Brainstorming Door to Door -- Grassroots Decentralized

[lonestarguy]

Okay, here's the scenario I hope you will brainstorm, critique about, improve upon, and more.

Scenario:

Meticulous coverage, door to door in a major urban area of a medium size city, with over 110,000 single family units in an important caucus and or primary state. The specific state has motivated volunteers and good leadership. But they too have lives to lead in addition to operating a multi-tasked campaign and should not reasonably be expected to handle epic tasks by themselves.

The Door to Door Plan: Because the city is of sufficient size, it is divided into a quadrant. The four sectors of the quadrant become areas of responsibility for the adjoining states and their meetup volunteer groups. There are at least two states assigned per quadrant.

Some quadrant assigned states may have differing views of how best to tackle their assigned area of responsiblity. That is fine, it could lead to creativity and more efficient and complete coverage.

Here is one plan, for example, by state X.

X keeps track of names and cell telephone numbers of volunteers transiting into the urban quadrant. A group of three volunteers, two women and one man, initially arrives on the ground in the assigned quadrant. After arising from their hotel or campsite, they meet for an early lunch. At lunch, they study the city map, and decide to begin from the intersection of the axis of x and y and work outward. Deciding that they will find more people home later in the day, they decide to walk neighborhoods from 2pm until 8pm. They decide to all meet for a late dinner and compare notes, noting the specific street and address numbers covered, (i.e., 001-1407 Webster Ave, all even and odd addresses, etc).

They in-turn email or fax the numbered street addresses, and any heretofore uncovered RPaul supporters, to a meetup monitor who then posts the street #s completed to a website, and forwards the RP supporter data to the appropriate local volunteer in the city.

This initial group continues to meet everyday for lunch to plan the day.
Another volunteer arrives and joins the three initial volunteers,and the four plan their day of neighborhood walking. They repeat the sequence; they meet for dinner, compile their days result and fax or email results to the monitor. The website is updated.

Three more volunteers arrive a day later, they meet up with the four volunteers who are still there. The seven volunteers meet for lunch, study the map, plan the day, and repeat as noted above. The first four volunteers depart for their home state. The three recent voluteers continue to follow a similiar sequence and so the situation goes.

In this scenario, it is asked that each quadrant, at the end of it's daily activities, compile the street#s completed and the RP supporters discovered and faxed or emailed to the monitor. The website page now begins to show growing completion of a door to door campaign.

As one quadrant gets completed or nearly filled, volunteers from those states could be flowed into quadrants that could use the assistence.....etc etc etc.

Now your comments please, questions, improvements, critiques..........let it begin!

[nayjevin]

I think this is an excellent real world plan.

It would have to start in a meetup group, I would think. I would suggest everyone suggest this in their meetup, and guage level of interest.

Perhaps each quadrant should have a set meeting place, like Starbucks or a sit down burger joint, and it would just be a daily noon meetup. Anyone that can show up, any day, just goes there at noon. Via web there is access to a database of addresses already covered/ not yet covered.

Possible obstacles:
There is a limited number of people willing to go door to door.
The website coordination could be labor intensive, or limited expertise available.

I'll ponder this a bit more.

[Man from La Mancha]

It's a start. Everything should be coordinated with local RP groups. Do you mean door to door face contacts like Jehovah witness people or just leaving info on the doors. I don't think people like to be disturbed and you can cover a lot more ground just leaving materials. What do you all think on face to face door to door canvasing. Anybody have much experience on this. Is just mailing easier and faster.

[Bryan]

Lonestarguy- our meet-up in Houston has been working a lot on this topic- it may be easiest to talk voice so I'm PM you my cell. Actually I'll be in Austin this weekend at that. :)

[Bruehound]

The suggestion of this thread is the bread and butter of real world political campaigning. Instead of the quadrant approach this type of work should be done using voter lists and by precinct. Yes, I have political experience having run for state office in Illinois. In 2004 i personally knocked on 14,689 door(but who's counting.) Here's how voting juristictions breakdown in a typical state.

State divided into Counties
Counties are divided into Townships
Townships are divided into precincts.

A precinct is basically a neighborhood. In my suburban area a precinct will contain approx 100-500 voting households. Door knocking should be done rather than a simple "lit drop". It's a simple "Hi, I'm a volunterr for Ron Paul who is running for president in the Republican primaries and we wanted you to have some information on him.(then insert your favorite bullet point--just one though i.e. 'he wants to get rid of the income tax'.)

Always remember that 97% of the electorate has nowhere near the passion about politics' that you do. The average voter comes home from work and waches American Idol and vote for the guy who looks best in a suit. Sure this is condescending and sad but it is also the truth.

