Meetup Group Turnouts?

[mport1]

So I went to this weekends Meetup event. We were stationed at Grand Central Station passing out Ron Paul flyers. A really easy and effective event that we do often at other locations. It went well, we probably passed out about 1,000 flyers and had many more people see his name. Only one little problem, 2 PEOPLE CAME (myself and the organizer) and one other came for a little bit!

My Meetup group has 355 members in it and the past few event turnouts have been about 10, 7, 5, and then 2. This is extremely frustrating, especially since over 10 people said they were coming today (still terrible). We had multiple email reminders and I created 3 Meetup accounts to personally email 36 people urging them to come (you can only email 12 people a day).

I have heard similar stories from lots of other Meetups. What can we do to increase turnout? We need some ideas. If these people signed up for the group, I would expect that they would want to come out and help. We will not win if this is the kind of enthusiasm the already small group of supporters have for participating in real world events.

I would like it if we could keep this thread bumped if others agree with it. I think this is a HUGE problem and if we do not fix it, RON PAUL WILL NOT WIN! It is as simple as that.

Meetups should be the backbone of the campaign, but it seems like most people talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. We need them to get off the internet and get on to the streets. Almost NOBODY has heard of Dr. Paul there. We have some serious work to do.

I'm trying to get a sort of phone tree started before I leave the NY group to go to the St. Louis one (but one where only the active members call everybody since we don't want the chain to be broken). I feel like people will be more likely to come if you guilt them into it by actually talking with them. Apparently my direct emails didn't do much good.

The national campaign is putting a great emphasis on the Meetup groups and although the people who actually participate are making a huge impact in spreading the message, I would say that only 5-10% of these Meetup members are consistently helping out. This ties in with the conference call the official campaign had with us: http://www.justin.tv/ronpaul/8492# They are really stressing Meetup as the most effective way to get the message out and we are letting them and ourselves down.

I mean in the second largest Ron Paul group we can't get more than a couple people to just stand for an hour and hand out flyers, probably the easiest thing in the world to do! How do we expect to win the primaries with this kind of enthusiasm?

[kylejack]

I'm noticing this in my area as well.

[jjschless]

Hopefully the same thing doesn't happen on your areas primary election day.

[Lord Xar]

yes... I think its because of people like me in small part. I am not overly a social person. I want to be involved...

I am the person that does the 'ads', does the 'mailings'... you know.

there are others who are social, and do the calls and meet/greets...

I will be part of a crowd if I know ALOT of people are there.. you know.

Its nothing personal, even for work functions - I tend not to go unless its night and either its my good friends or a HUGE social with drinking....

I do admit I have to break my habit..

But perhaps you just need to entice people a bit.. tell them to bring their families OR have a potlock and from there GO.. etc... I think you will have to get creative.

[Lesgov]

I joined a meetup group about 60 miles away, and have been pretty active. My plan was to start a group in my area once I got the hang of it. After seeing the turn outs at these meetups I have decided to just do things on my own. If I started a new group I think I would just be pulling my hair out. I'll stay in that group and just do what I can on the side.

[DeadheadForPaul]

My meetup group had a pretty solid showing for the number that signed up. i'd say 30-50% showed up who were members of our group

It depends when the events are. Some people just dont want to do anything after a long day of work. Others dont like doing things on saturdays b/c it's their free time. I find thursday nights and saturday afternoons work best for me. Maybe you should post and ask people when it would be best for them to show up

[mport1]

Lord Xar, I am not a very social person either, but we need to get over it for Dr. Paul. This is too important for something like that to get in the way.

When doing the literature handouts, I've found you really don't need to say anything. All you have to do is stick it out there when people walk by. I've found that you get just as many people to take a flyer if you do this as if you do anything else (and I've actually found that less people take one if I try to give them a pitch).

[aknappjr]

Sorry about the lousy turnout. Tuesday's event should be better.

