntary state or regional coalition do is entirely up to you.
Hierarchical organizations, like Mr. Mills “Ron Paul Friends USA” and John Clifton/Tom Stevens Clifton coalition, aka John Clifton for Ron Paul coalition, aka Paul Power, aka P4P, aka Paul for president Coalition, etc. all work differently. They want to be at the top giving orders. They ASSIGN regional and state coordinators – that is their choice of person, not the choice of the organizers in that state, to represent that state and provide “direction” (give orders) as well as report back to them. That's like some FEMA guy showing up and saying “I'm from the gvmt and I'm here to help”. It is a world of difference between that and voluntary cooperation between groups. Cooperation where if someone comes up with an idea and others like it, it happens, if not it probably wasn't that good of an idea anyway. Our approach is more like a representative democracy, which is really what we are trying to return the state of the country to. Isn't it completely hypocritical to advocate and work for a return to local, state control by putting in power the equivalent of the federal government?
They use fear tactics - “we'll loose if you don't all follow me” and the appeal to authority – their great experience in the political arena. Sometimes that experience isn't what's needed. If during the first American revolution, we had followed those experienced generals who advocated doing things as they were traditionally done, line up in rows, wearing brightly colored uniforms and fire at the oppositions rows of soldiers – would we have won? Fighting from behind trees and rocks worked a lot better! The intelligence community does postmortems of their analytical failures – the times we got blindsided: The fall of the Berlin wall, and collapse of the Soviet Union, etc. In every case, they found that in times of rapid change, it was the generalists, the free thinkers that got it right, and the area specialists who were set in their world view and biases that got it wrong. Granted, the latter do much better when things are “normal”, but we are in a far from normal campaign here. We are in uncharted territory.
These people probably have much to offer insofar as FEC legal BS is concerned, the delegate process, etc. yet in the case of Mr. Mills organization, his plan is on a DVD that they were first charging for. Now it's free, but you still have to give them your mailing address, e-mail and name to get it (get on their mailing list). A teaser is on youtube, but that doesn't say anything, it's just there to entice you to give them your info and sell them on his group. He might have some really good ideas, but if he does, they will never spread far. He has the disk copy written and isn't freely sharing his ideas by putting up an iso, streaming the whole thing or making it available for download. That's not how the grassroots works. The grassroots is about the free exchange of ideas and resources. The Clifton coalition is worse – they simply don't share information and are focused on building their coalition. If you are not part of their coalition, you can expect NO cooperation or communication with Meetups that are not a part of it. All these “private coalitions” fragment Dr. Paul's support.
This “Minuteman” group is calling for groups to come together and share in the cost of materials production to get deep discounts through volume purchasing. GREAT IDEA! BIG PROBLEM! - FEC regulations... you run into FEC deep doo-doo when you do this. It would need a PAC or something. Done INFORMALLY at a state level, or even regionally – it could work a lot better. It's a subject for the lawyers. I also noticed and was unimpressed with the prices being quoted. The best prices on materials can be found on this thread:
http://ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=3113
Though Tyvek banners can be made in the $3-5 range, as opposed to $50 each – see ronpaulrevolution.com and click on “HowTo”.
Also note that ronpaulstickers.com has bumper stickers for 10 cents a pop and yard signs at a good price. This operates at little to negative profit, though as the printer is a supporter he fills production time into lulls of his commercial work. That means there might be a delay in shipping, depending on the production run – but do you want it REALLY CHEAP! (at cost) or NOW!???
Ummm.... minor stuff – he talks about collecting signs/banners after the fact. If they are on private property they don't need to be collected and unless stolen will still be there. On public property – expect them to be confiscated by the state. They are expendable. A one hour to one week lifespan – but worth it!
A complaint was voiced that the campaign didn't have enough money and we need to coordinate fund raising. The situation is not so dire as it is made out, as our second quarter donations were 4 times the first quarter. There was also a call to be able to afford big buck advertising and fight the campaign as a traditional one. NEWSFLASH! - We are the “David” as in David and Goliath. A small guy trying to fight a campaign on the same level as the well funded candidates is asking to LOOSE! What we have that they don't, is a huge base of highly motivated volunteers, very creative volunteers. That's something money can't buy. And it's much more powerful. I would much rather see our movement poor, strong and creative than rich, weak and dull.