Tried and true politics' 101 says it takes SIX direct touches with a voter to get them to vote for your candidate. By touches i mean direct voter contact. Examples:
Door knock = one touch
Direct mail piece = one touch for each different piece
Robo call = one touch
Yard sign view = one touch
Live phone bank call = one touch
Etc.

Critical to this kind of precinct work is the meticulous keeping of data. As I've said before Political campaigns are more about prospecting than they are about persuasion. Meaning it is a waste of manhours and resources to try and convince Neo's; instead it is more effective to identify people who alread have a pre existing agreement with one or more of Dr. Ron's positions.

Good record keeping is critical. A database should be updated to indicate which voters are for or against. It is just asimportant to know who is opposed to yoru candidate so no further resources are expended trying to 'win over' that person.

The database with identified supporters is crucial to the Get Out the Vote(GOTV) efforts before primary day. Live phone bank calls are made to identified supporters.

The old baseball slogan: Get 'em on, Get 'em over, Get 'em in.

Get on Amazon and search for books "how to win local campaigns". There are dozens of books that have the basics. We are not re-inventing the wheel here and the internet is wonderful and glorious but only supplemental to shoe leather and will.

[pennycat]

These are excellent posts. I'm a meetup organizer in Orlando. Yes we have a lot of members. What I'm trying to figure out is a plan. These posts are exactly what I need. Bruehound, what's the best book on grassroots organizing?

My contribution to this discussion: When I come to a meetup, I make it a point to try and inspire members to action. I make an impassioned plea for people to work harder, explaining that this country is in serious trouble. Some members think I'm being bombastic and devisive. I'm torn. I don't want to blow people out of the water. But I think that there is danger in that meetups will ultimately fail if we don't inspire people.

Perhaps I can find balance in the specifics offered here and 'barn-burner' speaking ;-)

[nayjevin]

Perhaps I can find balance in the specifics offered here and 'barn-burner' speaking ;-)

Maybe try to come up with 'fun' activities and try to garner support for specific projects. Weekly social meetups helps, ones that have less pressure, and people get to know people better. Then, "hey you wanna go up to the fair and pass out some flyers?" becomes a friendship thing, instead of a work thing.

When people get out there and DO something together, they often find it's rewarding and fun. If they don't, they might never become big activists regardless of how you try to motivate them.

I would talk more about how easy it is to do little things -- flyers in bathroom stalls, on bulletin boards -- sign making parties, etc.

[lonestarguy]

It is way too exciting to see all the invaluable experience from just the few who have posted on this list. You should all be paid organizers at national, like yesterday!!!

The point about coordinating with the local RP meetup organizer is exceptionally well taken, and of course a priority, as they're blessing definitely needs to be gained.

In the real world, the point that is attempted to be driven in this thread, is the hope of 'landing' volunteer boots on the ground (as the candidate has already landed) to initiate door to door contact with the public to not only make an 'impression' and distribute literature and raise name recognition and identify new homegrown supporters, but to send signals to the media/pundit world, that heretofore has discounted said candidate, that this candidate indeed means serious business and intends to compete in every realm and has volunteers at his disposal willing to do just that.

The boots on the ground as we all are aware is not a singular event. It's part of the psychological/political milieu of a campaign, in this case, a very special campaign which has something to prove: real viability. It should be viewed as part of a larger, 'stir' or 'blossoming', if you will, of parallel activities such as live phone banking; candidate in-state and local face-to-face appearances with voters; tv and radio appearances; release of latest fund-raising data; the tension of an upcoming 5 August Sunday morning 90-minute in-state televised debate; the slow crash and burn of other candidates campaigns, and other factors that haven't been considered.

While in a better world it would be optimum to go to ground with precinct lists, I'm wondering if for this period between now and 11 August, we simply consider the city and its surrounds one large precinct. I mean, since it would be the campaigns first foray into the area, we'd be gathering data on RP supporters anyway, that we could mesh with the lists for the Fall campaign.

What say all?

[nayjevin]

bump

[TexMac]

Is there any difference we should consider in that we're organizing for a primary election right now, rather than the general election? Perhaps having voter registration material on hand when door-knocking?

Also, at the meet-up I attended, the organizer wanted to work off voter registration lists. But wouldn't we miss alot of people who aren't registered? Would it be better to just knock on every door in an area?

[nayjevin]

Is there any difference we should consider in that we're organizing for a primary election right now, rather than the general election? Perhaps having voter registration material on hand when door-knocking?

Also, at the meet-up I attended, the organizer wanted to work off voter registration lists. But wouldn't we miss alot of people who aren't registered? Would it be better to just knock on every door in an area?

