Spinning up the Meetups / lost supporter recovery

[tangent4ronpaul]

Dear Supporters and Organizers,

RP is about to announce so it's time to spin up the meetups. We lost a third of our supporters, or just over 37,000 members and need to get them back. This represents a loss of 66% of our meetups. Here's the plan on how to do that:

Groundwork:
Assembling a database of currently active RP groups and places where Meetups went away is being done.

Put together a “Welcome back” packet for lost and inactive supporters.
(Suggestions for content are welcome)

Put together a survey to discover skills, current level of activity in various areas, contact information and so on. Information will be shared with the grassroots coalition. (Suggestions for what kind of things to ask are welcome)

Two other aspects that are not ready for prime time yet.

Reach out to all existing Meetups, both to advertize the WB packet/survey but primarily to get volunteers and ask Meetup organizers to donate spare Meetups.

“Spare Meetups” are spare because you pay for one and you get three. If the organizer is using less than three, they have one or two that can be put to use. What we want to do with these:

First and foremost, we want one Meetup per state (Ideally two each for CA, TX and FL) as well as US territories. Each “RP Spin-up 2012 Meetup” will be mated with one or two volunteers and migrate it's location from zip code to zip code. The reason to do this is that as a Meetup, you should be able to send unlimited messages to people interested in a Ron Paul Meetup in your area. As an individual, you are limited as to how many messages you can send a day. It's manually intensive, but quick. The volunteer needs to simply click on an interested persons name, click contact, type in something like: “RP 2012 Welcome Back!” on the subject line, click on the text section, paste their buffer into it, click send. Repeat.

The tricky part is choosing the right zip codes. Meetup only lists the top 55-60 cities where “People waiting for a Meetup in ...”, so this will probably involve stepping across states by zip to get everyone. For reference, a 100 mile radius from Baltimore MD encompasses both Washington DC and Philadelphia PA. Working through largest cities list on a state by state basis would also probably work. Need to talk to Meetup to see if they can provide a “fix” for this.

So what's in the buffer? A brief message about RP's anticipated announcement, a call to action – follow link to WB message and survey as well as request they Join an existing Meetup or join the spinup meetup and chat with others about creating a meetup more local to them and a list of all active Meetups, student groups, SNS groups, etc. in their state as well as links to National groups and support groups and major web sites. Brief and to the point.

The secondary purpose of donated Meetups is to do a repeat of the “Seed a Meetup” project where a Meetup is donated to an area that has none, but does have supporters in the hopes that “build it and they will come” works again.

If you are a Meetup organizer and wish to donate spare Meetups, please e-mail operationcatherder@gmail.com with a subject line of “SPIN-UP MEETUP”

If you would like to volunteer to man one of these nomadic Meetups and send mails to lost supporters, e-mail operationcatherder@gmail.com with a subject line of “VOLUNTEER”

If you have ideas for what should go in the Welcome Back message or survey, either post here or e-mail the above address with a subject line of “WELCOME BACK” or “SURVEY”. Please do not mix topics as they go in different folders, if you e-mail and do use all caps so we don't miss it. Sometimes we get a LOT of e-mail!

Shooting for a project start date about a week from now.

Thanks,

Operation Cat Herder

[Thomas]

malkusm has a map of all liberty oriented meetups

[tangent4ronpaul]

malkusm has a map of all liberty oriented meetups

I recall. I also recall it had problems as he wasn't updating it and for a while there, the Meetups were in freefall, as we were loosing 10-20 a week. I should put together the weekly lists of meetups at risk and see which were lost and which were saved. Would be happy to work on this with him, to update his map and that's probably a good strategy for finding where to park the nomadic spin up Meetups. The big question would be search radius, as we don't want to e-mail ppl 4-5 times each.

-t

[sailingaway]

Why limit it to any number?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WaJkZmIrSU&NR=1

[tangent4ronpaul]

What do you mean by "any number" - if you are talking times mailed, ppl hate getting spammed and individual volunteers have to send these out one by one.

