What is Ron Paul Friends USA and how will it help the campaign?

[Bryan]

I apologize this message is a bit overdue but given the recent thread that was posted about Dick Mills I need to provide some info and correct some misinformation.


Ron Paul Friends USA is an organization started by Dick Mills in Houston who has been a friend of Ron Paul and has been involved in Texas GOP politics for 30+ years. The objective of Ron Paul Friends USA is to get Dr. Paul elected, before explaining what the group is about here is what it isn’t:

+ Ron Paul Friends USA is not a “top down” authority that intends to tell people what do to.
+ The group has no meetings, no rallies and the like.


Ron Paul Friends USA is:

+ Intended to establish as much of an organized and methodical communication structure as needed for Dr. Paul to win each state, the needs of this will vary state by state.
+ Provide educational information and assistance in a top down fashion as much as possible.

I am part of Ron Paul Friends USA in Texas, here is why it is important here. In Texas, the vote count in the GOP primary is actually completely meaningless and has no bearing on anything so all the sign holding and passing out push cards is meaningless unless the correct steps are taken. Many Ron Paul supporters in Texas don’t know what these steps are and what does make a difference and this is where Ron Paul Friends USA is helping out with an educational DVD that explains the convention process of how to get Dr. Paul friendly delegates from Texas sent to the National GOP convention. I personal didn’t know this information either until I learned it from Ron Paul Friends USA, but know I’m helping to educate others. In Texas, education on the process alone is not enough, we must be organized and prepared for the conventions as best possible. In Texas, delegates are first selected in numerous precinct conventions which then feed into 30ish Senatorial District conventions which then feed into the State convention. The bottom line is that if Ron Paul supporters don’t have some sort of action plan to dominate the Senatorial District conventions and State convention by understanding our resources, having strategies and bringing the key talent for each of these conventions together before hand to coordinate efforts we’ll stand a far less of a chance of success than if we do. So this is where the communication of Ron Paul Friends USA will pay off.

Dick Mills does not claim to know what is best for each state since the process can be totally different, the objective however is to find the people that do know and work with them to help Dr. Paul will that state by following an organizational strategy that does make sense, he has stated such to me in several conversations, unfortunately this message isn’t always being translated down the pipe correctly and compounding misinformation tries to turn Ron Paul Friends USA into some kind of imposed authority (which it’s not).

Right now Ron Paul Friends USA has one DVD out, “Practical Politics 101: Boots on the Ground” that can be send out free to meet-up group leaders. The exact applicability of this will vary for your state but it stands to be very good information for any state that uses a convention process to decide delegates, we use this in Houston to bring new comers up to speed. A six minute motivational intro to the material can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pei_LZfn9VY

Much more educational material is already in the pipeline.

For anyone interested in more info please visit here:
http://rlc.meetup.com/85

Anyone in Texas, please PM me directly.


Dick Mills doesn’t claim to have all the answers but he has been very receptive to others input and is working on this *full time* so if anyone has any suggestions or comments on all this I’ll be happy to bring them to him, you can also do it yourself.

[mdh]

OK, so does this organization have a website?

It seems well-intentioned and like a nice thought, but I'm not sure it'll be useful at this point, at least in most states. I'm sure there are some states where interaction/organization may not exist, but I'm under the impression that it already exists at the grassroots level in many if not most states, where someone new coming in and claiming to be from some organization isn't going to be at all helpful.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on that - I just don't see what this group brings for a state that already has good grassroots communication between leaders. This is one thing I can say we DO have in WV - pretty much everyone here knows me, and most of the most active people all know eachother.

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

Bryan,

Thank you for the info.

I am a little concerned that in MN he appointed a chair who is recruiting regional chairs. This is going to mimic the organization for caucuses and conventions, but with a different structure, and will confuse many people. And from what this MN person has sent out, it does sound like a top-down group.

Perhaps it will work out fine, provided that organization can feed the campaign names of supporters and work to get people out to the caucuses, but in full cooperation with the campaign.

From what I've seen, this group truly has NO knowledge about MN's system, appointed a political newbie, albeit a genuine RP supporter with the best of intentions, and I am concerned that DISinformation about the caucus system will be spread, countering what the campaign may want to do.

[jblosser]

Perhaps it will work out fine, provided that organization can feed the campaign names of supporters and work to get people out to the caucuses, but in full cooperation with the campaign.