Voter reg cards are an excellent idea, for the same reason it may be better to just knock on every door in an area, IMO. So many of those we need to bring in are either first time voters, registered dems, or independents. All of these need to register republican to vote for ron paul.

[CJLauderdale4]

This is a great idea!!

Remember, the national campaign HQ has access to A LOT more info than we can get personally, and has staff in almost every state. We should coordinate this at all levels. Meetup groups can be the smallest local organization, all the way up to the national campaign.

The national campaign has access to the information to all registered Republican voters in each state. This could be made available to the state and city campaign headquarters, and then organized with the meetups.

Meetups would then organize a coordinating meeting, assigning single members or teams to focus on particluar neighborhoods. This could be scheduled on weekends with memebers alternating mornings and afternoons. Small 1-3 hour committments from each memeber...

MAN!! If we start this now, do you realize how many voters we could reach???!?!?
And to think, they'd actually be talking to a human being about issues and Ron Paul, not listening to the MSM turn their minds into dribble....

[ccy]

Possible obstacles:
The website coordination could be labor intensive, or limited expertise available.


I don't think that's a problem. We've got some talented folks and the human resource pool is growing daily.

We've got an advokit server running at

https://ronpaulaustin.com/spooner

right now (sorry login is by invite only... see the advokit demo at

http://advokit.civicactions.net/demo/

). We have 260,000 voters loaded up. The data is somewhat stale (fresh voter data costs around $2000). But it's been proven to be viable, at least for its intended use: to support phone banking targeting Iowa.

Question: could our volunteers walk the streets "blind", that is just knocking on doors, and *gathering* data as they go? Because this would be the reality, more or less, given that as it stands around 25% - 50% of the records in the database contain old phone #s / addresses.

Only alternative is a quick, hard fund drive to get the Iowa data.

cy

[ccy]

Voter reg cards are an excellent idea, for the same reason it may be better to just knock on every door in an area, IMO. So many of those we need to bring in are either first time voters, registered dems, or independents. All of these need to register republican to vote for ron paul.


This dovetails nicely with my previous post. Can we reach a pragmatic concensus on simply walking precincts, collecting data as we go, and inputting it into the database at day's end?

re Quadrants vs Precincts, I think the precinct method works nicely as it's a natural fit to the electoral structure and the corresponding data structure.

Thoughts?

cy

[Bruehound]

In regards to door knocking on unregistered voters and 'hard D" democrats(i.e. voters who voted in the last 3 Dem primaries)-- traditional political campaigns(primary) do not do this because the cost per vote of those households is very high. You literally have to hold their hands and drag them to the polls if they are non voters. Always remember that people do not care as much as you do. It is a more efficient use of manpower and resources to go after the low hanging fruit.

Having said all that.....this campaign is completely different than anything I have ever experienced.

Whatever criteria you decide to use for targeting your door knocks, DO organize your work by precinct and keep that database of identified supporters. I cannot stress enough how important that is for the GOTV effort.

[CJLauderdale4]

I agree with your reasoning. Dems and Republican should be targeted. Remember, the beauty of Ron's message is that it strikes a cord with anyone "thinking" person who understand liberty and its roots and costs. There are some of these left on both side of the two-party aisle.


Whatever criteria you decide to use for targeting your door knocks, DO organize your work by precinct and keep that database of identified supporters. I cannot stress enough how important that is for the GOTV effort.

I think the information should be coordinated back up to the meetups who should organize the drive, and the meetups could report the data to the local or state campaign offices. This will give the national campaign an idea of the pulse of the campaign overall, and they didn't even need to SPEND very much to do it.

Another beauty of Ron's campaign - it parallels his message of limited government and limited spending. If "We the People" actually take action, we don't need his campaign constantly spending and giving orders.

We truly have the power to make change!!

[lonestarguy]

Confirmed Iowan RP Supporter & Street Address Completion Data

Please List street and numbers completed (Ex: 1201 thru 1709 Archer St, both even and odd completed. Ex: 101 thru 1309 Jones Blvd., odd numbers completed. Ex: 12002-15026 East Blvd, even numbers completed)
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________

Name:_____________________________________________ ___
Mail Address:__________________________________________
Telephone #:___________________________________________
Email Address:____________________________
Need Yard Sign: circle Yes No
Willing to Vote For RP at Ames Straw Poll 8/11: circle Yes No Maybe

Name:_____________________________________________ ___
Mail Address:__________________________________________
Telephone #:___________________________________________
Email Address:____________________________
Need Yard Sign: circle Yes No
Willing to Vote For RP at Ames Straw Poll 8/11: circle Yes No Maybe