Another complaint was that we only have ~650 Meetups (that number is actually a bit lower), representing about 550 cities (think that's a bit low). There are roughly 2800 counties in the United States and our goal is a Meetup in every county. We are growing Meetups at a rate of 10-15 PER DAY! That number usually doubles after every debate. The “seeding” program is working well. No, I don't think we need direction in this area, we are doing really well!
It was stated that we needed a national grassroots organization organized along the lines of Senatorial and precinct districts. Yet the national campaign has requested that we organize on a state/county basis. Please organize by state/county. National is there to give us guidance, we should follow their advice. September may hold some unpleasant surprises and the only way to react will be on a county level.
There was a book written a while ago, called “The incredible secret Money Machine” by Don Lancaster. It was about how to run a grassroots business. One of his points is to ignore Megabucks – concentrate on nickels. Especially recurring nickels. One of these “coalitions” has it in their mission statement to track down 100 - $1,000 donations per state. It's a lot easier to track down a lot of $100 donations, or easier still – people that will donate $10 a month, every month on an automatic withdrawal basis.
A complaint was raised that we didn't know where Dr. Paul was at any given time and that this new organization could broadcast this information. Dr. Paul's schedule is posted here under “Upcoming events” on the right hand side of the page:
http://ronpaul2008.com/
Another complaint was raised about the inability of the PCC to communicate and direct the grassroots due to McCain-Feingold. This was addressed very well in Jen Solt's excellent post, that I'm sure everyone has seen. There is frustration on both sides. For those wanting a bit deeper insight into the problem, please see:
http://www.brookings.org/gs/cf/debate/MF_summary.htm (especially section 211)
National gives us general guidelines of what they would like to see happen, and as Dr. Paul clearly voiced in the AZ airport vid: “YOU ARE THE CAMPAIGN!”. That is the grassroots, not some self appointed “coalition” to “direct us”.
If we are to have “coalitions”, they should be short lived, voluntary and arraigned around specific events. Not imposed from on high. In Iowa we had people showing up from these “coalitions” proclaiming to be state or regional coordinators and trying to give orders. They were ignored by the locals who all knew and trusted each other. In NY and a few other states, the Cliftons have a stronger hold. But things are starting to break.
Regarding the Clifton Coalition (under all it's different names), they started out focusing only on the pre-super Tuesday states, then expanded to wanting a “state coordinator” in every state. (I understand they have appointed one in 40 states, so far, and also have had mass defections) Now they think that only one state coordinator in NH isn't enough, so want to move into Nationals ballpark and get their own “coordinator” in that state. They started out with 5 core projects – that got morphed into controlling the entire grassroots movement.
Lest you think I'm totally slamming the Clifton Coalition, I want to concede that they are doing some good work. Most of their (and possibly other coalitions) work has been good. There are well meaning supporters that are members. However, their #1 goal is building their coalition and CONTROL! - Not getting Dr. Paul elected. They are also very secretive and do not cooperate with the rest of the grassroots movement that are not part of their coalition. That's a MAJOR problem!
The national campaign is now hiring and giving individual states, state coordinators, that are official. Just recently a few new coordinators have been hired. Be patient – they are working on it. If someone claims to be a state or regional coordinator of the official campaign (and there have been some imposter's from these “coalitions” that have tried to pass themselves off that way), please contact Justine Lam at Justine.lam@ronpaul2008.com to verify their status. At least one organizer has voiced a complaint of being contacted within hours of forming their Meetup by someone from one of these “coalitions” claiming to be “the official grassroots campaign” and trying to get the new organizer to to sign up with them. The 2 larger “coalitions” operate this way – at least the contact point, though only one uses the false association claim, as far as I can tell.
One last item, on the Minutemen site, as are many issues discussions – see:
http://vote2008ronpaul.com/
In conversations with official staffers, they have pointed out that many groups associate their positions on issues as being those of Dr. Paul's. This is also a problem with the AFTF and RECLAIM coalitions, as well as the truther and 9-11 based groups. While the core of these issues may be in line with Dr. Paul's positions, many stances ARE NOT! We need to be very careful about putting words in Dr. Paul's mouth, as they may alienate potential supporters and not be his views. We are here to promote Ron Paul's agenda – NOT YOURS!
