Concerning Phase "A" in IOWA..

[sifupaul]

As we all know, Iowa is crucial to this campaign.

If anyone out there would like to help with this effort, please contact Paul Farris paulfarris1957@yahoo.com . He is one of our "Operation Iowa" leaders here in Austin.

The following was written by him:

Concerning the "Phase A in Iowa", from now until Ames Straw August 11.

The situation in Iowa from what I can tell from a source, another member inside the Des Moines group, the situation is dire....the meetup leader, bless his heart i believe he is a good guy, is overwhelmed, coupled with his underwhelming leadership skill. This is not a personal attack on him, I've talked to him a couple of times. I'm simply painting the pic. A week ago last Tuesday 6/5, he was pricing blank signage material, so they could make their own signs. I suggested to him our Houston Texasgop.com source for signage. I talked to the same meetup leader last Tuesday 6/12, he was still pricing signage. Hello?

Now when I hear HQ Lew Moore say we aim to win Iowa. Great! But willy nilly come to Iowa and start pounding on doors is fool hardy. Pounding on doors, talking with residents, and leaving information in the hands of voters, in a coordinated, planned out manner, now you would have something.

Now, I suspect there are several thousand meetup members within 1000 miles of Des Moines (yep, Austin falls within that radii at just over 900 miles). Hundreds of meetup volunteers are just waiting for direction. Now just consider for the moment what could be accomplished if just 200 volunteers or 300 volunteers or 400 or 500 or 600........hit Des Moines in Phase A giving 16 hours, just as an example (2 eight hour days of coordinated door-to-door effort) in Phase A.

200 x 16 hrs = 3200 man hours
300 x 16 hrs = 4800 man hours
400 x 16 hrs = 6400 man hours
500 x 16 hrs = 8000 man hours
600 x 16 hrs = 9600 man hours

Could you imagine for a moment just the name recognition we could acheive in the most urban area of the state of Iowa? I mean it's possible we could hit nearly every doorway in Polk County (Des Moines) and adjoining Story County (Ames, Iowa).

This coupled with Operation Spooner and voila! we have a real campaign and good odds to beat the expectation game come August 11th and giving us a nice tail-wind into the Fall campaign in Iowa!

I cannot for the life of me determine what in high heavens is the Meetup organization waiting for, when we should be surging into Des Moines (Polk/Story County) with volunteer power.

This is not rocket science. It's election campaigning 101. And the RPNation has the horses, we just need someone to lead the charge, and I don't mean the Iowa Coordinator.

Now, I'm hearing out of Des Moines that the Tancredo Organization is doing mass mailing and recorded phone calls in addition to buying chunks of tickets to give to backers for the Strawpoll and arranging transportation.

In any case, all it would take are some leaders, with a track record or persons of determination and organizational skills, to direct the house-to-house, neighborhood-to-neighborhood charge into Polk/Story County, and soon!

We still have a grand window of opportunity, but it will close if we don't get cracking very soon.

Paul

[Quantumystic]

I agree in some respects.

The Florida Straw poll is supposed to be some time in October, and I'm already scripting Logistics.

As for Iowa, maybe the rest of us can create stencil-templates for signage, even make "donations" that involve paying for the materials to be delivered/picked up locally.

Gotta tell ya Paul, signage from Houston seems a poor choice of resource expense management. The shipping costs, costs of the professional production (unless your guy's gonna do it "pro bono")...

We already have many top quality graphics experts who will create templates and send on their own dime to the Iowa operation. I'm one of them. We can also find online local sources for the signage materials, which can be paid for over the phone w/ plastic.

Already having the professional knowledge, we can place the orders properly so that the sign making is a "turn-key" by the numbers exercise. And I guarantee it'll be less than 50% of what your Houston guy is gonna do. Unless, he's doing for RP and not the profits.

[beermotor]

Can we get some people to pass out flyers at churches on Sunday when they let out? Seems like a good target audience.

Also, what can the rest of us do, as far as emailing / calling people, etc. If Iowa is lacking, Austin can step up and give us direction. Ready and willing (to work around my work committments, heh).

[Original_Intent]

I agree in some respects.

The Florida Straw poll is supposed to be some time in October, and I'm already scripting Logistics.

As for Iowa, maybe the rest of us can create stencil-templates for signage, even make "donations" that involve paying for the materials to be delivered/picked up locally.