Name:_____________________________________________ ___
Mail Address:__________________________________________
Telephone #:___________________________________________
Email Address:____________________________
Need Yard Sign: circle Yes No
Willing to Vote For RP at Ames Straw Poll 8/11: circle Yes No Maybe

Name:_____________________________________________ ___
Mail Address:__________________________________________
Telephone #:___________________________________________
Email Address:____________________________
Need Yard Sign: circle Yes No
Willing to Vote For RP at Ames Straw Poll 8/11: circle Yes No Maybe


Fax this Form to 123-456-7890 Your Name/tel. #:____________
Or email to __________ Your Meetup Group/#:_______________

[nayjevin]

bump

[Man from La Mancha]

bump

[Dave]

Lonestarguy,

I think your plan is well thought out. I would echo all the insightful things said by Bruehound, including the part about keeping things short and very simple – people don’t want to be bothered, especially by strangers who may be from out-of-state. The conventional wisdom in Iowa is that the Deaniacs may have hurt their cause last time by having all the young people from out-of-state door-knocking. I can’t vouch for that, but it sounds like they were aggressive and too engaging. Don’t lie if someone asks where you’re from but don’t advertise it, either. I’m not suggesting that door-knocking is a bad idea but it must be subtle to have the desired effect. Just one kind sentence and hand them a slim jim or something asking them to come to Ames on Aug 11. Don’t stick around unless they really want to talk. If they seem interested, ask if they’d like a RP sign for their yard and note this and follow-up later. Remember at all times that you are on their property and you weren’t invited.

I also like the idea of sorting by precinct – just seems easier to compartmentalize than the quadrants – but I understand the time constraints. Maybe we can be more sophisticated after the Aug. 11 Ames Straw Poll in preparation for the caucus in January. You might also try to target your door-knocks…you might be able to get the voter registration lists by precinct from RP HQ and target republicans and independents, perhaps. I know a lot of democrats will like Ron Paul but I really believe that very few of them will actually switch to the GOP and show up on caucus night. You may have better luck with independents but most of these are people who are turned off by politics – not the kind of people who will go to an Ames Straw Poll or show up on caucus night.

I agree with the focus on central Iowa. These people are just more likely to make the trip to Ames than someone from the outlying areas of the state.

Other notes:

I agree with coordinating with the nearest meetup group.
Carrying a few voter registration cards would be easy.
Don’t waste your time on really trashy-looking neighborhoods or homes.
Watch out for dogs.Thanks for all your hard work, lonestarguy!

[meg44]

Excellent idea in my view. And, I appreicate the knowlege that Bruehound brings to the table. I'm wondering how many people we can get to volunteer for this strategy? A big downside would be hotel/food bills folks would have to incur. I'm wondering if that would deter lots of folks from signig up for the on-the-ground Iowa campaign? I suppose it might be possible to coordinate with John Kurr and the other Iowa meetup leaders to see if they could drum up some Iowa residents that would offer a room in their homes (for those who can't afford or don't want to go the hotel route).

Also, do we go to Iowa as individuals and stay a week; or do different state meetupus try to put together a large team of people willing to go and maybe rent a bus and just go for a long weekend?

I think (as Bruehound too points out), this has got to be a face to face encounter. Just dropping materials on someone's doorstep won't cut it; personally, I never bother to read materails left at my door.

As a side note:

I'm trying to put together a comprehensive biography of RP (basically from Wikipedia (which I added to today...putting in the material about RP's Iowa Rally). Anyway, it might be lenghty and it's not 100% RP positive (more like 99.5%), it has a few cons; just to show balance. If we could print these comphrehensive biographies off and offer them to (fence-sitter) type people we meet as we canvas, there's a plethora of information about RP; that should assure voters that he has tons of expereince and an impeccable voting record. Plus, the fact that the bio comes from Wikipedia (an encyclopedia type outlet) and not directly from the campaign seems to me like a good thing.

Lastly, what about those DVD's that Iowa put together, I haven't viewed one yet; but might not they be another good thing to offer the fence-sitters?

[lonestarguy]

As Bruehound in an earlier post stated and could not be overstated:

"Tried and true politics' 101 says it takes SIX direct touches with a voter to get them to vote for your candidate. By touches i mean direct voter contact. Examples:
Door knock = one touch
Direct mail piece = one touch for each different piece
Robo call = one touch
Yard sign view = one touch
Live phone bank call = one touch
Etc."