-t

[Thomas]

I recall. I also recall it had problems as he wasn't updating it and for a while there, the Meetups were in freefall, as we were loosing 10-20 a week. I should put together the weekly lists of meetups at risk and see which were lost and which were saved. Would be happy to work on this with him, to update his map and that's probably a good strategy for finding where to park the nomadic spin up Meetups. The big question would be search radius, as we don't want to e-mail ppl 4-5 times each.

-t

I wonder if we should even use Meetup this time, it's not free and there might be a better way to organize. Any ideas?

[sailingaway]

What do you mean by "any number" - if you are talking times mailed, ppl hate getting spammed and individual volunteers have to send these out one by one.

-t

You said:


First and foremost, we want one Meetup per state (Ideally two each for CA, TX and FL) as well as US territories.

Why only one or two per state?

and to constitutional insurgent, I think meetups are easy, established and a good way to independently organize. There are things we can't do under the C4L umbrella. If there is a free way to do the same thing, great, but Ron is KNOWN for meetups and people wanting to get involved will very likely check there. I would.

[hazek]

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/

[R3volutionJedi]

I think the meet up groups will be very influence. It is an absolute must! And QUESTION: How many supporters do you think RP has lost since 2008? How many supporters do you think RP has gained? I know I stand as a young (I'm 16; I will be able to vote in 2012 and the primaries) new RP supporter since April 2010. I think the people who has supported him will continue to unless they are misinformed about RP's age and health.

[tangent4ronpaul]

I wonder if we should even use Meetup this time, it's not free and there might be a better way to organize. Any ideas?

Yahoo is free and has equivalent tools, but few like it. No other SNS has the tools for F2F organizing and people like Meetup. We also pull in others because there is cross fertilization between Meetups. You can browse related Meetups in the area, you can check out what Meetups others belong to, etc.

It's really not up to us, it's up to the supporters. C4L's biggest brain fart was to ask people to move. A really large percentage will not and did not. They tried to spin that as loosing the "deadwood" that were not totally committed. They followed that up by making ppl register 3 separate times, and each time they lost more supporters and those that stayed got stuck in a structure that was less free and can't support a presidential candidate due to non-profit status.

If that's not total incompetence, it's got to be a classic case study in how to sabotage an organization.

Their keeping Meetup was considered and rejected.

It's been close to 2 years since we've had a candidate and a third of the Meetups are still here as well as 2/3rds of the supporters. Meetup will always be part of this movement, and a big part at that. The only way I see that changing is if Facebook became a lot more Meetup like - but I don't see that happening.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

Why only one or two per state?


I'm being realistic as to how many spare Meetups we can get donated based on the Seed a Meetup and Adopt a Meetup projects. I'm also trying to keep things manageable and avoid duplication of effort. We don't want people to join these meetups unless they want to hook up with others to start meetups where there are none. These Meetups are a tool to reach former supporters, not something permanent.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

I think the meet up groups will be very influence. It is an absolute must! And QUESTION: How many supporters do you think RP has lost since 2008? How many supporters do you think RP has gained? I know I stand as a young (I'm 16; I will be able to vote in 2012 and the primaries) new RP supporter since April 2010. I think the people who has supported him will continue to unless they are misinformed about RP's age and health.

We lost 37,011 supporters from the ronpaul.meetup.com hierarchy, 40 from the ron-paul.meetup.com hierarchy and who knows how many from other hierarchies like libertarian, constitution, JBS, etc.

How many people voted for him would be a larger number.

How many support him today will be a larger number still, due to lots of media time, 2 best selling books, his status on the financial services committee, etc.

-t

[sailingaway]

I'm being realistic as to how many spare Meetups we can get donated based on the Seed a Meetup and Adopt a Meetup projects. I'm also trying to keep things manageable and avoid duplication of effort. We don't want people to join these meetups unless they want to hook up with others to start meetups where there are none. These Meetups are a tool to reach former supporters, not something permanent.

-t

OK, I'm not trying to be dense, I came in late to the prior election. But if I'm in LA, how do I realistically work with a meetup in San Francisco, or even San Diego?