[mport1]

My meetup group had a pretty solid showing for the number that signed up. i'd say 30-50% showed up who were members of our group

It depends when the events are. Some people just dont want to do anything after a long day of work. Others dont like doing things on saturdays b/c it's their free time. I find thursday nights and saturday afternoons work best for me. Maybe you should post and ask people when it would be best for them to show up

Well, the problem is that only a few people ever actually visit the Meetup site or reply to their emails. I feel like if the times were the problem, they would have come to at least something because we have tons of events at all different times. The majority of people have never come to a single event.

[mport1]

Sorry about the lousy turnout. Tuesday's event should be better.

It's cool. I am just angry that people RSVPed yes and then didn't even show up and that only a small group of people even bother to RSVP. I also sent out 36 direct emails to people urging them to come and didn't get a response from that. The problem seems widespread and I think that you are easily one of the best leaders out there so its definitely not a reflection on you. I just can't figure out what else can be done to encourage a turnout. People seem to not want to go out there and actually do the real work.

We are getting great stuff accomplished. But our results would be exponentially better if everybody would chip in.

[Alabama Supporter]

I hope Ron Paul doesn't run the country through Meetup when he is prez.

Anyway, you can't get discouraged by low turnout at an event like that. Really, not many people are comfortable with strangers in public.

I am looking forward to the day he gets a campaign person in the state to take the lead and prioritize our actions.

[mport1]

Then we need to get people should realize that is where they should be most comfortable. These are people you don't know and you will probably never see again. No reason to be uncomfortable promoting Ron Paul to them.

[quickmike]

I joined a meetup group about 60 miles away, and have been pretty active. My plan was to start a group in my area once I got the hang of it. After seeing the turn outs at these meetups I have decided to just do things on my own. If I started a new group I think I would just be pulling my hair out. I'll stay in that group and just do what I can on the side.

I agree with you completely..... you can get much more done on your own that doing things with a meetup group. Im not saying dont join a meetup. Im just saying use the Meetup for scheduling sign making things and stuff like that. No need to waste valuable time scheduling meetings and seeing who can show up when and all that other crap, when that same time can be used on your own or with a friend or another meetup member to actually SPREAD THE WORD. I see videos all the time with meetup groups all standing on the same street corner with 20 signs when about 4 would get the same thing accomplished. Why not spread out over town with 3 or 4 people in one area? You would get 5 times as much accomplished with that strategy than all standing in the same area. 4 person groups going door to door will get MANY times more accomplished than one big group.

Like I said, Meetup groups are very good for corespondance and setting up activities, but you can get much more done just using the Meetups for sending emails out to members and scheduling a day for 3 or 4 to do things when its convenient for them and the schedule they have. No need to all gather at the same time and sit around in a restaurant bullshitting about Ron Paul. Instead, the organizer should send emials out to members to the effect of "Ok guys, were gonna divide up and canvas the town. We have a farmers market we could hand flyers out at, we have the downtown area, the County Fair, and the mall. Everyone get a hold of a few other Meetup members by phone or email to see who you will work with" Something like that....... We all love Ron Paul, but come on people, we need to start talking about making the best use of our time, because theres not a whole lot of it left.

[quickmike]

The last thing we need to be hearing on election day is "well, we coulda won, but I didnt really feel comfortable talking to strangers or feel comfortable in social gatherings"

If this is what makes us up, were SCREWED.

Come on people............. grow a pair!!!

[mport1]

"I see videos all the time with meetup groups all standing on the same street corner with 20 signs when about 4 would get the same thing accomplished. Why not spread out over town with 3 or 4 people in one area?"

But this can be done through the Meetup. We were planning to split up into groups of 3 or 4 and hit all the major subway stops. If we would have had 50 people (shouldn't be a stretch for a group of 355) we could have made some major news covering the city.

However, imagine 50 people all decked out in Ron Paul stuff, handing out literature in a high traffic area or event. This type of thing draws major attention. Having 3 or 4 people standing around doing the same thing doesn't create the excitement. Everybody will want to know who this Ron Paul guy is if they see a ton of very enthusiastic people in one area campaigning for him.

I feel like without the Meetup group, a lot of people wouldn't have the incentive to go out and do things on their own. Some would, but people usually like to do things in groups so they are more comfortable.

[LibertyEagle]

I know it shouldn't require this, but if it does, it does. Ron Paul should start either recording a very short audio or a very short video every month, directed to his supporters. I would imagine it would do wonders for morale.