Gotta tell ya Paul, signage from Houston seems a poor choice of resource expense management. The shipping costs, costs of the professional production (unless your guy's gonna do it "pro bono")...

We already have many top quality graphics experts who will create templates and send on their own dime to the Iowa operation. I'm one of them. We can also find online local sources for the signage materials, which can be paid for over the phone w/ plastic.

Already having the professional knowledge, we can place the orders properly so that the sign making is a "turn-key" by the numbers exercise. And I guarantee it'll be less than 50% of what your Houston guy is gonna do. Unless, he's doing for RP and not the profits.

Just FYI, the stuff I ordered from Texas GOP was shipped free. I got four yard signs (including the metal "posts") and 3 bumper stickers for about $10.

[Bossobass]

I've been thinking about the following:

We could order Iowa phone books and divide them into manageable sections to be sent to volunteers around the country.

The volunteers would receive a package consisting of the phone book section, a how-to page, a scripted message and a FAQ sheet with quick answers to questions about issues for a phone campaign.

When the names in the section were called, the volunteer would mark them off the list. If anyone called requests further info that name and address would be noted and when the package is returned to Iowa, the folks there could call on the residence with literature.

If there is enough of a response from volunteers, they could blanket Iowa in short order. 2,000 volunteers could cover the state's eligible voters in 2 weeks, and they could work from their homes from anywhere around the country.

This might help in Iowa and NH.

Just a thought, FWIW.

Bosso

[manystrom]

Hello -

I just finished making up these Iowa posters. This is my contribution from up here in Boston:

http://dailypaul.com/node/83/

These are Adobe Acrobat format, and are meant to print out on a standard 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, color copied and hung or distributed. Hope they are of use. I'd like to see the whole state plastered in them!

Regarding what I was reading above about political signs. If you do a search on Google for "Election Signs" - you'll get a bunch of different companies who are more than happy to print corrugated plastic signs for reasonable prices. You can just deal with them over the internet, and turnaround time is just about a week or so. The first company that comes up is this one:

http://signelect.com/corrugatedplastic.htm

They quote a price of $117 for 100 signs, or something thereabouts. If somebody wants to just get on the ball and order some signs, they can have them in about a week. It is not that much money - and you could probably take them and sell them yourself and make a little profit. I don't think Dr. Paul would mind - he's all about free market solutions, after all!

The important thing is that someone should just do it. That is what Kate at www.ronpaulhq.com up in New Hampshire did - they just put the signs on the credit card, and were able to recoup their investment by selling them.

Best regards
Michael Nystrom
Editor
www.dailypaul.com (http://www.dailypaul.com)
:)

[RJB]

If there is enough of a response from volunteers, they could blanket Iowa in short order. 2,000 volunteers could cover the state's eligible voters in 2 weeks, and they could work from their homes from anywhere around the country.


That would be something reaching every person in Iowa personally.

[ratsbew]

I've been thinking about the following:

We could order Iowa phone books and divide them into manageable sections to be sent to volunteers around the country.

The volunteers would receive a package consisting of the phone book section, a how-to page, a scripted message and a FAQ sheet with quick answers to questions about issues for a phone campaign.

When the names in the section were called, the volunteer would mark them off the list. If anyone called requests further info that name and address would be noted and when the package is returned to Iowa, the folks there could call on the residence with literature.

If there is enough of a response from volunteers, they could blanket Iowa in short order. 2,000 volunteers could cover the state's eligible voters in 2 weeks, and they could work from their homes from anywhere around the country.

This might help in Iowa and NH.

Just a thought, FWIW.

Bosso

This is really a great idea! And if people do not want to use up their phone minutes or make long distance calls, you can use Yahoo Messenger to make phone calls for 1 cent per minute (http://messenger.yahoo.com/feat_voice.php) ($10 = 16.5 Hours!), all you need is a headset with a microphone and a decent (some sort of broadband) internet connection.

[LibertyEagle]

Original Intent said:


Just FYI, the stuff I ordered from Texas GOP was shipped free. I got four yard signs (including the metal "posts") and 3 bumper stickers for about $10.

You're talking about Ron Paul stuff, I assume? Wow. Is there any limit that you know of on what can be ordered? This sounds like the way we want to go, instead of paying someone to make them and shipping them somewhere ourselves.