Rivington Essex
09-13-2007, 02:20 PM
As I have assemble a national data base, about 400 of the MeetUp groups are new. They are asking for guidance on how to build their groups. This is my draft tactics file (with the help of Mr. San Antonio).
Please add your "best practices" and what you would tell a new MeetUp leader.
----------------------------------
Tactics:
This is a list the San Antonio MeetUp leader put together as a handout/mailout for his Meetup group and some ideas I have gotten off the forums.
Goal: Get 66,000,000 votes
There are currently 40,000 Ron Paul Meetup members. If each one gets 15 other people to support RP, that’s 600,000. If those people all get just 12 other people to support RP, that’s another 7,000,000. If those people all get just 10 more people to support RP, that’s a whopping 70,000,000. Add it all up and that’s enough votes to win the general election in a landslide. This is doable, We Can Win.
First: A Great Resource
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/
Go here when you have questions or have a success story. Don’t be afraid to post. The people in this forum are nice and polite. Sign in, ask a question, post a story, and brainstorm an idea.
Step 1: Things You Can Do Every Day
1. Email or call your friends & family and let them know about RP. This is the number one way to build support. Your words will carry more weight with people you already know.
3. Become a Republican delegate. Go through the process and get yourself into the Republican National Convention and get RP nominated. Nothing else we do will matter if we don’t have enough delegate votes at the national convention.
4. Become a Republican Precinct Chair. You will have more influence on the Republicans in your precinct.
5. Walk your neighborhood and knock on doors. Have literature and bumper stickers. Return with a yard sign if anyone wants one.
6. Write letters to the editor in any publication.
7. Be Polite: When talking with other people, NEVER belittle anyone’s views or beliefs. NEVER preach to them. Ron Paul can sell himself best. Even all of us Ron Paul supporters have various views and beliefs. Be prepared with knowledge, but if you don’t know just direct them to his web site or www.RonPaulLibrary.org or www.RonPaul.com.
7. Go into random chat rooms and forums and ask if anyone has heard of him. Engage anyone who responds and get a conversation going. Try to get others to join in. (For Example Soldiers Voices Forum is one I have tried. There must be lots of others.)
8. Pick an issue or two that are the main reasons you support RP. Seek out local groups dedicated to that issue and start making contacts and getting involved with those groups. These are target rich environments that can help build support exponentially. (See Step 2)
9. ALWAYS wear either a RP shirt, or a RP button on your shirt.
10. Put one or more bumper stickers on your car. Put them on the windows, they are easy to remove later. Even if you don’t like the idea of having a sticker on your car, the opportunity to maintain your freedom makes it worth it this time.
11. Arm yourself with business cards at all times. Leave them EVERYWHERE. Cash registers, car windows, the credit card slot on gas pumps, atm machines, send one to the teller at the bank drive through after your transaction. EVERYWHERE.
12. Stamp or write on your money. It’s not illegal. It’s only illegal if you render the bill unusable. This is incredible exposure with very long term staying power that will change hands many, many times.
13. Keep bumper stickers and yard signs in your car at all times for anyone else you meet or talk to who wants them.
14. Carry www.RonPaul2008SA.org cards for anyone who wants to get involved with the RP 2008 SA Meetup group. Make up ones for your MeetUp.
15. Nail campaign signs to telephone poles. Use a nail with a washer, or a 1 ¾ inch roofing nail with a built in metal washer. Use a ladder whenever you can. If you put it out of reach of anyone on the ground, so that anyone who wants to take it down must use a ladder, it will stay up for a really long time. This is excellent exposure.
16. Use a packing tape gun for fast and solid taping for metal poles. Just wrap the gun around the sign and pole several times, crisscrossing up and down the sign and around the poles.
17. Stand on the corner of a busy intersection by yourself with a sign. It doesn’t have to be a large group. Wear a hat and sunglasses if you’re shy!
18. Visit www.RonPaulForums.com often and keep up with the latest postings on Strategies for Success and Campaign Materials.
19. Participate in any phone or mail campaign the national campaign seeks help with.
20. Donate, Donate, Donate. Whatever you can afford every month. Do anything you can to help build the national campaign’s war chest.
21. Find land to put up 2’ x 4’ and 4’ x 8’ signs on. Major roads, FM roads, freeways.
22. Reference the list of campaign material suppliers and order what you can. Distribute, Campaigning is marketing. It’s a numbers game. The more views of his name the more name recognition he’ll have. Don’t hold back.