Kent Snyder or Jesse could also do the same every so often to give the semblance of overall direction. They could be shown on justintv or the mp3s could be sent out.

These things would take just a few minutes of their time and it might just be what is needed to get these people reinvigorated.

[quickmike]

"I see videos all the time with meetup groups all standing on the same street corner with 20 signs when about 4 would get the same thing accomplished. Why not spread out over town with 3 or 4 people in one area?"

But this can be done through the Meetup. We were planning to split up into groups of 3 or 4 and hit all the major subway stops. If we would have had 50 people (shouldn't be a stretch for a group of 355) we could have made some major news covering the city.

However, imagine 50 people all decked out in Ron Paul stuff, handing out literature in a high traffic area or event. This type of thing draws major attention. Having 3 or 4 people standing around doing the same thing doesn't create the excitement. Everybody will want to know who this Ron Paul guy is if they see a ton of very enthusiastic people in one area campaigning for him.

I feel like without the Meetup group, a lot of people wouldn't have the incentive to go out and do things on their own. Some would, but people usually like to do things in groups so they are more comfortable.

I see what you are saying, but if this is all about everyone feeling "comfortable" then were not as tough as I thought we were. Do you think the founders of this country felt "comfortable" signing a document that pretty much guaranteed they would have bounties on their heads? If we are worried more about our own comfort above getting the word out, then im afraid were no better than any of the other candidates supporters.

Sorry, thats just me.

[mport1]

I know it shouldn't require this, but if it does, it does. Ron Paul should start either recording a very short audio or a very short video every month, directed to his supporters. I would imagine it would do wonders for morale.

Kent Snyder or Jesse could also do the same every so often to give the semblance of overall direction. They could be shown on justintv or the mp3s could be sent out.

These things would take just a few minutes of their time and it might just be what is needed to get these people reinvigorated.

According to the conference I posted (http://www.justin.tv/ronpaul/8492#) they said that he will be doing something like this starting on August 2nd, although it may be more geared towards discussion of this issues.

I have been urging them to do this for quite some time, but really haven't gotten a response.

[mport1]

Ditto to your last two posts quickmike.

[pennycat]

Okay you want my take. Can you handle the truth? Most people do a pathetic job of making a meeting worth coming to. First they don't have an agenda put out before hand. Second they build no sense of community by any emails during the week. Add to this that most people do have a combination of fear and inertia (read lazy). I know I'm generalizing here so you can skip the sophomoric responses of 'not me.'

Let me explain in detail. It is imperative that you invite your meetups to email through the meetup client software. We learn about what each other are like and become curious about who they are in real life. Then when the actual event comes they know a little of what to expect. Yes, some will complain about excessive emails. I say that building the community comes first. Tell these whiners to learn how to hit the delete key. If they feel this is too inconvient it is no wonder that they won't get off their butts to come out to something. Enough said.

But there are some things that we as leaders can do. How about a good old fashioned barn burner speech. Listen I live in Florida. You think that it is easy to get people to come out for rush hour sign waivings when it is 93 degrees?? Nope, it's not. That's when I take a deep breath and lay out the situation. You tell your people, "It's frickin' 130 degrees in Iraq. And their wearing heavy protective clothing. Anyone that thinks it's 'uncomfortable' for them to pull themselves away from their American Idol tv show OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. We have kids getting parts of their BODIES blown to BITS and worse. And you can't make time to hold up a sign. F.U. Yeah, you know what I mean. I think it is appalling that we have a candidate that is 72 years old and willing to give up his retirement time. When most seniors are out fishing, RP flys from one end of the country to another to spread the word of FREEDOM. Now how about it (your city). You want to lay around clicking on endless poles. Go to H___. Sorry, I know two families already devasted by the loss of their sons. And I have a friend over there right now serving. He sent a hand written letter home telling that if it wasn't for his faith in Jesus, he would go insane over there. He says the mayhem, blood and guts, and corruption is awful. I want to get him home NOW. Not next month, not next year. NOW! He's got a wife that you better believe her faith is being tested.

