GrassRoots Coalition, Ombudsman, Conference Call 1pm Eastern Today

[ghemminger]

HQ , Jesse, Jeff, Anthony, Holly, Bill, Drew have all been contacted and we should have official participation- I'm not sure how much input they will be able to give due to FEC Regulations

2nd Grassroots Coalition Conference Call

The general idea is to inform grassroots of what the
basic campaign strategy...beyond the tidbit of
information placed on the website.

These are some of the areas in which GrassRoots needs light
coordination on:

1. Ad Buys and Campaign Publicity: We are seeing
duplication of efforts and lack of coverage due to
lack of information.

2. Fundraising: Address new sources of fundraising
for HQ - and overcome current donor fatigue.

3. Negotiating "Emergency Conflicts between
GrassRoots and HQ": Example - In Iowa we had a dozens
of Phone Banking Operation inundating Iowa...(Reports
of Precinct Captians getting 12 calls per hour) - George
worked with Meagan (Local Iowa HQ) to get all calls
stopped..

4. Volunteer Coordination

Let me know if you want anything else covered....

[Menthol Patch]

We need streaming audio for this event.

[Menthol Patch]

Please remember to tell them about the "Last Chance for Liberty" weekend from Jan. 17th through Jan. 21 which includes the MLK and Ben Franklin money bombs!

[ghemminger]

We need streaming audio for this event.

I'll bring it up = but for now it looks like you'll get a write up right after it's done...

[kushaze]

Great news.

[Menthol Patch]

I'll bring it up = but for now it looks like you'll get a write up right after it's done...

Are there any free services I could use to listen in? For example, would Skype work?

I'm a fast typist and could write up a fast summary.

(I only have a pre-paid phone with 40 minutes left.)

[ghemminger]

Are there any free services I could use to listen in? For example, would Skype work?

I'm a fast typist and could write up a fast summary.

(I only have a pre-paid phone with 40 minutes left.)

email me george4title@yahoo.com you could take minutes?

[Menthol Patch]

ghemminger,

Could you please ask them to set a goal for us to reach by Jan. 21st?

We need a meter on their website!

[Menthol Patch]

email me george4title@yahoo.com you could take minutes?

I just sent you an email.

[pacelli]

3. Negotiating "Emergency Conflicts between
GrassRoots and HQ": Example - In Iowa we had a dozens
of Phone Banking Operation inundating Iowa...(Reports
of Precinct Captians getting 12 calls per hour) - George
worked with Meagan (Local Iowa HQ) to get all calls
stopped..

How about protecting phone lists to prevent intentional or unintentional sabotage, i.e. Iowa?

How about welcoming Grassroots volunteers in a state campaign HQ rather than turning them away saying that nothing needed to be done? (i.e. Iowa)

How about settling the Michigan fiasco?

How about getting some clarification on just how much money the campaign needs-- is it really 23 million, and when is the deadline?

[Menthol Patch]

How about protecting phone lists to prevent intentional or unintentional sabotage, i.e. Iowa?

How about welcoming Grassroots volunteers in a state campaign HQ rather than turning them away saying that nothing needed to be done? (i.e. Iowa)

How about settling the Michigan fiasco?

How about getting some clarification on just how much money the campaign needs-- is it really 23 million, and when is the deadline?

The campaign needs all the money it can get! The more money that can be raised the better! Of course they need to set a goal that is realistic for us to meet by Jan. 21st. I think 10 million would be a good goal.

[ghemminger]

How about protecting phone lists to prevent intentional or unintentional sabotage, i.e. Iowa?

How about welcoming Grassroots volunteers in a state campaign HQ rather than turning them away saying that nothing needed to be done? (i.e. Iowa)

How about settling the Michigan fiasco?

How about getting some clarification on just how much money the campaign needs-- is it really 23 million, and when is the deadline?


Thanks - Pacelli - I will print this thread for the discussion in 45 minutes

[pacelli]

HQ also needs to work on getting their orders filled & shipped faster. I've been waiting for 5 weeks now and have missed out on a lot of opportunities.

As walt suggested, all of the signs from Iowa HQ should be moved immediately to Michigan.

[pacelli]

The campaign needs all the money it can get! The more money that can be raised the better! Of course they need to set a goal that is realistic for us to meet by Jan. 21st. I think 10 million would be a good goal.