The campaign is aware of what Dick and co. are working on and have explicitly expressed they have no problem with it. We are not likely to see "full cooperation" because of the existing FEC concerns, along with the real risk that if the GOP gets worried we actually are going to do this they will do everything in their power to block it (some of this is already starting). Of course, if a group like Ron Paul Friends manages to do what they are working to do, the campaign will have no real need to cooperate, it will just happen. Local government for the win.

As for your other concerns my experience has been Dick and others are happy to work through concerns and make sure the best thing is happening for each area. Talk to them. Their main goal is to make sure people do have the info they need if they don't have it now and that no locale falls through the cracks of inaction.

[mdh]

Bryan,

Thank you for the info.

I am a little concerned that in MN he appointed a chair who is recruiting regional chairs. This is going to mimic the organization for caucuses and conventions, but with a different structure, and will confuse many people. And from what this MN person has sent out, it does sound like a top-down group.

Perhaps it will work out fine, provided that organization can feed the campaign names of supporters and work to get people out to the caucuses, but in full cooperation with the campaign.

From what I've seen, this group truly has NO knowledge about MN's system, appointed a political newbie, albeit a genuine RP supporter with the best of intentions, and I am concerned that DISinformation about the caucus system will be spread, countering what the campaign may want to do.

I think I totally understand where you're coming from. People get confused REALLY easily, and a bunch of voices telling them things makes that worse. Beyond that, even if the voices are saying the same things, if one is unclear or less eloquent than the other(s), then people will still get confused by it. What I've tried to do, and what seems to be the only thing one can do, is to keep hammering home the correct message, put as simply as possible, and be willing to answer what may seem like stupid questions from confused people. Indeed, people seem to love asking something that you answered nigh a day before - and that's exacerbated when someone else comes up and muddies the waters by trying to restate it differently at times. :(

[Bryan]

It seems well-intentioned and like a nice thought, but I'm not sure it'll be useful at this point, at least in most states. I'm sure there are some states where interaction/organization may not exist, but I'm under the impression that it already exists at the grassroots level in many if not most states, where someone new coming in and claiming to be from some organization isn't going to be at all helpful.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on that - I just don't see what this group brings for a state that already has good grassroots communication between leaders. This is one thing I can say we DO have in WV - pretty much everyone here knows me, and most of the most active people all know eachother.
This is something that I've talked with Dick about, obviously if there is already strong grass roots organization within a state that is doing the right things then the logical goal would be to just get in contact with those people so that any advantageous coordination for the national convention can take place. There is no need to reinvent things. Another thing Ron Paul Friends USA is working on is making more education DVDs, so if your group sees a need for a DVD with certain information on it to help education more passive Ron Paul supports (whose support may be vital) then it could be created if it can apply to other states as well.

Website is in the works (slow I know) but they are using the meetup site fine for now.

[Bryan]

Bryan,

Thank you for the info.

I am a little concerned that in MN he appointed a chair who is recruiting regional chairs. This is going to mimic the organization for caucuses and conventions, but with a different structure, and will confuse many people. And from what this MN person has sent out, it does sound like a top-down group.

Perhaps it will work out fine, provided that organization can feed the campaign names of supporters and work to get people out to the caucuses, but in full cooperation with the campaign.
I totally understand the mimicking of organization issue. Let me explain how we're doing it in Texas and that may help explain. Again, Texas has a three tier convention process: one State convention, 31 Sentential Districts and countless precincts. To prevent mimicking, we are overlaying our structure to match the convention process to create teams that have the goal of domination one specific convention.

From the top, we have one state chair who has divide the state into eight regions of the 31 different Senatorial Districts. This creates a nine person team who are focused on winning the state convention. Of course the only way to do this is to get good representation from the 31 Sentential District conventions and so the eight regional people work to find the natural leaders representing the Sentential Districts in their region (about four each). It make sense for the Sentential Districts leaders to then break up their district into manageable parts and have a small team to help them do what is necessary to dominate their Senatorial District convention. Of course to do this they need good representation from the precinct conventions and that can only happen from coordinating efforts there. Most all Ron Paul supporters in our group are going to be leading their precinct which means to blockwalk and finding those who support Dr. Paul and the message and are willing to attend the precinct convention.