Indeed, I believe this is a face-to-face, American-communicating-to-American task. A task not to convince or baptize anyone at the doorstep, but to simply plant the non-confrontational seed of RPaul and his message in a respectful way, then leave them with some material. If they stand up and say, hey, I'm for Paul, then record their data on the form. Urge them to vote in Ames on 11 August and ask them to recruit their sphere of infuence to go vote in Ames as well. I would tell them, "we seek not to buy your Strawpoll vote, but rather to earn it the honest way." Thank them, ask them how many yard signs they need and leave a bumper sticker and materials... And, next! off to the next door!

To the good question of arranging bussing in of volunteers, arranging hotels, motels, etc., to those concerns we can certainly brainstorm. Personally, I would leave that up to individuals and the meetups themselves. With the time crunch that we are under, the facts of summer and volunteers schedules so variable, I more likely envision small groups of families, and individuals joining up in 2-6 persons traveling in cars in their area of concern. I actually prefer to have people stream in under the radar to the four corners of Des Moines, Story County, and surrounds. With bus loads of people, I think it may be actually more complex in organizing people and lend itself to people falling over themselves. In any case, because of distance, human nature what it is, and other real personal constraints, the serious will show up to walk neighborhoods and knock on doors in Des Moines and in the surrounding counties.

Additionally, because of the reach of RPaul's message across the political spectrum, the fact that he's the only candidate who can outflank Hillary at everyturn, I am advancing the proposition that we consider the racket of Ames on August 11th as a summer "primary", and hence, we consider all of Des Moines (Polk County) and Ames (Story County) and surrounds an available "open precinct" where the goal is to leave no door unknocked. One of the keys is to let people to hear and know the name of RPaul and to show that others care about and are serious about this candidate and the future of our country.

Also, I don't believe we can over-empahsize is a, gulp, dress-code. We should emphasize at every turn that male volunteers egressing into the zone, should wear slacks and or jeans in good repair with shirts tucked in and belts. I think it's called snappy casual or somesuch. Females, I advise always working in pairs in any case, should simply use good judgement and also confine their dress to the snappy casual norm.

[JoshLowry]

Google Maps has a mashup that you can use to highlight and seperate different sections of cities.

Here is a 1 minute example that I made: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104611219927841936767.000434895ec63790943dd&ll=41.578471,-93.639221&spn=0.356468,0.917358&z=11&om=1

I think it might be of use to you guys and gals. Best of luck with your block walking!

[lonestarguy]

Draft Only Draft Only Partial Draft Only - - Comments Please

Overview: Respecting the relatively low name recognition of Presidential candidate, Congressman Ron Paul, in the state of Iowa in the summer of 2007. And amidst a crowded Republican candidate field where the ebb and flow of media annointed front runners is tenuous at best. This door-to-door plan for Des Moines (Polk County & Story County) is advanced as part of the overall Iowa plan to, 1) boost Congressman Paul's name recognition, 2) energize newly found Ron Paul Iowan supporters to participate in the, 11 August 2007 Straw Poll event in Ames, Iowa, approximately 35 miles north of Des Moines, and, 3) provide a spring board for action into the Fall 2007 Ron Paul for President campaign.

Situation: While such an epic and daunting task of a door-to-door effort of well over 105,000 single family units in the city alone, and nearly 200,000 single-family units when combining both Polk and Story County (Ames), American-to-American citizen contact should not be placed as the sole purview of a single group. After all, this is a national campaign and the full scope of grassroot resources, where possible, should be brought to bear when necessary. This is all about teamwork.

Action Plan: The neighboring Meetup groups in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and including Colorado, Kansas and Texas are respectfully requested to urge volunteers to begin planning their movements, and indeed move as soon as possible into the Des Moines surrounds for this door-to-door effort, that begins now thru 11 August.
Des Moines, including West Des Moines, is divided up into four quadrants or "open precincts", hereafter known as the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest quadrants. The quadrants for the purpose of this door-to-door effort are awarded to volunteers from the neighboring states and participating states as follows:

--Northeast Quadrant volunteer efforts is availabe to Minnesota and Wisconsin Meetup volunteers.
--Southeast Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Illinois Meetup volunteers.
--Southwest Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Missouri and Kansas Meetup volunteers.
--Northwest Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Nebraska and Colorado and Texas Meetup volunteers.
Additional Meetup participants from outside these states who stand-up will fill in where necessary.

As the door-to-door effort advances, effort can be self-directed into surrounding counties, and including specifically, Story County, including Ames Iowa and the multitude of small towns in Story County, including Slater, Huxley, Kelley, Napier, Cambridge, Maxwell, Shipley, Iowa Center, Collins, Nevada, Colo, Gilbert, Roland, McCallsburg, Zearing, and Story City.