And we have trouble getting people out to a meetup event. What the heck are we waiting for. Maybe we are to smug in thinking that we have plenty of time. Let someone else do it. Oh, no. I'm not letting you off the hook. It is people like you, yeah you, that sit back and say, 'Ahh, my civil rights are okay.' I can still go out and have my fun.' You're the ones that got us into this mess (and I'll put myself in this same category) and it HAS to be us that raise such a ruckus that we get RP in the White House.

And no I'm not finished. To the lardasses that think that it doesn't make a difference, let me tell you a story. This past Monday we had our biggest turn out ever for sign waiving. 45 people toughed it out through rain to YELL RON PAUL at the top of their lungs and pass out literature along the busiest street in Orlando. We had lots of fun. Handed out all the litereature we had. Made some new friends and went home satisfied. Three days later one of the volunteers went to a city that was 20 miles away to oversee service work at a sub station for his company. He OF COURSE asks the tech that showed up to do the work, "Can I take a minute of your time to tell you about presidential candidate Ron Paul?" Guy says, 'Hmm You know I just saw some people in Orlando waiving signs about him just a couple days ago." My friend says, "Well I was one of those people." So don't tell me that this stuff doesn't work.

You leader commend the living tar out of any member that sacrafices time for the campaign. But by golly, you make sure that every member within earshot of your meeting knows that we are at a deadly serious work here. We are attempting nothing less than a non violent revolution. Great movements of the past called for great orators. I don't have to remind you of who they are. Now go out there and fire up your troops.

I gotta stop typing now because my keyboard is smokin'

I'm not going to proof read this at all. What I wrote is what I feel. Talk to anyone in our meetup. I pull no punches. But I tell you with tears in my eyes. We've got some of the best people volunteering that I've EVER had the pleasure to have met. And at 52 years of age I've met quite a few. They deserve the very BEST that I have to offer. They'll get it too.

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Ron Paul 2008 Organizer
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/184/

[LibertyBelle]

I see what you are saying, but if this is all about everyone feeling "comfortable" then were not as tough as I thought we were. Do you think the founders of this country felt "comfortable" signing a document that pretty much guaranteed they would have bounties on their heads? If we are worried more about our own comfort above getting the word out, then im afraid were no better than any of the other candidates supporters.


"The last thing we need to be hearing on election day is "well, we coulda won, but I didnt really feel comfortable talking to strangers or feel comfortable in social gatherings. If this is what makes us up, were SCREWED. Come on people............. grow a pair!!!"


I'm wondering, did you write the John Belushi speech for Animal House? :D

You are a motivational ass kicker. I love it! Go Quickmike! Mike is Quick to nip it in the bud and gets people on their feet!

I think the campaign should hire you. :)

Sacrifice of comfort is necessary to achieve freedom. Has anyone ever said that? If not, I'm going to coin it. I'm adding it to my signature now! :p

[quickmike]

"The last thing we need to be hearing on election day is "well, we coulda won, but I didnt really feel comfortable talking to strangers or feel comfortable in social gatherings. If this is what makes us up, were SCREWED. Come on people............. grow a pair!!!"


I'm wondering, did you write the John Belushi speech for Animal House? :D

You are a motivational ass kicker. I love it! Go Quickmike! Mike is Quick to nip it in the bud and gets people on their feet!

I think the campaign should hire you. :)

Sacrifice of comfort is necessary to achieve freedom. Has anyone ever said that? If not, I'm going to coin it. I'm adding it to my signature now! :p

Maybe they should hire me, but can you send the letter to them? Im not very comfortable talking to people ;)

[cac1963]

With about a decade of community based organizing under my belt, my experience has been
1) only 3 people will show up, even when 100 said they would, ALWAYS, and

2) yelling at them for breaking their unpaid, voluntary commitments and their lack of visible support turns them into your enemies.

It gets very hard to proceed under the weight of such inaction, but you have to continue on, and lead by example of DOING it yourself. It feels like you're dragging a boulder uphill, and you are, because you're out there speaking and representing the immediate will of those 100 inactive people all by yourself, with your own money and your own sweat and blood.