So the idea is that everyone is focused on winning one convention in the following manner:

State chair - state convention
Regional State chair - state convention
Senatorial Districts leader - Senatorial District convention (Edit- these can be meet-up group leaders or not.)
Senatorial Districts Area leader - Senatorial District convention
Precinct leader - precinct convention

Some notes, while the "state convention" team has 9 people on it, it is certainly not limited to people wanting to help. In fact, the idea is to bring the key talent in the 31 different districts together to get a plan set, the nine person team can be just as much of a facilitator in the process to bring the people together than anything else.

The state convention team can also coordinate and feed information into a national convention team.



From what I've seen, this group truly has NO knowledge about MN's system, appointed a political newbie, albeit a genuine RP supporter with the best of intentions, and I am concerned that DISinformation about the caucus system will be spread, countering what the campaign may want to do.
Obviously a concern, thanks for bring it up. I view the leaders roll to be a conduit to bring people and information together so the key talent can set the hard core plans. We can talk more on this.

[aknappjr]

OK, so does this organization have a website?

It seems well-intentioned and like a nice thought, but I'm not sure it'll be useful at this point, at least in most states. I'm sure there are some states where interaction/organization may not exist, but I'm under the impression that it already exists at the grassroots level in many if not most states, where someone new coming in and claiming to be from some organization isn't going to be at all helpful.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on that - I just don't see what this group brings for a state that already has good grassroots communication between leaders. This is one thing I can say we DO have in WV - pretty much everyone here knows me, and most of the most active people all know eachother.

No, we need easy ways to contact organizers/leaders about regional events. Meetup communication system is too inefficient. You can't bulk email 10 organizers for example (for example in your state or the surrounding states. I spoke to meetup.com at their HQ about this need, but until its fixed we need this project.

[tangent4ronpaul]

No, we need easy ways to contact organizers/leaders about regional events. Meetup communication system is too inefficient. You can't bulk email 10 organizers for example (for example in your state or the surrounding states. I spoke to meetup.com at their HQ about this need, but until its fixed we need this project.

meetup 511 was set up for this purpose. there are also the state level meetup organizers groups.

-n

[mdh]

No, we need easy ways to contact organizers/leaders about regional events. Meetup communication system is too inefficient. You can't bulk email 10 organizers for example (for example in your state or the surrounding states. I spoke to meetup.com at their HQ about this need, but until its fixed we need this project.

This is a problem that the ronpauldugg.com project will help solve - I don't think that Ron Paul Friends USA is trying to tackle the problem you're talking about.

[abstrusezincate]

The other problem with this is that in some states, such as my own, they have already appointed people not realizing what structures are in place. While I certainly appreciate and agree with the intentions of this group, I think it makes sense for structures to be created at the state level and then to interact with each other voluntarily rather than in having to report to regional or national coordinators.

Having spoken with a goodly number of coordinators about this, that seems to be the consensus and why I continue to advocate for a more freeform structure. By decentralizing, we keep focused on the issues that matter locally, and that is ultimately where the grassroots should be doing most of their work. When it comes to those areas where larger national efforts are necessary, then you can have a few people through discussion agree to do that, and work for those limited projects.

You can call an organization whatever you like, but as soon as you make a hierarchy where you have people reporting up and down a chain of command, that is the very definition of top-down. I'm not saying it is without virtue or without feedback mechanisms, but having seen a number of these pass through and fail before, I'm exceeding skeptical that this will work, and personally believe that there are better ways.

As for communication, I'm well aware of Avery's project and we're helping with that, and I think that is the first step. That, and having states organize themselves.

[Bryan]

Thanks for the post Tom. With Ron Paul Friends USA there is no up and down chain of command- there is no command at all. The hierarchy is for information sharing, coordinating efforts as necessary and assuring that all geographical areas get the most optimized attention possible as volunteers see best. Part of the idea is that when it comes time to coordinate larger efforts (national or otherwise) the communication channels are already in place.

Ron Paul Friends USA agrees that states need to organize themselves, as well as any district conventions and precincts within them. If a state already has structures in place then that is great, no need to create new ones, some states however are not organized to that level (Texas has not been for example).

By all accounts I've seen, Ron Paul Friends USA agrees that grassroots should be focusing on local matters with the addition of working to help the regional / state / national matters that affect them as it makes sense and they can afford to do so. With Ron Paul Friends USA the coordination channels will already be in place.

[orenbus]

If there was ever going to be a structure like this it should come from the ground up. Isn't the leadership of this organization
the same members that are part of the Thursday Vote in Sunshine conference call?