I wasn't responding to you. George is asking for specific suggestions to bring up to the campaign. Lets keep this very focused, he has to print everything out.

[pacelli]

Thanks - Pacelli - I will print this thread for the discussion in 45 minutes

Thanks George!

[Menthol Patch]

I have a chance to listen in to the conference call and take notes, but I only have 40 minutes left on my pre-paid phone and don't have the money to buy more. Does anyone know of any free internet services that would allow me to make a long distance call and listen in?

[SteveMartin]

I just send you an email request.

[walt]

this and several other lack of resources in Michigan issues need answers
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=74811

What is their plan to EXECUTE and WIN Michigan?

[Menthol Patch]

Rough Draft: Conference Call Minutes

Please note:

a) I was only able to attend the conference call for approximately 30 minutes until all my pre-paid phone minutes were used up.

b) As far as I am aware no one from the official head quarters called in unless it was after I ran out of minutes on my phone.

c) The conversation moved very fast and even with my typing skills it was a little rough to keep up. Also, as far as we know a recording was not made. Please forgive me if any of the following minutes are not 100% accurate.

Attendees: George Hemminger, Tyler Simms, Menthol Patch, Steve Martin, TJ Lodie.

Minutes:

1) The recent fundraising situation was discussed. It seemed everyone agreed that the official campaign needs to set a specific fundraising goal by a certain date, put a meter on their site, and allow us to push it hard. Super Tuesday is quickly approaching and fundraising needs to start happening soon.

The Martin Luthor King and Ben Franklin's Birthday money bombs were mentioned. I stated that there needs to be coordination between the two so they compliment and synergize with each other instead of diluting their individual impact. I also mentioned the idea of combining them into a five day money bomb weekend from the 17th to the 21st.

2) The "Open Letter" to the official campaign that was posted on Ron Paul Forums may not have reached the official campaign. Also, there are a few other open letters floating around. There seemed to be general agreement that the open letter was appropriate. I mentioned that we need to be careful about how we approach this, because we do not need to stir up a huge controversy this close to Super Tuesday.

3) The leadership of the grassroots needs to have better communication with head quarters. It was mentioned that certain people should make phone calls. Then it was actually mentioned that an idea would be getting a group of people to fly to HQ to discuss these issues.

----

(In order to speed up the process of getting these notes out there I'm just copying and pasting the rest of what I have. It may have spellig errors and typos. Please forgive me guys if any of the following is not totally accurate. I tried to keep track of the call the best I could. More took place but the following was what I was able to write down.)

1) Advise and campaign publicity. A lack of coverage.

Tyler - The problem that he sees for a lot of people is that everyone goes through the process of quality, content focus or schedule. They are looking for an add they don't see up there. There are a lot of complaints about the TV ads. We started off with the talking heads in New Hampshire that frustrated people. That started a problem for the campaign as soon as they put the non quality ads out. E liberties ads are good. Jeremiah's are good. Chris's ad on Youtube is good. The best way to do it is have the candidate involved. Unless it is an attack ad when we need a third party involved and not the candidate. We are not set up optimally right. Because the start was so poor it caused a lot of concern. What they need to do is hire some of those best people who run those projects. Why don't you produce a contest to produce a high quality ad. And they could pay for the publishing of the best one. Pay them money so they are not starving to death and the campaign would do much better.

The ads need to be more focused. They really need a PR group. The campaign needs a TV guy on staff that really knows the business and a political guy that knows the business. People don't see experience. The product proves that they are not leaders in these areas. We have all of these people who have volunteered and they feel ignored. This is a major issue because he has an arsenal of fire power that he is not using.

George - Are they afraid of FEC violations?

Tyler - They could make ads that would not violate FEC laws. If you are in a professional business it is a contact job.

Steve - Northern Maine.. a lot of these people would volunteer their time at very low cost.

There is no reason that they cannot hire these individuals.

The campaign needs additional email accounts.. Too many people are learning as they go. On a national scale you have to be professional. We need a great TV guy.

Tyler - Is the campaign even allowed to talk to the grassroots?


The best thing the campaign to do is to hire someone or a legitimate company. Even if we hire them for a dollar a month.

(It continued but I ran out of pre-paid phone minutes.)