Most of these people genuinely care about the message, but have families and careers and catastrophes and downtime to deal with that leaves very little room in their lives for cramming in another "requirement" they have to live up to. You can say, well why did they commit to coming? Because their intentions are good, but their energy levels and scheduling are crap. When all rationale is put through their rinse cycle, this unpaid voluntary activity is the easiest to let go of.

You yelling at them, as the leader who was self-appointed as such to this effort without their consent or approval, for having good intentions and failing to live up to them will turn them against you, it will NOT guilt them into participating.

I know, and YOU know this country depends on it, this is do or die time for our country, but that switch has not been turned on inside these other supporters to the extent that they will suddenly risk everything they have to get into this fight. Yelling at them because of it will only backfire and turn them against you.

You have to continue on with the two other faithful volunteers who show up, and you have to keep affirming the positive progress you're making with your efforts. No progress or backwards movement will cause your entire group to embrace the futility and breed apathy.

[LibertyEagle]

WOW, Nick! Very inspiring. I'm glad you're on OUR side.

[mport1]

Well, we shouldn't yell at them. We just need to keep in contact with them and encourage them to help out in the effort. Find out how much they can commit to the effort and go off of that. It can't hurt anything to do so, because even if they don't like it, they weren't doing anything in the first place to help the effort.

I think it is also has a negative impact on those that are participating. People tend to lose steam if they are doing tons of work and others aren't helping out. It is discouraging to people who put in a lot of effort but don't see the outcomes they would like, so many just stop trying. Luckily, I am still motivated, but I'm sure I would be much more motivated if there were huge turnouts and better results.

[michaelwise]

It's like Christmas time. You get all excited before the event, like seeing Ron Paul on TV, and shortly thereafter. But then, when you don't see him again for a while on TV, the magic wears off for a while, till you see him again on TV. The magic will come back.

That's why I wanted to try to shake things up a bit, to get us noticed on the national news, with some small ad campaign, maybe something like this.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=8735

Or, I could hang myself upside down in Rockefeller center for a week, with a Ron Paul sign.

[Thomas_Paine]

This is an excellent thread, I am vicariously venting here people!


If I could convey 1 thing to every volunteer it would be this:

CAMPAIGNING FOR RON PAUL IS FUN AND EASY

Changing our country is a war of ideas and principles, right now we can use our feet and voice without fear of reprisal.

This is the thing, I CAN'T STOP getting the word out, it's a hell of a lot more fun that watching videos or typing on these forums (not to down play the importance of the forums). Today I passed out hundreds of slim jims, while doing errands with my wife and 2 kids in 100+ degree heat. And you know what, it wasn't a sacrifice, it was EXHILARATING! Because I know that it is having an impact, I am dead set on getting the word out, if every American hears the message RON PAUL WILL WIN. I am 100% certain about this.

When you decide that this is part of your life and you LIVE IT, people listen and things change. That is why RP is such a powerful persona, because he is man of principle who LIVES IT!

The best way to ignite our meetups (talking to myself too here) is to illustrate how seamlessly integrate this into your life style so that it comes as naturally as getting up in the morning.

[quickmike]

It's like Christmas time. You get all excited before the event, like seeing Ron Paul on TV, and shortly thereafter. But then, when you don't see him again for a while on TV, the magic wears off for a while, till you see him again on TV. The magic will come back.

That's why I wanted to try to shake things up a bit, to get us noticed on the national news, with some small ad campaign, maybe something like this.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=8735

Or, I could hang myself upside down in Rockefeller center for a week, with a Ron Paul sign.

Just dont kill yourself in the process....... Nothing would be worse for the RP campaign than a corpse hanging upside down with a Ron Paul sign in his hands.:D

[mport1]

I think one of the problems is that when the group gets too large, nobody is held accountable. I mean, my group has over 350 people so some feel like they can really just let other people handle stuff and then it ends up that there is a low turnout as a result.

One strategy I was thinking of is having one large group for big areas that would be used primarily for large scale projects, and then smaller, more local groups for projects like sign wavings or passing out flyers. That way people would have greater responsibilities and be more accountable for what goes on in the small scale projects.