If it were me, the first thing I would do is send one email to all the groups currently listed as Ron Paul meetups and see how many people they still can access. To the extent groups still exist, I'd use their structure, then branch out. It would be a lot more than two per state, by the meetup directory. Or is that a ghost?

[tangent4ronpaul]

OK, I'm not trying to be dense, I came in late to the prior election. But if I'm in LA, how do I realistically work with a meetup in San Francisco, or even San Diego?

If it were me, the first thing I would do is send one email to all the groups currently listed as Ron Paul meetups and see how many people they still can access. To the extent groups still exist, I'd use their structure, then branch out. It would be a lot more than two per state, by the meetup directory. Or is that a ghost?

I'm the author and maintainer of the Meetup directory.

We currently have 622 Meetups with 66,068 members in 414 cities and 11 foreign countries.

I guess you missed this part of the OP:

"So what's in the buffer? A brief message about RP's anticipated announcement, a call to action – follow link to WB message and survey as well as request they Join an existing Meetup or join the spinup meetup and chat with others about creating a meetup more local to them and a list of all active Meetups, student groups, SNS groups, etc. in their state as well as links to National groups and support groups and major web sites. Brief and to the point."

As soon as RP announces, people will check back in to their Meetups. The point of getting people signed up before that is so we have some semblance of organization and communications rather than free for all chaos like last time.

A trickle, of Meetups are starting to form again, but it's going really slow. After he announces it will be like sipping out of a fire hose.

-t

[sailingaway]

I'm the author and maintainer of the Meetup directory.

We currently have 622 Meetups with 66,068 members in 414 cities and 11 foreign countries.

I guess you missed this part of the OP:

"So what's in the buffer? A brief message about RP's anticipated announcement, a call to action – follow link to WB message and survey as well as request they Join an existing Meetup or join the spinup meetup and chat with others about creating a meetup more local to them and a list of all active Meetups, student groups, SNS groups, etc. in their state as well as links to National groups and support groups and major web sites. Brief and to the point."

As soon as RP announces, people will check back in to their Meetups. The point of getting people signed up before that is so we have some semblance of organization and communications rather than free for all chaos like last time.

A trickle, of Meetups are starting to form again, but it's going really slow. After he announces it will be like sipping out of a fire hose.

-t


Sorry, you are right, my eyes slid off at: " – follow link to WB message and survey " (since I have no clue what "WB message and survey" means), and I didn't catch back onto the text until the next paragraph.

Sorry!

[tangent4ronpaul]

Sorry, you are right, my eyes slid off at: " – follow link to WB message and survey " (since I have no clue what "WB message and survey" means), and I didn't catch back onto the text until the next paragraph.

Sorry!

"Put together a “Welcome back” packet for lost and inactive supporters.
(Suggestions for content are welcome)

Put together a survey to discover skills, current level of activity in various areas, contact information and so on. Information will be shared with the grassroots coalition. (Suggestions for what kind of things to ask are welcome)"

[sailingaway]

"Put together a “Welcome back” packet for lost and inactive supporters.
(Suggestions for content are welcome)



Well, there needs to be a 'nerve center' the meetups can tap into to short cut the information stream when things are moving quickly. I don't know what that would be, but someplace where 'the word' would be. I got the impression the forum and DP were part of that, last time. But there were things like the 'paint the town Ron' event that meetups did nation wide and there should be a 'nerve center' with that meetup schedule info. If there is one, accessing it should be in the packet. "How to get involved" "What can I do" sorts of pieces should be in there, imho. "the importance of being a precinct leader" etc. A couple of videos like how to make signs (there is one I just saw on another thread from Las Vegas that showed very practical tips ), maybe a video of 'events that went well' from the last election, for ideas to other meetups.

here's the sign video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS5TwU-Pthw&feature=player_embedded

[tangent4ronpaul]

Agreed. We've talked about various ways of doing this. Unfortunately Meetups business strategy resolves around not providing contact info, so we need them to make contact - as pathetic as that is between groups. We have organizer groups and for those organizers that are members, that works well, but you generally have to tap a meetup at it's inception to get an organizer to join. Last time there was a ronpaul.meetup.com meetup wide bulletin board that helped too, however most organizers didn't know about it and this functionality seems to have gone away. Main facebook, yahoo and MySpace groups also served this function as did RPF and Daily Paul. Needless to say, all that crossposting to get a single message out was a total pain in the ass, and at best you only got through to slightly over 50% of the Meetups. Lots of folks never knew national actions were taking place.