Training: It is highly recommended that Volunteers become familiar and/or refamiliarize with the important concepts of the door-to-door activity. There is an outstanding thread at www.ronpaulforums.com,....review this thread and take concepts to heart. When you are at someone's door, you represent in the mind's eye of the homeowner/occupant, the candidate you speak for. Represent him well, and leave a good impression behind, whether the homeowner/occupant believes in your candidate or not.

Arrival in the Area: Upon arrival in the area from outside Des Moines, all volunteers should self-identify by ..... the list of the names in your group, your intended work quadrant, where your staying and number of days to volunteer. For safety's sake, we recommend that women work in pairs, and that groupings plan their daily activities together, and regroup in the evening to talk over the day, and forward data forms.

Volunteer Activity: Because of time pressure, it being summer and human nature what it is, it is envisioned that mass groupings of volunteers will probably not be convoying in buses. That conjures up the Howard Deaniacs of campaigns past, of boisterous, over-confident young volunteers clad in orange caps. It is the planners belief that RP volunteers will arrive in groupings of two, three, four or more, procure foldable paper maps, proceed to their self-procured lodging, and give effort on the streets from 2pm until 8 pm thereabouts, for two to four days and then return to their state of residence.

Specifically, this is not an all-day, plain and simple door-step drop of materials. We could hire people to do that. This is a 2pm until 8pm thereabouts, knock-on-doors effort, intending someone will answer the door so we can briefly communicate, listen, provide materials, and move on to the next door. If after brief conversation about RP, if they self-identify as RP supporter(s), then note that on the data form with the name, address, phone number, email addy, and need for yard sign. Your goal is to confidently urge the RP supporter to go to the Ames Straw Poll, 11 August, and vote for Ron Paul. Indeed, the cost to vote is $35.00. Simply advise them, that, 'while other campaigns may offer to buy your vote, we seek to win your vote the honest way.' Tell them it would mean so much to RP, to the future of this country, if they would vote in Ames for RP and bring their friends to vote as well, so that the supporters of RP can send the undeniable message to the media and the country, that RP, the only consistent Constitutional candidate, has indeed arrived and is a major force, a major contender, a major candidate to be recognized. If Ron Paul can deliver 4,000 babies, we as supporters should at least deliver Iowa and Amreica for Ron Paul!
Additionally, volunteers are kindly requested to look professional when out and about in the neighborhood. All pants, slacks, jeans really need to be unfaded, in good repair and use a belt. Shirts, tennis shirts, short-sleeve shirts, it is recommended be tucked in. Please, no T-shirts, save those for the pool or morning stroll. The watchword term for clothing is snappy casual.

Planning your day equals attention to Detail: It is critical to this outreach event that volunteers pay extreme attention to detail so overlap and duplication can be minimized. A special Iowa subforum at www.ronpaulforums.com will be updated by 10:00am central. It is recommended that your specific daily planning occur after 10:00am. This Iowa subforum, must be consulted daily. The subforum will detail which streets in your quadrant have already been completed or partially completed. As you and your group plan the day in the neighborhoods and towns always consult the website for updates. Likewise, it is critical that before you sleep that nite, that you fax in the data collection form that contains your result for the day. Fax to 1-xxx-xxx-xxx. Monitors will be updating the Iowa subforum page at www.ronpaulforums.com, with the streets and streets numbers completed. Always indicate your name, meetup # and telephone number on the form.

Materials to Bring: At a minimum, volunteers should bring a clipboard, the plastic or metal closeable type is recommended, so brochures, bumper stickers, map, etc., can be kept out of the weather and in good condition. A hole punch and rubber bands to make any brochure or flyer into a door hanger. Someone in the group should bring a notebook pc or at least some sort of blackberry device so visits to the www.ronpaulforums.com website is possible. Hey, this beats the local library. Volunteers should come equipped with campaign brochures, or double sided "slim jims", etc., available from the www.ronpaul2008.com website. And of course, the trusty cell phone.

[lonestarguy]

Operation: Groundswell

Overview: Respecting the relatively low name recognition of Presidential candidate, Congressman Ron Paul, in the state of Iowa in the summer of 2007. And amidst a crowded Republican candidate field where the ebb and flow of media annointed front runners is tenuous at best. This door-to-door plan for Des Moines (Polk County and rural Story County) is advanced as part of the overall Iowa plan to, 1) boost Congressman Paul's name recognition, 2) energize newly found Ron Paul Iowan supporters to participate in the, 11 August 2007 Straw Poll event in Ames, Iowa, approximately 35 miles north of Des Moines, and, 3) provide a spring board for focused action into the Fall 2007 Ron Paul for President campaign.

Timeframe: Now until sundown, 10 August 2007.