[michaelwise]

Just dont kill yourself in the process....... Nothing would be worse for the RP campaign than a corpse hanging upside down with a Ron Paul sign in his hands.:D

LOL. I was just thinking about what that magician guy did to get attention.

[cac1963]

This is an excellent thread, I am vicariously venting here people!


If I could convey 1 thing to every volunteer it would be this:

CAMPAIGNING FOR RON PAUL IS FUN AND EASY

Changing our country is a war of ideas and principles, right now we can use our feet and voice without fear of reprisal.

This is the thing, I CAN'T STOP getting the word out, it's a hell of a lot more fun that watching videos or typing on these forums (not to down play the importance of the forums). Today I passed out hundreds of slim jims, while doing errands with my wife and 2 kids in 100+ degree heat. And you know what, it wasn't a sacrifice, it was EXHILARATING! Because I know that it is having an impact, I am dead set on getting the word out, if every American hears the message RON PAUL WILL WIN. I am 100% certain about this.

When you decide that this is part of your life and you LIVE IT, people listen and things change. That is why RP is such a powerful persona, because he is man of principle who LIVES IT!

The best way to ignite our meetups (talking to myself too here) is to illustrate how seamlessly integrate this into your life style so that it comes as naturally as getting up in the morning.

That's a very good approach, one I highly recommend. The barn burner speech is another good approach TO THE PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP, but not to the people who stayed home. With this exhilaration approach just take care that you're inspiring instead of gloating.

[michaelwise]

I think one of the problems is that when the group gets too large, nobody is held accountable. I mean, my group has over 350 people so some feel like they can really just let other people handle stuff and then it ends up that there is a low turnout as a result.

One strategy I was thinking of is having one large group for big areas that would be used primarily for large scale projects, and then smaller, more local groups for projects like sign wavings or passing out flyers. That way people would have greater responsibilities and be more accountable for what goes on in the small scale projects.

Can someone give us some coaching on how we are supposed to respond to e-mails on meetup. I mean. Some topics being discussed by some members, which may not interest all, get e-mailed out to all members. It's OK if some members want to discuss a particular subject, but all members of a group don't need to get an e-mail on a particular subject.

Can someone please discuss proper Meetup e-mail etiquette?

[mport1]

Can someone give us some coaching on how we are supposed to respond to e-mails on meetup. I mean. Some topics being discussed by some members, which may not interest all, get e-mailed out to all members. It's OK if some members want to discuss a particular subject, but all members of a group don't need to get an e-mail on a particular subject.

Can someone please discuss proper Meetup e-mail etiquette?

I would be interested in this as well. I haven't been able to figure out what is going on with the email system and I think that might be one of the problems. Some people get over an email a day because of their setting and thus probably don't even look at them and just delete them.

[mport1]

This is an excellent thread, I am vicariously venting here people!


If I could convey 1 thing to every volunteer it would be this:

CAMPAIGNING FOR RON PAUL IS FUN AND EASY

Changing our country is a war of ideas and principles, right now we can use our feet and voice without fear of reprisal.

This is the thing, I CAN'T STOP getting the word out, it's a hell of a lot more fun that watching videos or typing on these forums (not to down play the importance of the forums). Today I passed out hundreds of slim jims, while doing errands with my wife and 2 kids in 100+ degree heat. And you know what, it wasn't a sacrifice, it was EXHILARATING! Because I know that it is having an impact, I am dead set on getting the word out, if every American hears the message RON PAUL WILL WIN. I am 100% certain about this.

When you decide that this is part of your life and you LIVE IT, people listen and things change. That is why RP is such a powerful persona, because he is man of principle who LIVES IT!

The best way to ignite our meetups (talking to myself too here) is to illustrate how seamlessly integrate this into your life style so that it comes as naturally as getting up in the morning.


Yes, it is EXTREMELY easy and fun. It only took a few hours of my time today and I touched HUNDREDS of people with Ron Paul's message. Each one of us can make a difference! The feeling you get knowing that you are helping in the effort to restore liberty to this country is unparalleled, almost like crack. Why would somebody not want to get involved in this?

[michaelwise]

Could someone make a video on, Good Meetup E-mail Practices?