Overall, I'd say that the grassroots is totally ROCKING! - we are growing faster than any other campaign and have wide support. If you get communication from some “coalition” about how we are going to “loose” unless you join them and how we NEED their leadership – IGNORE IT! (Thats just my advice – not nationals).
Viva La Revolution!
Nathan
PS: If you are a organizer/moderator of a Ron Paul group, we host some discussion forums. We will NEVER tell you what to do, but these are not the place for news or issues discussions. Take those to the general message forums. We will nuke off topic posts. We vett applicants – your name must appear as a organizer/moderator of your claimed association or you will be rejected. Please provide your full name, e-mail, and the group you are running. Phone numbers and mailing addresses are appreciated. This information is forwarded to Justine Lam at National HQ, and is a pathway to getting campaign materials and official communication sent to you from national.
For Meetup organizers, you are invited to join:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPMeetupOrganizers/
This group is for general sharing of ideas and resources between Meetup organizers, those issues specific to a specific Meetup or all Meetups in the country and like matters. Off topic posts will be NUKED! Do not try to join this group if you are not a Meetup organizer – you will be rejected! As a note, while we accept a limited number of assistant organizers, those Meetups with a low supporter count who have made the majority of their members “assistant organizers” will get ALL “assistant organizers” rejected. You know who I'm talking about.
And:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/511/
This group is STRICTLY for issues surrounding forming short lived coalitions specific to events that have a disproportional influence on getting Ron Paul elected. It should be like the Iowa Boarder States Coalition – very low volume, and on topic. Off topic posts WILL BE NUKED! Do not try to join this group if you are not a Meetup organizer – you will be rejected!
Facebook and MySpace group moderators are encouraged to e-mail me. We have Organizer groups on these sites, though they are not yet well developed. You must check you out to be sure you really run the group you claim to (be vetted) in order to to gain access. Again. Please don't waste our time and yours.
Disclaimer: Nathan and Jeremie are in no way connected to the official National organization, though we do talk to them. We offer a venue to promote organizer and moderator communication between the grassroots leadership and nothing more. We NEVER give you orders!, but will facilitate the propagation of official communications from National and do facilitate the open exchange of communications and ideas between organizers by hosting a couple of forms.
Many, if not most of you, have had a couple of files dropped in your Meetup file areas by John Vidurek that people have written to me about, describing them as “Disturbing” and “very depressing”. It is hyping a “new” organization, which he's calling “Ron Paul Minutemen”, but is in fact Dick Mills “Ron Paul Friends USA” group. It's not clear that Mr Vidurek knows that yet.
One of the files, an mp3, is the audio of their first meeting held on July 31st, 2007. It contains many inaccurate points that I'd like to clear up here. If you have not heard it yet, that audio can be found on this page: (it's over an hour of audio)
http://www.xylem.net/Files/RonPaul/Minutemen.htm
First the claim is made that there are many failed Meetup groups and that this could be prevented if only they were given direction. I have watched and tracked the growth of the Meetup Groups since their inception and know of no single case where a Meetup has failed and closed shop due to the inexperience of their organizer or it failing to catch on in a community. Meetups have closed for 2 reasons:
The organizer created it and then realized there was already a Meetup in their area, so their group was redundant. It is very obvious that this has happened many times and is responsible for most of the closed Meetups.
A bug in Meetups software, where if after forming your Meetup, you go to the page with prices on the form a new Meetup page - if you do this and back out, it creates another Meetup with your current Meetup Name and location and you have to contact Meetup to get the second group removed. This has happened to me and others, so one of those closed ie: “failed” Meetups is mine.
In either case, a permanent “hole” is created in the Meetup numbering for the closed group.
As to needing help and advice – well, a minority of Meetup organizers have not been shy in posting to the Organizers forums that they are new to this and would like some advice. The response has been good, on all occasions of this happening. By stepping up to organize a Meetup, you are a leader – not a sheeple to be “led” and “directed”. Not lemmings. You are someone yelling “follow me!” - there is no shame in asking for some help and advice, but if you are incapable of functioning without someone telling you what to do – you shouldn't be in your current position.