We talked about a national opt-in mailing list, and different groups have mailing lists, but they don't want to share them for the common good. Part of this is pointing people to a handful of sites and limiting where info can be dropped for distribution. Still some other ideas are being kicked around.

-t

[Thomas]

We can start a chip-in to save these Meetups.

[Elwar]

I wonder if we should even use Meetup this time, it's not free and there might be a better way to organize. Any ideas?

I've set up a site focussed on having meetup functionality.

http://www.TheRonPaulTeaParty.com

[tangent4ronpaul]

I've set up a site focussed on having meetup functionality.

http://www.TheRonPaulTeaParty.com

Lost of people did last time and it looks like with a lot more functionality than you have. They never took. Not a single one of them.

Having something off to the side hurts us as to attracting new members from a larger pool.
Asking people to move doesn't work. People are very monogamous about their SNS's.

-t

[Tinnuhana]

I joined the Meet-Up on Okinawa, but before I could meet anyone, the "sponsor" PCS'd or deployed or something. Now I guess it's off-line because the dues weren't paid. Is there a way for me to start it up again? I'd assume all the military members have left the island by now, but a vew of the civilians are probably still around.

[sailingaway]

I've set up a site focussed on having meetup functionality.

http://www.TheRonPaulTeaParty.com

That's great, but will we be able to get the people who go to meetups that way? Because that is what is known to people who don't already know Ron Paul. They WILL go to the meetups site and look for them. Maybe if people at the meetups know about your site, word could spread? I'm not sure how it would work. However, by the time I learned about and tried to get into a meetup they were already thinking about going to C4L so I only had a few emails with the organizer. (The election activity left here before I knew how to -- or that I wanted to-- get that involved, although I donated to the Dec 16 moneybomb on the strength of comments in a different forum. ) I didn't know how MUCH I'd like him until just before the election here when I really researched him. That was super duper Tuesday and it was over after that -- in fact the media was falsely announcing he'd quit for weeks after that. So my perspective is from the point of view of an outsider trying to get involved, and what would they do?

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/images/icons/icon3.png

(Hah! you can right click the emoticons at the bottom and paste the URL!!! I had no idea!!) (Sorry, little diversion there...)

What if the forum on its front page said where to go to get involved in your area? And DP? Sort of like the 'find a store near you' on store web sites, or at least post a banner for the link to search (in your website or meetups?). Both this forum and the DP come up in any serious google search of Ron Paul. I didn't want to register anywhere 'Ron Paul' for a while because there was all this noise on the internet about scams from RP sites using your email address...(no idea where that came from, everyone from the High Tide folks to all the other chip ins and sites I used were on the up and up. ) I TRIED to register at DP in 2008 but they were having some glitch, so I just 'lurked' for the entire rest of the process, but DID donate to chip ins, and high tide cable time etc. People who lurk sometimes care, but just don't want to register.

The new front page would have helped me in the election, here, I wasn't comfortable navigating this sort of a forum with the discussion threads etc, at the time, but the new front page is much more user friendly as an introduction and index. ( I finally registered here when one too many interesting posts on google traced to behind the 'hot topics' wall here, and I gingerly decided you folks were on the up and up.)

[tangent4ronpaul]

I joined the Meet-Up on Okinawa, but before I could meet anyone, the "sponsor" PCS'd or deployed or something. Now I guess it's off-line because the dues weren't paid. Is there a way for me to start it up again? I'd assume all the military members have left the island by now, but a vew of the civilians are probably still around.

Meetups go away after 2 weeks if no one steps up (pays) to be the new organizer. Some organizers pay out of pocket, others pass a hat among members. If it's an open meetup, anyone can become the organizer. If it's a closed meetup (people have to be approved to join) only previously approved members can become the new organizer.