Situation: While such an epic and daunting task of a door-to-door effort of well over 105,000 single family units in the city alone, and nearly 200,000 single-family units when combining both Polk and Story County (Ames), American-to-American citizen contact should not be placed as the sole purview of a single group. After all, this is a national campaign and the full scope of grassroot resources, where possible, should be brought to bear when necessary. This is all about teamwork and pre-eminently advancing this campaign.

Action Plan: The neighboring Meetup groups in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and including Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are respectfully requested to urge volunteers to begin planning their movements, and indeed move as soon as possible into the Des Moines surrounds for this door-to-door effort, that begins now thru the evening of 10 August.

Des Moines, including West Des Moines, is divided up into four quadrants or "open precincts", hereafter known as the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest quadrants. The Iowa Meetup Groups, our fine hosts, have free range of movement and can initiate door to door efforts where ever they see appropriate. The quadrants for the purpose of this door-to-door effort are kindly assigned to volunteers from the neighboring states and participating states as follows:

--Northeast Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Minnesota and Wisconsin Meetup volunteers.
--Southeast Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Illinois and Oklahoma Meetup volunteers.
--Southwest Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Missouri, Kansas Meetup volunteers.
--Northwest Quadrant volunteer efforts is available to Nebraska and Colorado, Dakotas and Texas Meetup volunteers.

Additional Meetup participants from outside these states who stand-up are able to fill in where appropriate.

As the door-to-door effort advances, effort will undoubtably be re-directed into the neighboring county to the north of Polk county, namely Story County. Story County, for the purposes of Operation Groundswell Thunder, is divided east and west by Interstate 35. The towns in Story County (west), include Ames, Slater, Huxley, Kelley, Napier, Gilbert, Story City. Story County (east) include Cambridge, Maxwell, Shipley, Iowa Center, Collins, Nevada, Colo, Gilbert, Roland, McCallsburg, Zearing.

Story County West is the operating responsibility of volunteers from Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Story County East is the operating responsibility of volunteers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri.

For a view of the Des Moines quadrants and Story County extensions visit this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&msa=0&msid=104033805961656582565.0004349c002a3f0ed6e55&ll=41.727255,-93.477173&spn=0.439686,0.925598&z=10

Training: It is highly recommended that Volunteers become familiar and/or refamiliarize with the important concepts of the door-to-door activity. There is an outstanding thread at, http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=4280 Please review this thread and take concepts to heart. When you are at someone's door, you represent in the mind's eye of the homeowner/occupant, the candidate you speak for. Represent him well, and leave a good impression behind, whether the homeowner/occupant believes in your candidate or not. The quality of the candidate is reflected in your actions. Reflect well.

Arrival in the Area: Upon arrival in the area of Des Moines, all volunteer/teams are asked to self-identify by faxing the names of the team members, Meetup group #, and at least two cell phone numbers to: 1-816-817-0070...(back up fax 1-636-216-0110)....Please also indicate in your fax, your designated work quadrant, where your staying and number of days for volunteering.

Volunteer Activity: Because of time pressure, it being summer and human nature what it is, it is envisioned that mass groupings of volunteers will probably not be convoying in buses. That conjures up the Howard Deaniacs of campaigns past, of boisterous, over-confident young volunteers clad in orange caps. More likely is the case that RP volunteers will arrive in groupings of two, three, four or more, procure foldable paper maps, such as Rand-McNally city/area map, proceed to their self-procured lodging, and give effort on the streets from 2pm until 8 pm thereabouts, for two to four days or longer and then return to their state of residence. Those that live only a few hours away may decide to drive in and work Friday/Saturdays.

Specifically, this is not a door-step drop of materials. We could hire people to do that. This is a 2pm until 8pm/sundown thereabouts, knocking-on-doors effort, intending someone will answer the door so we can briefly communicate, listen, provide materials, and move on to the next door. (Saturday's are a great day to find people at home, and door-to-door can begin as early as 10:30am.
More often the people who meet you at the door will never have heard of RP. This is where the elevation of RP name recognition begins. By the seed each volunteer plants in the citizen's imagination. For example: "Hello, my name is .......... I'm knocking on doors in the neighborhood, thanking everyone for looking into the background of the presidential candidates. The candidate I respectfully hope you will earnestly consider is United States Congressman, Dr. Ron Paul. He is the only credible candidate that bases policy on the U.S. Constitution, and the idea of limited government. He seeks to secure the southern border and remove our forces from the disastrous Iraq war. Have you heard about him?" Then listen intently. Use judgement, answer any question in brief, no hearts and minds will be won by a porch debate. Leave material. Thank them in advance for looking into RP. Compliment them on their beautiful yard, house, flowers or trees and then off to the next door.