He points out the need for press attention. Organizers are reminded that we have received guidelines on this matter from the official National organization in both teleconferences and through their guidelines documents available here:
http://ronpaul2008.com/get-involved/ (see the sub pages to the right)
The teleconference notes are in the file area of RPMeetupOrganizers and the streamed broadcast of the second teleconference has expired from the archives of justin.tv, unfortunatly.
They basically say refer to the official organization and web page for official views and only talk to reporters about your group and what they are doing from a human interest angle.
Obviously, LTE's from individual supporters are a bit different, but from a Meetup Organizer standpoint, national does not want us (mis)representing Dr. Pauls views or speaking on his behalf.
He identifies a need to mobilize in mass, and the ability to organize in this way. He's obviously not familiar with Meetup 511, that was created for this purpose and you all have been invited to join. As to sharing information and resources, RPMeetupOrganizers already does that. Between the two groups, we have roughly 200 unique Meetup Organizers represented and have requested that you contact other organizers in your state to get everyone talking on these forums. We provide a venue for communication and will censor off topic discussion, especially attempts to recruit for private coalitions, we will NEVER tell you what to do. Requests and suggestions, sure – but TELL you – NEVER! The decision to follow those suggestions or ideas thrown out is completely up to you.
He identifies the need for state groups to be formed, which we have already requested that you do, and some states have pro-actively done before we asked you to. There are currently about 16 of these groups, and growing. In general they are for Meetup organizers only, but some are open to anyone in the state. Please post to the forums if you have a state group so we can add them to the list and announce them as well as include them in a comprehensive listing for the file area.
This brings up that huge difference between grassroots, bottom-up organizing and hierarchical top down organizing once again. We don't want to tell you what to do! Might ask that something be done, like create INDEPENDENT state groups that YOU, the local organizers control. We want absolute control to be at the Meetup level. We encourage sharing of ideas, and putting out resources that you may or may not use. What you do as a Meetup or through a voluntary state or regional coalition do is entirely up to you.
Hierarchical organizations, like Mr. Mills “Ron Paul Friends USA” and John Clifton/Tom Stevens Clifton coalition, aka John Clifton for Ron Paul coalition, aka Paul Power, aka P4P, aka Paul for president Coalition, etc. all work differently. They want to be at the top giving orders. They ASSIGN regional and state coordinators – that is their choice of person, not the choice of the organizers in that state, to represent that state and provide “direction” (give orders) as well as report back to them. That's like some FEMA guy showing up and saying “I'm from the gvmt and I'm here to help”. It is a world of difference between that and voluntary cooperation between groups. Cooperation where if someone comes up with an idea and others like it, it happens, if not it probably wasn't that good of an idea anyway. Our approach is more like a representative democracy, which is really what we are trying to return the state of the country to. Isn't it completely hypocritical to advocate and work for a return to local, state control by putting in power the equivalent of the federal government?
They use fear tactics - “we'll loose if you don't all follow me” and the appeal to authority – their great experience in the political arena. Sometimes that experience isn't what's needed. If during the first American revolution, we had followed those experienced generals who advocated doing things as they were traditionally done, line up in rows, wearing brightly colored uniforms and fire at the oppositions rows of soldiers – would we have won? Fighting from behind trees and rocks worked a lot better! The intelligence community does postmortems of their analytical failures – the times we got blindsided: The fall of the Berlin wall, and collapse of the Soviet Union, etc. In every case, they found that in times of rapid change, it was the generalists, the free thinkers that got it right, and the area specialists who were set in their world view and biases that got it wrong. Granted, the latter do much better when things are “normal”, but we are in a far from normal campaign here. We are in uncharted territory.
These people probably have much to offer insofar as FEC legal BS is concerned, the delegate process, etc. yet in the case of Mr. Mills organization, his plan is on a DVD that they were first charging for. Now it's free, but you still have to give them your mailing address, e-mail and name to get it (get on their mailing list). A teaser is on youtube, but that doesn't say anything, it's just there to entice you to give them your info and sell them on his group. He might have some really good ideas, but if he does, they will never spread far. He has the disk copy written and isn't freely sharing his ideas by putting up an iso, streaming the whole thing or making it available for download. That's not how the grassroots works. The grassroots is about the free exchange of ideas and resources. The Clifton coalition is worse – they simply don't share information and are focused on building their coalition. If you are not part of their coalition, you can expect NO cooperation or communication with Meetups that are not a part of it. All these “private coalitions” fragment Dr. Paul's support.
