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View Full Version : Project Recruit: We are behind Howard Dean at the same point in the race.




Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 10:46 AM
Today, Ron Paul has 36,000 MeetUp members and about 5,000 waiting. We are behind Howard Dean at the same point in the 2004 race. I think that we should have another contest to get to 100,000 members by the end of October.

Howard Dean's MeetUp Statistics:

March 2003 8,500
June 2003 31,000
August 2003 67,000
October 2003 88,000
January 2004 177,000

We need to press the gas down. And now is the perfect time to do it.

How can we organize another contest? What can the prizes be? How can we keep it honest?

PS: I noticed 14 people joined the NY MeetUp since the debate and Austin's numbers grew as well. Are other MeetUp organizers seeing a bump?

njandrewg
09-07-2007, 10:48 AM
your numbers are dated: 41,688 with 5090 interested

constituent
09-07-2007, 10:52 AM
good thing ron paul isn't howard dean.

Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 10:54 AM
This is where I get my apples to apples numbers:

http://www.meetup.com/topics/polact/cand/pres/

And I agree my numbers are dated. Ron Paul now has 36,682 Members in 860 Meetup Groups, 5,089 waiting for a Meetup Group .

84 Joined in the past hour!

If it is 36,682 or 41,000, we are still behind Dean at the same point.

How can we get a recruitment drive going here?

klamath
09-07-2007, 10:54 AM
You are right we need to get more members but remember Dean peaked a month early and lost Iowa and NH assuring defeat in the following states.

hard@work
09-07-2007, 10:58 AM
I do agree that we need to get working on doubling the size of the meetups. Without national organization it can be difficult to communicate these messages. I can say that locally I'm beginning to get involved and one of my first requests to the group will be establishing a growth strategy and encouraging other groups to do the same.

:)

njandrewg
09-07-2007, 11:00 AM
Dean got the added bonus of being a Democrat. Democrats are 90% anti-war...Republicans are 30% anti-war. So thats 3 times the potential people.

As far as independants/cross party...how many independants view the debates this early?

constituent
09-07-2007, 11:01 AM
focus on organizing individuals... more people are willing to put a bumper sticker on their car and talk to their church members than they are to join some internet-based organization tool.

that's why dean lost... no style, no substance.

Santana28
09-07-2007, 11:04 AM
well, you will remember that Dean had a supportive media backing him for the most part. More media attention = more backers.

This is exactly why the next quarter needs to be one of MASSIVE grassroots TV, radio, newspaper, magazine etc activity. At the same time we need to get involved as delegates and get involved in local and state Republican party issues. Not just simply name recognition - we need to start associating Ron's positions to his name. A lot of people have probably seen a Ron Paul sign somewhere, but how many people know he is the anti-war Republican? or the small-government republican? or the anti-tax republican?

Starting and supporting our own grassroots TV commercials will be CRUCIAL. I encourage everyone to read the thread about Operation New Hampshire and get the word out to your meetup groups. Money needs to start coming in ASAP.

Zydeco
09-07-2007, 11:04 AM
We're only about 5 weeks behind Dean, and he'd been campaigning since mid '02.

They're both physicians, party rebels, and used the internet for support. But that's where the similarities end. Their stories will have different outcomes.

HalogenFlood
09-07-2007, 11:09 AM
your numbers are dated: 41,688 with 5090 interested

Actually, I think Rivington has the correct numbers. I've noticed this has been an area of confusion, even for the official campaign.

On this page (http://ronpaul.meetup.com/about/), the total number of meetup members (41,688) is higher but this is because from some reason they add the total members to the number interested (41,688 - 5,090 = 36,598).

On this page (http://www.meetup.com/topics/polact/cand/pres/) however, the actual number is shown (36,682) with the number waiting (5,089) next to it (36,682 + 5,089 = 41,771).

I'm not sure why there is a bit of discrepancy but this has been brought up before that for some reason meetup.com miscalculates the total number on the about page.

Not that it matters that much.

HalogenFlood
09-07-2007, 11:11 AM
We should work on getting a meetup group for every college in the states. Why not have a U. of Michigan meetup group, a Duke University meetup group?

Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 11:13 AM
We should work on getting a meetup group for every college in the states. Why not have a U. of Michigan meetup group, a Duke University meetup group?

That is a good idea: College Meet Up groups.

Just like Proctor and Gamble, I have been trying to segment the market; College, Pro-Life, NRA, Anti-War, Privacy etc.

What else?

Gimmme some ideas.

MsDoodahs
09-07-2007, 11:15 AM
By Congressional District.

By County/Parish.

By Voter precinct.

nullvalu
09-07-2007, 11:16 AM
I sent a letter to the editor for about 15 Chicago area newspapers which mentioned joining the meetup site.. I'm hoping a couple will publish it.

Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 11:30 AM
Good idea:

Mentioning MeetUp in Letters / Op-Eds and On Flyers.