If after brief conversation about RP, if they self-identify as RP supporter(s), then note that on the data form with the name, address, phone number, email addy, and need for yard sign. Your goal is to confidently urge the RP supporter to go to the Ames Straw Poll, 11 August, and vote for Ron Paul. Indeed, the cost to vote is $35.00. Simply advise them, that, 'while other campaigns may offer to buy your vote, we seek to win your vote the honest way.' Tell them it would mean so much to RP, to the future of this country, if they would vote in Ames for RP and bring their friends to vote as well, so that the supporters of RP can send the undeniable message to the media and the country, that RP, the only consistent Constitutional candidate, has indeed arrived and is a major force, a major contender, a major candidate to be recognized. If Ron Paul can deliver 4,000 babies, we as citizens who care about liberty and freedom and The Constitution, we should at least deliver Iowa and Amreica for Ron Paul!

Door-to-Door Attire: Volunteers are kindly requested to look professional when out and about in the neighborhood. All pants, slacks, jeans really need to be unfaded, in good repair and use a belt. Shirts, tennis shirts, short-sleeve shirts, it is recommended be tucked in. Please, no T-shirts, or men wearing shorts, save those for the pool or morning stroll or Sunday in the park which is a day of rest anyway. The term for clothing for this interactive public event is snappy casual.

Planning your day equals attention to Detail: It is critical to this outreach event that volunteers pay extreme attention to detail so overlap and duplication can be minimized. A special Local Area Iowa subforum at http://www.ronpaulforums.com/ will be updated by 10:00am central. It is recommended that your specific daily planning occur after 10:00am. This Local Area Iowa subforum, must be consulted daily. The subforum will detail which streets in your quadrant, or town(s) in Polk and Story County that have already been completed or partially completed. As you and your group plan the day in the neighborhoods and towns always consult the website for updates. Likewise, it is critical that before you sleep that nite, that you or your team fax in all the data collection forms that contains your result for the day. Fax to 1-816-817-0070 (back up 1-636-216-0110). Monitors will be updating the Iowa subforum page at http://www.ronpaulforums.com/ with the streets and streets numbers completed. Please, always indicate your name, meetup # and telephone number on the form.

Additionally, as volunteers arrive in the area and fax in their information about the list of team members and cell phone numbers, monitors will alert door-to-door teams of other teams in close proximity to one another and pass on cell phone numbers so teams themselves on the ground can coordinate and prevent duplication.

Materials to Bring: At a minimum, volunteers should bring a clipboard, the plastic or metal closeable type is recommended, so brochures, data collection forms, bumper stickers, map, etc., can be kept out of the weather and in good condition. A hole punch and rubber bands to make any brochure or flyer into a door hanger. Someone in each travel 'together' group should bring a notebook pc or at least some sort of pda device or other pda device so visits to the www.ronpaulforums.com website is possible. This beats the local library.

Volunteers should come equipped with campaign brochures, or double sided "slim jims", etc., available from the www.ronpaul2008.com website. Check with your meetup organizers for campaign material, inquire not only about brochures but about bumper stickers. And of course, the trusty cell phone. Bring Copies of the data collection form for listing streets and street numbers completed and Confirmed RP Supporters should be posted to your meetup groups email files section.

Travel Planning: Hotels and motels, camping, RVing are all available in the area. Try some of these sites for best deals for lodging arrangements, http://www.tripadvisor.com , http://www.kayak.com , http://www.aaa.com . Triple "A" also lists camping and RVing sites available and indicates several sites with showers, etc. Also, Adventureland Park, http://www.adventurelandpark.com/ a Des Moines area amusement park on the northside has both tent camping and RV hookups, in addition to a 170+ room hotel facility.

Safety: For safety's sake, we recommend that women work in pairs, and that groupings plan their daily activities together, and re-group in the evening to de-brief the day, and fax in data forms. If a neighborhood appears unsafe in your estimation, by all means, leave that neighborhood. For the inevitable barking dogs, that often will accompany their master to the front door, it is recommended carrying with your person dog biscuits to hand to dog owner when the little yappers won't quiet down.

There is magic in action!

[pennycat]

Not to detract from the Iowa theme of this thread, I'd like to add the following. I'm in Orlando, FL. Our primary in Jan. 29, 2008. So I'm thinking I should direct my efforts towards my local area.

I like the idea of door to door canvassing becuase of several reasons. I think we could take voter registration forms with us and register or change party affiliation on the spot. There is just something about seeing people face to face and saying 'I'm for Ron Paul. Here's why. Leave them literature. PLUS you may find someone who really likes the message and is ready to volunteer with you. Yeah, I know I'm a dreamer, but I really think that we could find not only people to vote for him but that would volunteer for him.