23. Stamp or write on everything you mail.
24. In your email signature, put www.RonPaul2008.com
25. Display a yard sign.
26. Call in to talk radio shows.
27. Chalk sidewalks.
28. Shoe polish the windows of closed businesses and abandoned buildings.
29. Shoe polish your car windows.
30. Buy copies of the Ron Paul issue of Republic Magazine and leave copies in any waiting room that has magazines.
31. Hang signs and banners on fences and overpasses along freeways.
32. Put stickers EVERYWHERE. On the backs of signs with good visibility for opposite flow traffic. Traffic signal control boxes, light poles, bus stops, gas pumps. Almost anything in areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic.
Step 2: Segment the Market
Segment: Just like Proctor and Gamble segments the shampoo market, we can segment the voter market. For MeetUp leaders out there, try to get one person to contact leaders in each of these segments: By doing so, these thought leaders become "Force Multipliers"
Marketing MBAs like to give them cool nicknames ... Here goes.
NRA Types
Pro-Life Groups
Privacy Hawks
College Leaders
Anti-War Activists
Border Fence Builders
Fiscal Conservatives
Church Leaders
And any others …
Step 3: Delegate, Divide and Conquer: Try to appoint a person within your MeetUp who is already an insider and passionate member of one of those groups. It is hard to do it all, so try to assign a task to other members and hold them accountable and give them a reward.
Step 4: An easy way to submit letters to the editor:
The GOP web site has an easy form where you can write a letter and send it to up to 5 separate newspapers. If you enter your zip code, it will show the largest newspapers near you and the closest newspapers to you.
http://www.gop.com/GetActive/WriteNewspapers.aspx
They go directly to the papers without being filtered.
Normally when you send one to five papers, a few bounce back if the newspaper address is wrong, but it is still a good tool if you want to hit newspapers with a regional message.
Step 5: Issue a press release and follow up with a reporter.
Here are some reasons for press releases:
• When you start a MeetUp group.
• When your MeetUp group goes abopve 50, 100, or whatever.
• When you have successful event and to announce the next one.
Normally a reporter will pass on the first story, but the second or third time they get interested. Furthermore, when the reporter needs a supporter quote, he will go to you because he already has your phone number.
Please add your "best practices" and what you would tell a new MeetUp leader.
----------------------------------
Tactics:
This is a list the San Antonio MeetUp leader put together as a handout/mailout for his Meetup group and some ideas I have gotten off the forums.
Goal: Get 66,000,000 votes
There are currently 40,000 Ron Paul Meetup members. If each one gets 15 other people to support RP, that’s 600,000. If those people all get just 12 other people to support RP, that’s another 7,000,000. If those people all get just 10 more people to support RP, that’s a whopping 70,000,000. Add it all up and that’s enough votes to win the general election in a landslide. This is doable, We Can Win.
First: A Great Resource
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/
Go here when you have questions or have a success story. Don’t be afraid to post. The people in this forum are nice and polite. Sign in, ask a question, post a story, and brainstorm an idea.
Step 1: Things You Can Do Every Day
1. Email or call your friends & family and let them know about RP. This is the number one way to build support. Your words will carry more weight with people you already know.
3. Become a Republican delegate. Go through the process and get yourself into the Republican National Convention and get RP nominated. Nothing else we do will matter if we don’t have enough delegate votes at the national convention.
4. Become a Republican Precinct Chair. You will have more influence on the Republicans in your precinct.
5. Walk your neighborhood and knock on doors. Have literature and bumper stickers. Return with a yard sign if anyone wants one.
6. Write letters to the editor in any publication.
7. Be Polite: When talking with other people, NEVER belittle anyone’s views or beliefs. NEVER preach to them. Ron Paul can sell himself best. Even all of us Ron Paul supporters have various views and beliefs. Be prepared with knowledge, but if you don’t know just direct them to his web site or www.RonPaulLibrary.org or www.RonPaul.com.
7. Go into random chat rooms and forums and ask if anyone has heard of him. Engage anyone who responds and get a conversation going. Try to get others to join in. (For Example Soldiers Voices Forum is one I have tried. There must be lots of others.)