Here are the current Meetups at risk:

1 The Adams County Campaign For Liberty Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-1531/) => 0 days left! (12 members)
2 The Rhinelander/Oneida County Ron Paul for President 2008 (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-1583/) => 0 days left! (15 members)
3 Santa Barbara Ron Paul 2008 Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-264/) => 9 days left! (76 members)
4 Libertarian Party of Broward County (http://www.meetup.com/lpbroward/) => 12 days left! (81 members)
5 Anti New World Order Party (http://www.meetup.com/AntiNewWorldOrderParty/) => 13 days left! (28 members)
6 Hudson County (Jersey City & Hoboken) Ron Paul 2008 Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-885/) => 13 days left! (101 members)

This is thankfully a short list, they used to be MUCH longer!

We have lost ~1,300 Meetups.

-t

[sailingaway]

Meetups go away after 2 weeks if no one steps up (pays) to be the new organizer. Some organizers pay out of pocket, others pass a hat among members. If it's an open meetup, anyone can become the organizer. If it's a closed meetup (people have to be approved to join) only previously approved members can become the new organizer.

Here are the current Meetups at risk:

1 The Adams County Campaign For Liberty Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-1531/) => 0 days left! (12 members)
2 The Rhinelander/Oneida County Ron Paul for President 2008 (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-1583/) => 0 days left! (15 members)
3 Santa Barbara Ron Paul 2008 Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-264/) => 9 days left! (76 members)
4 Libertarian Party of Broward County (http://www.meetup.com/lpbroward/) => 12 days left! (81 members)
5 Anti New World Order Party (http://www.meetup.com/AntiNewWorldOrderParty/) => 13 days left! (28 members)
6 Hudson County (Jersey City & Hoboken) Ron Paul 2008 Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/ronpaul-885/) => 13 days left! (101 members)

This is thankfully a short list, they used to be MUCH longer!

We have lost ~1,300 Meetups.

-t

The first two of those seem to be gone. How much does it cost to keep each up? We could start a chip in so people not from those areas could help assuming the people there still exist and one would be 'organizer' if the fee were paid.

[tangent4ronpaul]

The first two of those seem to be gone. How much does it cost to keep each up? We could start a chip in so people not from those areas could help assuming the people there still exist and one would be 'organizer' if the fee were paid.

3 Meetups for 6 months for $70.

This looks out 2 weeks, so for the ones that say 13 days left, the organizer probably just got sent a e-mail saying their subscription is up and they often re-subscribe, especially for larger meetups. Also, as a couple of these have over 100 members, even if the organizer does not renew, someone else often will. If they are at 7 days or less, you should worry. Meetups with 2-5 ppl generally never took off and have probably been dormant for some time. There are exceptions. I've seen Meetups with 13 members where every member was a doer and put to shame Meetups with over 100 members where only 5-10% ever did anything.

We were doing adopt a Meetup for a while, so spare Meetups could support at risk Meetups. Unfortunately, it seems like most are not paying attention to their Meetups right now. Some are quite active, but for the most part, it looks like we are going to have to wait for Dr. Paul to announce before we get widespread support. That means this will be a royal pain and chaotic. :(

We can drop in some infrastructure and "road signs" to make this less painful.

Meetups 3,4 and 6 are worth saving if they don't bail themselves out. #5 would be a big maybe.

-t

[JenH88]

i dunno.. i honestly think with the talent in this movement we could do this more cost efficiently.. do we really need to pay meetup.com this much? that money would be better spent on slim jims...

as long as its properly networked and spread through facebook and twitter i dont think it really matters what the main networking site is.. (amazing that facebook was a huge role in the tunisia revolution, although NOT surprising) we can use the old meetups to direct them to wherever we put "homebase".. someone else mentioned having a pulse like center, where information is exchanged and emanates from.. i think it certainly should stay RPF. a zip code search thing prominent all over RPF's to connect to the nearest group.. the meetup locator sucked. lol we just need to actually go out and make sure each and every local group stays in the loop and gets the support/information they need. ways to participate need to be more prominent, for all comfort levels.. (those on the computer to those on the streets, to how to reach out in every day conversations/situations)...

im excited though.. the things we can accomplish together left me awestruck last round.. =) RP2012.. the ground is fertile.. i know personally the amount of people receptive and supportive of the good Dr. has increased 3-4 times at least since 2008..

