Thinking out loud...

[ronpaulhawaii]

Consolidating our strengths

I've been mulling over the slew of new websites we have and have to say I am pretty stoked. We are organizing and I am wondering at how best to utilize the individual strengths of the various orgs to cover any weaknesses in the movement as a whole.

Who are the orgs ,and what are their strengths and weaknesses? Off the top of my head, from around here, we have:


Official Grassroots

Campaign For Liberty – Ron Paul Official Blog


Pure Grassroots

Freeople - Logistics?
Operation Cat-herder- Logistics?
Freedoms Ground – PR/Education?
Break The Matrix – Media?
Revolution Broadcasting - Media?
Revolution March Foundation - events management?.
Freedom Revolution – Public News and Discussion Blog?
Liberty Forest – The incubator/distiller/minarchal gathering spot?

Who else? And can any be partnered with one another?

ISTM - we need a fund-raising arm, a clearinghouse of sorts. Can Liberty Straw Poll fill that need, (I nominate Cowlesy, and lleperd to sit on any board;)). Can we create a place where our causes, PACs and people can safely meet? Where projects/candidates can turn to for an account, and fund-manager? What would be a reasonable percentage cut for "operations" to maintain a high caliber operation?

I can see the life cycle of a project being proposed from anywhere, ends up here (for our unique focus group type vetting:eek:), where it will either die, or move into freeople to be fleshed out and tracked. In Freeople they work with whichever orgs best suits their needs to develop, promote, and fund the project. All of the affiliated orgs eventually having had a hand and joining in the evolution/promotion.

How can we minimize redundancy and increase effectiveness?

jus thinkin out loud...

:)

[SaratogaForRonPaul]

Don't forget DailyPaul.com and for us candidates, PaulCongress.com.

[SnappleLlama]

Check out the Cat Herder Links (see my sig). It's being constantly updated...I should have some free time soon to add a bunch of links to the list. Also, just send me links and let me know what category they fall under.

[Oyate]

Interesting point. I've always felt that there's a sort of Darwinian evolutionary process going on here. Unsupported sites/initiatives will inevitably merge into supported ones or simply die off. People who can't work together or create animosity will be identified and ignored. Cat-herders will eventually get tired and find something else to do.

The dedicated will continue one way or another.

It's kind of a bumpy road but we're not a top-down movement. We're a huge and diverse stew pot and sometimes you reach in and pull out a potato and sometimes you get a shoe.

We seem to get along by vast, unspoken and very incomplete consensus. Still, how else are we going to do it? Nobody can boss us around. Our weakness in this regard is actually a strength.

[ronpaulhawaii]

Steve - I guess, I was avoiding the term "Paul" and wonder about the use of RPs name?

In the case of Paul Congress, is Freeople duplicating efforts and can they work in partnership?

[LibertyEagle]

ISTM - we need a fund-raising arm, a clearinghouse of sorts.


Actually, I think having a central clearinghouse for fundraising for these various organizations is a very bad idea. If they offer a better mousetrap, they will be supported. If they do not, they will die off.

We need to let the free enterprise system work within the movement too. :)

[mrchubbs]

Steve - I guess, I was avoiding the term "Paul" and wonder about the use of RPs name?

In the case of Paul Congress, is Freeople duplicating efforts and can they work in partnership?

Freeople is really geared towards two fundamental actions, as I see it. (Ron, the owner, may have another view):

1 - Gives candidates online tools/presence that includes their own blog, social networking, forums, chat, and perhaps most importantly, FUND RAISING with the lowest transaction fees of any online campaign fund raising service. Also freeople aims to not just be all Ron Paul. The organization cannot and does not endorse candidates, it merely provides tools for candidates and allows the online "free market" (through participation, fund raising amounts, and candidate ratings) weed out the not so good candidates from the cream of the crop.

2 - A replacement for meetup.com. Meetup is popular and great, but group owners have to pay fees to keep the groups going. With freeople there are no fees for groups. Additionally all of the various causes that people have used chip-in to collect donations can be set up on freeople to do the same. The only drawback to this now is that there is no "widget" for these fund raisers that can be placed on other sites (this is in the works I'm told though).

And lastly freeople is about the articles, candidate and member blogs, forums, chat, and participatory point system, all of the standard things that keep people active on sites.

Ron S. sent out a promotional email this morning to several thousand freedom lovers and the site has grown in membership significantly today. The aim is now (while still growing membership) to let the many candidates running for office across the U.S. know about the site and encourage their participation.


Enjoy.