What else?

MsDoodahs
09-07-2007, 11:33 AM
Small local papers have "what's going on" sections where they list the various groups that are having meetings, and usually it is a freebie.

Get meetup group meetings listed in the local papers in this section!:)

Kuldebar
09-07-2007, 11:34 AM
It's not a useful comparison, in my opinion. In fact it's a misleading comparison.

It's flash in the pan versus slow and steady. That's the distinction to make if one is compelled to compare Howard Dean's Campaign to Ron Paul's.

The former is hype the latter is about substance and the slow march of truth.

Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 11:35 AM
Excellent Idea: Publish Ron Paul MeetUp Date and Time in local papers.

As we get Ron Paul Meet Up groups organized, that is a great "best practice" we should be sharing.

How can we make this a contest; like the MeetUp fundraising contest?

nullvalu
09-07-2007, 11:37 AM
OOh how about getting events listed on sites like Metromix?

MsDoodahs
09-07-2007, 11:39 AM
What's metromix, is it an online site?

The reason I think it's imperative to get the word out about meetups in small local papers is it reaches the older voters who are not online.

And older people vote.

nullvalu
09-07-2007, 11:40 AM
What's metromix, is it an online site?

The reason I think it's imperative to get the word out about meetups in small local papers is it reaches the older voters who are not online.

And older people vote.

Yep thats why I sent letters to the editor too.. I suggest you all email your local papers.

Metromix.com is an urban "what's happening" site with listings for concerts & other events.. Popular in Chicago, not sure where else.

nullvalu
09-07-2007, 11:42 AM
Here's what I wrote in my Letters to the Editor:

Ron Paul Supporters - We're Real

Up until recently, the media has treated Ron Paul supporters as some kind of mythical entity, only living online and having little affect in the real world. Well, the Republican debate on Sept. 5 proved one thing, we're real. Ron Paul won the debate with 33% of the votes cast.

Unlike any of the other presidential candidates, Ron Paul's message is about unity and liberty. His supporters are not only conservatives, but liberals and independents for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the greatest reason is his call for a complete withdrawal from Iraq; a stance which most traditional conservatives and classical liberals who are disenfranchised with Bush; would agree with.

During the debate, Ron Paul paraphrased a great quote from one of our founding fathers, "If we sacrifice Liberty for Security, we get neither." This statement is just as true today as it was 200 years ago.

If you are a liberty-loving American who is not thrilled with the other presidential candidates, check out Ron Paul and consider joining the "Ron Paul Revolution". You can sign up with 40,000 fellow grassroots volunteers by going to http://ronpaul.meetup.com.

Make sure you include your name, phone number & city (i think they prefer local people)

Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 11:46 AM
I really like that you point out 40,000 people. Following the herd is a powerful instinct. It makes people think it is ok to join up and vote for him. I keep telling people to say "Ron Paul beats Rudy in Straw Poll" and "Ron Paul wins Debate" beacuse people love a winner.

That is a good messgae for inviting people: Come see what 40,000 other people have seen. Come join people who are supporting this winner.

UCFGavin
09-07-2007, 11:47 AM
dean also had some mainstream support. we have to deal with the mainstream constantly trying to marginalize him.

nullvalu
09-07-2007, 11:48 AM
I really like that you point out 40,000 people. Following the herd is a powerful instinct. It makes people think it is ok to join up and vote for him. I keep telling people to say "Ron Paul beats Rudy in Straw Poll" and "Ron Paul wins Debate" beacuse people love a winner.

Yep that's exactly why I included the number.

Rivington Essex
09-07-2007, 11:50 AM
The story is what we got last week on AP and the WSJ; the story is the movement.

rich34
09-07-2007, 12:13 PM
In fairness to Dr. Paul and his supporters, the mainstream media covered Howard Dean, they're not exactly covering Dr. Paul and all his huge rally's. However you can bet if the Ghoool or anyone else were drawing the crowds the good Dr. was drawing they'd be all over it like stink on snit!

FSP-Rebel
09-07-2007, 12:27 PM
Dean's supporters, although larger in number, had nothing on us. Just think if the media exposed RP like they did Dean, we'd have like a couple hundred thousand members by now.

JohnCrabtree
09-07-2007, 02:02 PM
What we're forgetting here is money. The Dean campaign directly paid Meetup.com for all the groups. They paid a one time, $2,500 to meetup.com According to Dean Campaign manager Joe Trippi in his book "The Revolution will not be televised"

For our 40,000+ people in 860 groups we are paying about 860 X $20 / MONTH , which is $17,200/ MONTH for this organizaitional tool.

So for the added cost our numbers are astounding because we pay for it out of our own pockets, whereas none of the Dean supporters had to pay for it.

nullvalu
09-07-2007, 02:22 PM
woot! just got a call back from a local paper (NW Indiana Times - circ 80k) verifying my letter to the editor & said they'll probably publish.. *fingers crossed*