[Ethek]

I wonder if we should even use Meetup this time, it's not free and there might be a better way to organize. Any ideas?


I have this site http://community.rp3vol.com I've developed for just that reason. The www root can have a CiviCRM database up and running with a universal login across all of the sites. http://news.rp3vol.com is also a way to keep tabs on news stories. I was reasearching it as part of the War Room idea. I have been hesitent to put it out because of my commitments but If a few people start collaborating on the site development forum and a solid structure gets in place it will take off. It can use open source across the board and I have a hosting platform built on an Aegir instance. It will spin off a Druapl7 based money bomb sites (stritcly HTMl for those that dont do CSS like drupal 6) in a matter of mins... share all of the supporters across a common CIVICRM database. All of the instances are super optimized . Drupal 6 Drupal 7/ Open Atrium/ News/ UberCart (eStore) and Aquia Drupal all have tweaked caching and varnish... plus Apache Solr search capability. Theyll scale up to 4 Cores and 16 GBs of Ram. the DB is hosted on a SQL optimized SAN.

Here is a little about the capabilities of the Atrium Distribution. Its made for collaboration
http://openatrium.com/features
When you look at the case tracker feature think a shared group project plan.


http://community.rp3vol.com
http://news.rp3vol.com

It's is also modular enough to plug about any Drupal functionality in youd want.
http://mapbox.com/tiles for instance for precient level GOTV efforts.

Make what you will of it. I have the backend figured out. It just needs some help.

[JenH88]

Lost of people did last time and it looks like with a lot more functionality than you have. They never took. Not a single one of them.

Having something off to the side hurts us as to attracting new members from a larger pool.
Asking people to move doesn't work. People are very monogamous about their SNS's.

-t

i know exactly what you're saying. i think the social network climate online is different now.. everyone is tapped into facebook or twitter.. people who were never interested in social networking before.. whereas before the overall online network was very broken up.. some people networked through myspace, some through meetup.com, some just youtube.. they didn't overlap very well..

the thing now is that everything is connected.. its very easy to share stuff between the platforms. it's made it very easy for independent web pages to get just as much promotion as mainstream websites.. youve got a better chance of networking through facebook to find people to get involved than paying and waiting around hoping someone who wants to get active visits meetup.com.. thats just not how it is anymore..

if we are going to set up an alternate system we need to commit to it and actually promote it.. seriously.. none of this "it didnt work before it won't work now".. we'd have to want to make this network- because it serves us better..

i think the investment in meetups should certainly be reconsidered..

edited to add..
also.. i wouldnt focus so much on making a networking site per say.. keeping up a fb page is enough work, most people dont have time for multiple networking sites..

we just need a place where people can find a schedule of events, ways to participate and comment on these things... to be honest facebook itself could be used for all of the event pages. but we would still need a site with a good zip code search page that directs you to groups with clear multiple choices on ways to participate.. links leading to the event pages.. <cough cough, RPF>

[Brian4Liberty]

i know exactly what you're saying. i think the social network climate online is different now.. everyone is tapped into facebook or twitter....youve got a better chance of networking through facebook to find people to get involved than paying and waiting around hoping someone who wants to get active visits meetup.com.. thats just not how it is anymore..


Very true. Facebook is now the leader. Meet-up has faded quite a bit.


we just need a place where people can find a schedule of events, ways to participate and comment on these things... to be honest facebook itself could be used for all of the event pages. but we would still need a site with a good zip code search page that directs you to groups with clear multiple choices on ways to participate.. links leading to the event pages.. <cough cough, RPF>

We should probably make our "Local Activism" sub-forum more prominent and see if people start using it. Maybe create an events sub-forum (or sticky) within each State... More work for the RPF administrators... ;)

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?121-Local-Activism

[JenH88]

i dont know if simply the placement of the local forums is the only reason they havent had heavy traffic, while it certainly plays a key...

it isn't easy to navigate and find what's near to you.. while breaking it into states is nice.. it doesn't help little ol nacy and jim in the country from figuring out easily where they can get in contact with people, or see ways the can participate.. i think a prominent zip code search for activism opportunities is key..