[Promo]

interesting

bump

[SteveMartin]

We continued for a couple more minutes only after you left, MP. The final deal is that we will be contacting the official campaign to set up a formalized grassroots department, and if they refuse we will call RP personally for that same purpose.

[slantedview]

volunteer coordination is the key issue, IMO

[RollOn2day]

Thanks Menthol Patch for using up your prepaid minutes and giving us the recap! Much appreciated.

Do you need a chip-in to replenish you card? I've got a 5 spot for ya!

[DjLoTi]

I was only in for a few seconds because I was at work and my phone reception is bad, and also I couldn't be on the phone very long at work.

[SteveMartin]

George,

Please check your email.

thanks!

[stevedasbach]

Fundraising isn't going to be effective at this point unless HQ communicates:
1. What the money already raised is/will be used for
2. What they plan to do with the money that is donated going forward

Prior to now, people were willing to donate just to demonstrate support, to try to generate publicity and get the MSM to take us seriously. Unless we pull off a major upset in New Hampshire, that isn't going to work going forward.

IMO, if they really want to get people fired up, raise buckets of money, and have a real impact on the race, they need to announce a major NATIONAL advertising campaign.

Ads that everyone can see whereever they live. Saturate all the news channels -- CNN, MSNBC, even FoxNews. If people don't see Paul during their broadcasts, let them see him during every commercial break. Plus, ads will make it harder to ignore Paul without being obvious.

For example, HQ could announce that EVERY DOLLAR raised during the next two moneybombs will be invested in national TV ads. I guarantee that a lot more donations will pour in. Plus the ads should increase the number of new donors, which will generate even more donations.

EDIT: Show the ads on the website -- announce ad buys as they are made. Transparent campaigning can have the same explosive impact as transparent fundraising did.

The daily Rasmussen national tracking polls shows Paul's national support plummeting from 7% (as I recall) to 3% today. The MSM campaign to paint Paul as unelectable and without support is working, and aside from a great showing in New Hampshire, national TV ads are the only way to stop the hemoraging and build his support back up.

Fox used Paul's single digit poll numbers as an excuse to keep him out of the debates. Expect that to continue and spread unless we get his national numbers us. I don't care what anyone thinks about the polls -- the MSM uses them to determine which candidates are "viable" and the majority of the public believes them.

We've reached a point where the only things that are going to matter are advertising (national and local; TV, radio, print, direct mail, sign waves, etc. ), voter ID (e.g. canvassing), and GOTV efforts. IMO we are past the point where stunts are going to have an impact. The voters are voting and we have to demonstrate that we can run with the big dogs.

[Dlynne]

I wish Grassroots could or would demand that Paul hire professional campaign staff, i.e., professional media liaison and a professional campaign manager. A professional speech coach would be good too. We are not going to win, unless we start playing like the big boys.

[SteveMartin]

Steve,

Great post man! I'd love to see ads produced and VOTED on by the grassroots even, and THEN purchased by national!

[stevedasbach]

Steve,

Great post man! I'd love to see ads produced and VOTED on by the grassroots even, and THEN purchased by national!

FYI: We tried having people vote on ads when I was at LPHQ. The ads that people liked didn't work well compared to ones that professionals thought would be effective.

Also, having people vote with their dollars results in far fewer dollars being donated. Donors recognize that they don't have the expertise to make these decisions and campaigns that effectively ask them to decide lose donor confidence.

The best way to determine which ads are effective is to test them, but that's hard to do in a campaign. Generally you do this by running them in select markets and doing tracking polls to determine if they are moving your numbers. You can also monitor increases in web traffic and requests for additional information.

[stevedasbach]

I wish Grassroots could or would demand that Paul hire professional campaign staff, i.e., professional media liaison and a professional campaign manager. A professional speech coach would be good too. We are not going to win, unless we start playing like the big boys.

This is not as easy as it sounds. When I was managing Gary Nolan's campaign, we tried and tried to find an experienced media professional who was willing to do media for us. We finally found someone who was able to do a good job getting him booked on radio but was completely unsuccessful with TV, despite the fact that he had been a guest on many of these shows before.

When you are running a campaign without the support of the party leadership, people can be afraid to work for you. Also, they are concerned about being associated with a losing campaign.

Paul's 10% in Iowa could help him attract talent that he wouldn't have been able to previously. If he comes in 3rd in NH, his ability to attract talent will further increase.