This “Minuteman” group is calling for groups to come together and share in the cost of materials production to get deep discounts through volume purchasing. GREAT IDEA! BIG PROBLEM! - FEC regulations... you run into FEC deep doo-doo when you do this. It would need a PAC or something. Done INFORMALLY at a state level, or even regionally – it could work a lot better. It's a subject for the lawyers. I also noticed and was unimpressed with the prices being quoted. The best prices on materials can be found on this thread:
http://ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=3113
Though Tyvek banners can be made in the $3-5 range, as opposed to $50 each – see ronpaulrevolution.com and click on “HowTo”.
Also note that ronpaulstickers.com has bumper stickers for 10 cents a pop and yard signs at a good price. This operates at little to negative profit, though as the printer is a supporter he fills production time into lulls of his commercial work. That means there might be a delay in shipping, depending on the production run – but do you want it REALLY CHEAP! (at cost) or NOW!???
Ummm.... minor stuff – he talks about collecting signs/banners after the fact. If they are on private property they don't need to be collected and unless stolen will still be there. On public property – expect them to be confiscated by the state. They are expendable. A one hour to one week lifespan – but worth it!
A complaint was voiced that the campaign didn't have enough money and we need to coordinate fund raising. The situation is not so dire as it is made out, as our second quarter donations were 4 times the first quarter. There was also a call to be able to afford big buck advertising and fight the campaign as a traditional one. NEWSFLASH! - We are the “David” as in David and Goliath. A small guy trying to fight a campaign on the same level as the well funded candidates is asking to LOOSE! What we have that they don't, is a huge base of highly motivated volunteers, very creative volunteers. That's something money can't buy. And it's much more powerful. I would much rather see our movement poor, strong and creative than rich, weak and dull.
Another complaint was that we only have ~650 Meetups (that number is actually a bit lower), representing about 550 cities (think that's a bit low). There are roughly 2800 counties in the United States and our goal is a Meetup in every county. We are growing Meetups at a rate of 10-15 PER DAY! That number usually doubles after every debate. The “seeding” program is working well. No, I don't think we need direction in this area, we are doing really well!
It was stated that we needed a national grassroots organization organized along the lines of Senatorial and precinct districts. Yet the national campaign has requested that we organize on a state/county basis. Please organize by state/county. National is there to give us guidance, we should follow their advice. September may hold some unpleasant surprises and the only way to react will be on a county level.
There was a book written a while ago, called “The incredible secret Money Machine” by Don Lancaster. It was about how to run a grassroots business. One of his points is to ignore Megabucks – concentrate on nickels. Especially recurring nickels. One of these “coalitions” has it in their mission statement to track down 100 - $1,000 donations per state. It's a lot easier to track down a lot of $100 donations, or easier still – people that will donate $10 a month, every month on an automatic withdrawal basis.
A complaint was raised that we didn't know where Dr. Paul was at any given time and that this new organization could broadcast this information. Dr. Paul's schedule is posted here under “Upcoming events” on the right hand side of the page:
http://ronpaul2008.com/
Another complaint was raised about the inability of the PCC to communicate and direct the grassroots due to McCain-Feingold. This was addressed very well in Jen Solt's excellent post, that I'm sure everyone has seen. There is frustration on both sides. For those wanting a bit deeper insight into the problem, please see:
http://www.brookings.org/gs/cf/debate/MF_summary.htm (especially section 211)
National gives us general guidelines of what they would like to see happen, and as Dr. Paul clearly voiced in the AZ airport vid: “YOU ARE THE CAMPAIGN!”. That is the grassroots, not some self appointed “coalition” to “direct us”.
If we are to have “coalitions”, they should be short lived, voluntary and arraigned around specific events. Not imposed from on high. In Iowa we had people showing up from these “coalitions” proclaiming to be state or regional coordinators and trying to give orders. They were ignored by the locals who all knew and trusted each other. In NY and a few other states, the Cliftons have a stronger hold. But things are starting to break.