[tangent4ronpaul]

the thing now is that everything is connected.. its very easy to share stuff between the platforms.

It's called ShareThis and we should make heavy use of it along with Banner ads that people can embed in their personal pages.

http://sharethis.com/publishers/get-sharing-button


it's made it very easy for independent web pages to get just as much promotion as mainstream websites..

Not true!


youve got a better chance of networking through facebook to find people to get involved than paying and waiting around hoping someone who wants to get active visits meetup.com.. thats just not how it is anymore..

That is exactly how it is anymore. People like Meetup. There are 37,015 on Meetup looking for a local Ron Paul group right now. We cross pollinate with JBS, Constitutional groups, Libertarian groups, 912 groups, groups that think the gvmt is too big, ones that want to end the wars, legalize pot, abolish the TSA, end the Fed, etc. Bail on Meetup and you loose all that.

The two most important factors: Meetup is composed of individuals that want to get together in person and do stuff. Meetup also localizes. Very few sites do that. Dating sites, coupon sites, used car sites, real estate, consumer review - like Angies list - but the only site (besides Yahoo that isn't that popular) that supports local people getting together and provides tools to do that is Meetup. OK, I havn't looked at Google Groups in a while so there might be a new kid on the block.

But this is all irrelevant because people like Meetup and asked for it.


if we are going to set up an alternate system we need to commit to it and actually promote it.. seriously.. none of this "it didnt work before it won't work now".. we'd have to want to make this network- because it serves us better..

Please go ahead if you want to. If you think managing a Facebook group is hard, you ain't seen anything yet! But if you really, really want to - go for it. If you start now, you might have something functional to use for the home stretch. After the primaries are over.


i think the investment in meetups should certainly be reconsidered..

Sure, you get 3 groups for the price of one, so better networking to share costs could drop prices significantly. With 3 shared sites, the per site cost is $23 per six months or $3.88 a month or 13 cents a day. How many slim jims can you buy for that?


we just need a place where people can find a schedule of events, ways to participate and comment on these things... to be honest facebook itself could be used for all of the event pages. but we would still need a site with a good zip code search page that directs you to groups with clear multiple choices on ways to participate.. links leading to the event pages.. <cough cough, RPF>

Spoken as someone that has never subscribed to the traffic from 100 Meetups at once. We had ~2,000 Meetups last time.

When RPF's was in full swing, you could go grab a cup of coffee and the top post on page one was no longer on page 1 when you got back 5 min later.

Have you even looked at the mechanics of Facebook pages and considered a lot of traffic and comments? If you put it on a static page, it would be continually updated and you would need a submission process.

-t

[JenH88]

..............
-t
yes, share this is pretty much the most used tool to do this :rolleyes: lol.

how have independent pages not had as much of a shot to go viral? how else could you explain the blog movement? thats purely social networking based, and not all popular blogs are on mainstream blogging sites..

? who said anything about bailing on meetup? i know i mentioned that we should use meetup as an avenue to direct people to us.. meetup have been a great tool, and ive seen the demand. ive been apart of that demand.. ive been miss sally in the country trying to find people who actually wanted to do something. i think the demand on meetup is a symptom of the overall demand.

i know ive searched meetup too because, well, where else do you look? you have to search a million terms, freedom, patriots, liberty, tea party, 9/12 to try and find anything in the ball park. any group you do find is never active, or are so poorly planned no one comes. cmon.. you dont think we can do better? really? lol.

if i was interested in doing that and had the knowledge i would... sorry. im part of the unemployed bunch living in a garage struggling to get back on feet.. im working on other things. lol.

however.. i thought perhaps my opinion could help someone who is working on this right now. i thought that was the point of the thread. lol. obviously im not an expert, im just passing along my opinion based on my experiences in my small little bubble. lol.

you obviously have more experience and expertise. ;)

[sailingaway]

Very true. Facebook is now the leader. Meet-up has faded quite a bit.