8. Pick an issue or two that are the main reasons you support RP. Seek out local groups dedicated to that issue and start making contacts and getting involved with those groups. These are target rich environments that can help build support exponentially. (See Step 2)
9. ALWAYS wear either a RP shirt, or a RP button on your shirt.
10. Put one or more bumper stickers on your car. Put them on the windows, they are easy to remove later. Even if you don’t like the idea of having a sticker on your car, the opportunity to maintain your freedom makes it worth it this time.
11. Arm yourself with business cards at all times. Leave them EVERYWHERE. Cash registers, car windows, the credit card slot on gas pumps, atm machines, send one to the teller at the bank drive through after your transaction. EVERYWHERE.
12. Stamp or write on your money. It’s not illegal. It’s only illegal if you render the bill unusable. This is incredible exposure with very long term staying power that will change hands many, many times.
13. Keep bumper stickers and yard signs in your car at all times for anyone else you meet or talk to who wants them.
14. Carry www.RonPaul2008SA.org cards for anyone who wants to get involved with the RP 2008 SA Meetup group. Make up ones for your MeetUp.
15. Nail campaign signs to telephone poles. Use a nail with a washer, or a 1 ¾ inch roofing nail with a built in metal washer. Use a ladder whenever you can. If you put it out of reach of anyone on the ground, so that anyone who wants to take it down must use a ladder, it will stay up for a really long time. This is excellent exposure.
16. Use a packing tape gun for fast and solid taping for metal poles. Just wrap the gun around the sign and pole several times, crisscrossing up and down the sign and around the poles.
17. Stand on the corner of a busy intersection by yourself with a sign. It doesn’t have to be a large group. Wear a hat and sunglasses if you’re shy!
18. Visit www.RonPaulForums.com often and keep up with the latest postings on Strategies for Success and Campaign Materials.
19. Participate in any phone or mail campaign the national campaign seeks help with.
20. Donate, Donate, Donate. Whatever you can afford every month. Do anything you can to help build the national campaign’s war chest.
21. Find land to put up 2’ x 4’ and 4’ x 8’ signs on. Major roads, FM roads, freeways.
22. Reference the list of campaign material suppliers and order what you can. Distribute, Campaigning is marketing. It’s a numbers game. The more views of his name the more name recognition he’ll have. Don’t hold back.
23. Stamp or write on everything you mail.
24. In your email signature, put www.RonPaul2008.com
25. Display a yard sign.
26. Call in to talk radio shows.
27. Chalk sidewalks.
28. Shoe polish the windows of closed businesses and abandoned buildings.
29. Shoe polish your car windows.
30. Buy copies of the Ron Paul issue of Republic Magazine and leave copies in any waiting room that has magazines.
31. Hang signs and banners on fences and overpasses along freeways.
32. Put stickers EVERYWHERE. On the backs of signs with good visibility for opposite flow traffic. Traffic signal control boxes, light poles, bus stops, gas pumps. Almost anything in areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic.
Step 2: Segment the Market
Segment: Just like Proctor and Gamble segments the shampoo market, we can segment the voter market. For MeetUp leaders out there, try to get one person to contact leaders in each of these segments: By doing so, these thought leaders become "Force Multipliers"
Marketing MBAs like to give them cool nicknames ... Here goes.
NRA Types
Pro-Life Groups
Privacy Hawks
College Leaders
Anti-War Activists
Border Fence Builders
Fiscal Conservatives
Church Leaders
And any others …
Step 3: Delegate, Divide and Conquer: Try to appoint a person within your MeetUp who is already an insider and passionate member of one of those groups. It is hard to do it all, so try to assign a task to other members and hold them accountable and give them a reward.
Step 4: An easy way to submit letters to the editor:
The GOP web site has an easy form where you can write a letter and send it to up to 5 separate newspapers. If you enter your zip code, it will show the largest newspapers near you and the closest newspapers to you.
http://www.gop.com/GetActive/WriteNewspapers.aspx
They go directly to the papers without being filtered.
Normally when you send one to five papers, a few bounce back if the newspaper address is wrong, but it is still a good tool if you want to hit newspapers with a regional message.
Step 5: Issue a press release and follow up with a reporter.
Here are some reasons for press releases:
• When you start a MeetUp group.
• When your MeetUp group goes abopve 50, 100, or whatever.
• When you have successful event and to announce the next one.
Normally a reporter will pass on the first story, but the second or third time they get interested. Furthermore, when the reporter needs a supporter quote, he will go to you because he already has your phone number.