[McDermit]

Isn't the leadership of this organization
the same members that are part of the Thursday Vote in Sunshine conference call?

yes

[Bryan]

If there was ever going to be a structure like this it should come from the ground up.
There are problems with a pure ground-up group just like there are problems with the opposite. Having the two work together in voluntary partnership is the best model I've ever seen (as applied in 15 years of professional work).

A ground-up only model can leave holes.

[Bryan]

Isn't the leadership of this organization
the same members that are part of the Thursday Vote in Sunshine conference call?
No, there is absolutely no connection.


yes
If possible you should notify this error to source you heard it from.

[McDermit]

No, there is absolutely no connection.


If possible you should notify this error to source you heard it from.
The people on one of the conferences said that they were organizing RON PAUL FRIENDS USA. Unless several people were seriously misrepresenting themselves, they are the same groups. There was talk of the same name, structure and breakdown. (US broken into 8 regions, those regions further broken down, each with a coordinator who answers to his higher up, etc.)

It was Vote in Sunshine, AFTF, Freedom Fellowship, etc.

[abstrusezincate]

My view is I'll work with people who work to help support Ron Paul, wherever they may be, and I'll just continue doing my part to help our local and regional efforts. If groups work well with that, that is great. And if not, I just ignore them. :)

So, I'm all for voluntary partnership.

[Cowlesy]

I just had an excellent conversation with a Ron Paul supporter in Upstate NY (non-NYC).

It'll be terrific if any of these groups puts together a national database which can disseminate information.

But I believe EACH STATE needs to coordinate themselves. Perhaps this should be a message emphasized to the major Meetup leaders in each state. Our rules in each state are very different. The guy I spoke with sounded like he really needed some help, and that we could really collaborate to help spread the rules/regs for balloting. Nothing top/down, just sharing and discussing pertinent info so that come the day when we can begin to ballot, it can be done smoothly.

[jblosser]

The people on one of the conferences said that they were organizing RON PAUL FRIENDS USA. Unless several people were seriously misrepresenting themselves, they are the same groups. There was talk of the same name, structure and breakdown. (US broken into 8 regions, those regions further broken down, each with a coordinator who answers to his higher up, etc.)

It was Vote in Sunshine, AFTF, Freedom Fellowship, etc.

The 560 call did not start out explicitly just about those groups, though Palmasino has always been sympathetic to them and they took over quickly. Regardless, they have "interviewed" others on there from time to time, including the Granny Warriors. Dick at least knows them (they've all been around a while), it wouldn't surprise me if they let him get on his soapbox. It doesn't mean they're all part of the same thing. If that were the case anyone that supports Ron would be suspect.

[McDermit]

The 560 call did not start out explicitly just about those groups, though Palmasino has always been sympathetic to them and they took over quickly. Regardless, they have "interviewed" others on there from time to time, including the Granny Warriors. Dick at least knows them (they've all been around a while), it wouldn't surprise me if they let him get on his soapbox. It doesn't mean they're all part of the same thing. If that were the case anyone that supports Ron would be suspect.
Someone had gone off on them when they started promoting Ron Paul Friends USA. That asked specifically WHO these people were. The response included people from the groups I specifically mentioned.

These were words out of the mouths of the people involved and their supporters. It was just a bunch of "in" people vouching for other "in" people, and the whole discussion made quite a few listeners nervous. (We were discussing it on Paltalk while the convo went on)

In any event, I would like to see the video that's talked about... if I can do so without joining their organization.

[mdh]

Well, I'm not an "in" person, but I do think Jim Palmisano is a nice guy. I've known him a while via restoretherepublic.com, where I'm a mod.

[malibu]

The group founded by Texan Dick Mills potentially provides a very important organizational tool - albeit with rather sophisticated Windows Sharepoint software - especially since the RP campaign is just not getting that well organized in several states and only relying on meetups. ( http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ lists only 12 states in the pull-down menu )

MeetUps were ok enough and maybe a surprising and nice start for the campaign to initially organize without spending their funds, but meetup.com's limitation of only 3 messages nationwide over a 24 hour period is certainly starting to make that rather useless as a mass communication tool especially as the number of campaign events and meetup groups grows.

Find out your precinct and sign up at:

http://www.ronpaulfriendsusa.com/

But I sure hope we can get a better picture up in the header (it ain't THAT bad but there ARE better pics of RP available.