We should probably make our "Local Activism" sub-forum more prominent and see if people start using it. Maybe create an events sub-forum (or sticky) within each State... More work for the RPF administrators... ;)


http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?121-Local-Activism


I don't use facebook; I don't like the privacy policies. If I can ever wean my kids off it I'll be off altogether. (I like keeping my personal life and professional life separate.) I prefer something else, personally.

I think we should start a chip in for meetups and those who want to can fund the ones tangent4RonPaul thinks are best, at least through the next 6 months until we see what is working for the campaign, once Ron announces. I'd just hate any more existing ones to fail while we are right on the cusp of needing them.

Does the 'adopt a meetup' thing have a chipin site?

[tangent4ronpaul]

If you can figure out how to get a steady stream of things going viral, you will be one wealthy girl!

For the most part, sites have built popularity over time by doing a series of the right things that people like and that popularity has grown steadily.

Can a little site have a one hit wonder and be famous for a day? - sure. But that doesn't help you the day after.

Larger, well established sites, can cary you along, but owe their success to their ability to provide content due to paid staff - Like the Huffington Post, or because someone famous is there writing or they are able to get famous people in regularly.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

Does the 'adopt a meetup' thing have a chipin site?

We don't have a chipin and hopefully they will bail themselves out or someone with a spare/unused Meetup will donate it.

-t

[JenH88]

oh tangent.. honestly i dont think youve even read my posts.. how do you keep stuffing words in my mouth? lol.. :confused: i never said i understand the process to put out a steady stream of viral things? :confused: i dont even see how its relevant?

My point is that people are looking on meetup to get active, not because meetup magically makes people appear but because people are interested and searching..

the "build it" and they will come thing happens not because people are sitting around on meetup going "hm.. what would be interesting to join today" .. it happens because people are like "hm.. i want to get active how can i find other people?" they search meetup because there isnt another reliable/easy to use platform..

meetup has not served our needs financially. it has not been easy to navigate and find groups- i.e. no unification between the groups. i know of many members who quite because of excessive annoying emails and group emails..

meetup has been great, but geez.. LOL.. hostile to any speak of innovation i see.. lol..

[tangent4ronpaul]

oh tangent.. honestly i dont think youve even read my posts.. how do you keep stuffing words in my mouth? lol.. :confused: i never said i understand the process to put out a steady stream of viral things? :confused: i dont even see how its relevant?

I was replying to something you said about posts going viral - as if that was easy to do.


My point is that people are looking on meetup to get active, not because meetup magically makes people appear but because people are interested and searching..

the "build it" and they will come thing happens not because people are sitting around on meetup going "hm.. what would be interesting to join today" .. it happens because people are like "hm.. i want to get active how can i find other people?" they search meetup because there isnt another reliable/easy to use platform..

Exactly!


meetup has not served our needs financially. it has not been easy to navigate and find groups- i.e. no unification between the groups. i know of many members who quite because of excessive annoying emails and group emails..

oh boy...
excessive e-mails and group mails. You can change that to read online only in your settings.
navigate and find groups: well there is the "find" box and http://ronpaul.meetup.com/all/ I tend to find most groups by that little box on the lower left that lists related groups in your area and by looking at peoples profiles - figure if they like this group, I might like some of their others.
Personally, I think people find our groups by accident more often than direct search.
financially? - $23 for 6 months? - I've spent more than that on a good dinner.



meetup has been great, but geez.. LOL.. hostile to any speak of innovation i see.. lol..

There is actually quite a bit of innovation. Some organizers have gotten invites to a development Meetup where we give feedback and get previews of new features.

There is also Meetup Alliance.

-t

[wizardwatson]

This thread got some responses over two days.

tangent4ronpaul, any updates? Is this still something you're focusing on/planning to focus on, or are you, like a lot of people, waiting to see if RP will run?