Regarding the Clifton Coalition (under all it's different names), they started out focusing only on the pre-super Tuesday states, then expanded to wanting a “state coordinator” in every state. (I understand they have appointed one in 40 states, so far, and also have had mass defections) Now they think that only one state coordinator in NH isn't enough, so want to move into Nationals ballpark and get their own “coordinator” in that state. They started out with 5 core projects – that got morphed into controlling the entire grassroots movement.
Lest you think I'm totally slamming the Clifton Coalition, I want to concede that they are doing some good work. Most of their (and possibly other coalitions) work has been good. There are well meaning supporters that are members. However, their #1 goal is building their coalition and CONTROL! - Not getting Dr. Paul elected. They are also very secretive and do not cooperate with the rest of the grassroots movement that are not part of their coalition. That's a MAJOR problem!
The national campaign is now hiring and giving individual states, state coordinators, that are official. Just recently a few new coordinators have been hired. Be patient – they are working on it. If someone claims to be a state or regional coordinator of the official campaign (and there have been some imposter's from these “coalitions” that have tried to pass themselves off that way), please contact Justine Lam at Justine.lam@ronpaul2008.com to verify their status. At least one organizer has voiced a complaint of being contacted within hours of forming their Meetup by someone from one of these “coalitions” claiming to be “the official grassroots campaign” and trying to get the new organizer to to sign up with them. The 2 larger “coalitions” operate this way – at least the contact point, though only one uses the false association claim, as far as I can tell.
One last item, on the Minutemen site, as are many issues discussions – see:
http://vote2008ronpaul.com/
In conversations with official staffers, they have pointed out that many groups associate their positions on issues as being those of Dr. Paul's. This is also a problem with the AFTF and RECLAIM coalitions, as well as the truther and 9-11 based groups. While the core of these issues may be in line with Dr. Paul's positions, many stances ARE NOT! We need to be very careful about putting words in Dr. Paul's mouth, as they may alienate potential supporters and not be his views. We are here to promote Ron Paul's agenda – NOT YOURS!
Overall, I'd say that the grassroots is totally ROCKING! - we are growing faster than any other campaign and have wide support. If you get communication from some “coalition” about how we are going to “loose” unless you join them and how we NEED their leadership – IGNORE IT! (Thats just my advice – not nationals).
Viva La Revolution!
Nathan
PS: If you are a organizer/moderator of a Ron Paul group, we host some discussion forums. We will NEVER tell you what to do, but these are not the place for news or issues discussions. Take those to the general message forums. We will nuke off topic posts. We vett applicants – your name must appear as a organizer/moderator of your claimed association or you will be rejected. Please provide your full name, e-mail, and the group you are running. Phone numbers and mailing addresses are appreciated. This information is forwarded to Justine Lam at National HQ, and is a pathway to getting campaign materials and official communication sent to you from national.
For Meetup organizers, you are invited to join:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPMeetupOrganizers/
This group is for general sharing of ideas and resources between Meetup organizers, those issues specific to a specific Meetup or all Meetups in the country and like matters. Off topic posts will be NUKED! Do not try to join this group if you are not a Meetup organizer – you will be rejected! As a note, while we accept a limited number of assistant organizers, those Meetups with a low supporter count who have made the majority of their members “assistant organizers” will get ALL “assistant organizers” rejected. You know who I'm talking about.
And:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/511/
This group is STRICTLY for issues surrounding forming short lived coalitions specific to events that have a disproportional influence on getting Ron Paul elected. It should be like the Iowa Boarder States Coalition – very low volume, and on topic. Off topic posts WILL BE NUKED! Do not try to join this group if you are not a Meetup organizer – you will be rejected!
Facebook and MySpace group moderators are encouraged to e-mail me. We have Organizer groups on these sites, though they are not yet well developed. You must check you out to be sure you really run the group you claim to (be vetted) in order to to gain access. Again. Please don't waste our time and yours.
Disclaimer: Nathan and Jeremie are in no way connected to the official National organization, though we do talk to them. We offer a venue to promote organizer and moderator communication between the grassroots leadership and nothing more. We NEVER give you orders!, but will facilitate the propagation of official communications from National and do facilitate the open exchange of communications and ideas between organizers by hosting a couple of forms.