This may enable him to attract an experienced media person, and perhaps someone experienced in designing TV ads for insurgent campaigns (e.g. the guys who did Ventura's ads). He might even be able to attract a good consultant to help design strategy.

However, the campaign chair and manager need to be people who the candidate trusts and who he knows wants the campaign to succeed. This is not the position to put a hired gun that has no loyalty to the candidate or his message.

The campaign seems to be attracting some good experienced state people (Drew Ivers, Jared C.) and should continue to hire the best state-level people they can find and then let them do their jobs.

[walt]

Fundraising isn't going to be effective at this point unless HQ communicates:
1. What the money already raised is/will be used for
2. What they plan to do with the money that is donated going forward

Prior to now, people were willing to donate just to demonstrate support, to try to generate publicity and get the MSM to take us seriously. Unless we pull off a major upset in New Hampshire, that isn't going to work going forward.

IMO, if they really want to get people fired up, raise buckets of money, and have a real impact on the race, they need to announce a major NATIONAL advertising campaign.

Ads that everyone can see whereever they live. Saturate all the news channels -- CNN, MSNBC, even FoxNews. If people don't see Paul during their broadcasts, let them see him during every commercial break. Plus, ads will make it harder to ignore Paul without being obvious.

For example, HQ could announce that EVERY DOLLAR raised during the next two moneybombs will be invested in national TV ads. I guarantee that a lot more donations will pour in. Plus the ads should increase the number of new donors, which will generate even more donations.

EDIT: Show the ads on the website -- announce ad buys as they are made. Transparent campaigning can have the same explosive impact as transparent fundraising did.

The daily Rasmussen national tracking polls shows Paul's national support plummeting from 7% (as I recall) to 3% today. The MSM campaign to paint Paul as unelectable and without support is working, and aside from a great showing in New Hampshire, national TV ads are the only way to stop the hemoraging and build his support back up.

Fox used Paul's single digit poll numbers as an excuse to keep him out of the debates. Expect that to continue and spread unless we get his national numbers us. I don't care what anyone thinks about the polls -- the MSM uses them to determine which candidates are "viable" and the majority of the public believes them.

We've reached a point where the only things that are going to matter are advertising (national and local; TV, radio, print, direct mail, sign waves, etc. ), voter ID (e.g. canvassing), and GOTV efforts. IMO we are past the point where stunts are going to have an impact. The voters are voting and we have to demonstrate that we can run with the big dogs.

Where was the discussion of Michigan execution?

[ghemminger]

Where was the discussion of Michigan execution?

Yes - We are lacking in Michigan Big Time - You and Steve know more than I do...

At this point I would not count on HQ -

[SteveMartin]

IMPO, and, I've been saying this since June or July--MI should have been priority #1 the moment it was announced they would be moving up their primary.

JUST FLOOD NATIONAL HQ WITH PHONE CALLS AND DON'T STOP UNTIL YOU GET ANSWERS.

My suggestion would be to concentrate on getting materials distribution streamlined now, other things (hiring competent paid staff, etc.) can take a back seat until the general election.

[RobS]

We need materials so badly here in Michigan... I have people calling for signs and I don't have them!!!

We don't even have slim jims anymore. We need a HUGE PUSH here, as does South Carolina from what I have heard. OLFD needs to come out here. Indiana, Ohio, Illinois groups need to come up here. We need people. We need materials. We need advertisements. TV, radio, paper.

[stevedasbach]

Where was the discussion of Michigan execution?

I wasn't on the conference call so I can't address that. My post was focused on fundraising and getting people fired up again.

Whose running the Michigan campaign? Do we have someone with real-world experience like Jared in NH or Drew Ivers in IA?

[stevedasbach]

IMPO, and, I've been saying this since June or July--MI should have been priority #1 the moment it was announced they would be moving up their primary.

JUST FLOOD NATIONAL HQ WITH PHONE CALLS AND DON'T STOP UNTIL YOU GET ANSWERS.

My suggestion would be to concentrate on getting materials distribution streamlined now, other things (hiring competent paid staff, etc.) can take a back seat until the general election.

Flooding National with phone calls isn't going to help. All it will do is feed a bunker mentality and make things even worse.

Who is running the campaign in Michigan? Are they experienced and competent?