[sylvania]

Here are some reasons why I was reluctant to join and then eventually left my Meetup group:

1) I was getting over 30 messages a day. It was ridiculous. Instruction on how to change your Meetup messages into a one-day digest need to be in the very first thing people look at (the Welcome section) and it should say something like this:

We're so glad you are thinking of joining our group. We are VERY active and need people like you. Because we are active you may get many e-mail messages from us. Here's how you can condense your e-mail into a once a day digest:

1. After being added to our Meetup group, click on "Account" at the top right corner of this website.
2. Click on "Membership and Communications"
3. Click on the circle under the heading "In one daily e-mail"

2) I attended an event and was told for 2 hours over and over again that what I was saying was not the approach I should be taking. It was very rude and deeply insulting. If you want volunteers to return they need to be thanked again and again and again, personally, if possible. You win people over with sugar. (The ironic thing is, I had more conversations with people than he did. He was yelling at the people walking by, not smiling and yelling after them if they walked by without taking literature. It was a nightmare experience.) Should people have to be thanked again and again. No. But if you want them to stay, if you want them to get involved, then I think this is a must.

3) I was not directed. Some of those invitations to join a Meetup could include specific instructions such as. We need people to hold banners, others to pass out literature, and still others to...whatever. Please specify the job you would like to take. This allows people who are shy (like me) to think, Well, I can go hold a banner. You have to make it easy for people to join. This means taking away their excuses. If someone thinks, I could go hold a banner, then they are more likely to join in. And perhaps down the road, do something bigger.

4) I didn't know what my group already had so I didn't know what they needed - brochures, banners, tables, chairs - These things should be on an inventory list in the files section, so that people know you are a group that is together and coordinated. I think many people are not self-starters - and those that are have already joined up - so now it's time to get people in and make it as easy to participate as possible.

In the end my husband and I have decided to join a different group, further from our home and participate minimally in group activities and do things on our own. I have been enthusiastic enough to continue on my own, but others may not be.

I like the barn-burner speeach. Maybe something like that should go in the welcome page on Meetup or something.

[LibertyEagle]

You can also utilize this Forum and setup your own area, like others have done. This works better for back and forth conversations and is a better repository of projects being worked on.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4

Then maybe you can just use Meetup email messages primarily as announcements and reminders.

[Mom4Ron]

Everyone is different and every meetup group is different.

I joined a group in my area and went to the first meeting, was planning on continuing to attend and went so far as to tell my boss that I needed the particular day that we all had agreed to at the meeting off from then until the primaries.

Then the announcement for the next meeting came, then the change of time, then another change of time, then a change of date. Then the next several were scheduled on Saturday, which I had made a point to switch Sundays for so that I could be off since we had agreed to meet on Sundays. Several more changes of time and date/location for specific events.

Had some other obligations to attend to, told my boss that I wanted to switch Sat back to Sun, all the while my mailbox is getting hit with every single mention of Ron Paul and some not ron paul related stuff.

Went to our groups forum as soon as I got home from the first meetup, posted a thread about the meetup. Still no response to it from anyone, no new threads in 3 weeks, but all sorts of crap in my mailbox. Snarky email about why isn't anyone showing up.

Remove myself from list and continue writing letters to Iowans.

Passing out liberty cards on my own, putting them on cars, sneeze guards at restaraunts, answering telemarketing calls so I can tell the sales people about Ron Paul. Pricing advertising that I'll pay for myself. Doing my own thing. Might rejoin the meetup group again next month when I'm on a Mon-Fri schedule, but will not receive the emails.

[austin356]

Ok everyone has hit on many reasons and most all of them are right.

This is not directed directly at NYC or OP, but this is what I have found after organizing the Birmingham (130 members) and Tuscaloosa (19 members) groups.


1)The email situation must be as flawless as possible. No emails go out unless it is event related. People who have already signed up like Ron, everyone does not have the time nor the will to read all the articles we do on here.

2)Dates and times must be STABLE; I have noticed that the time and date dont seem to matter too very much (you get different people at different times) but once a date/time is set it needs to stay there.

3)The group needs to get motivated. Phoenix got motivated with the proliferation of the Revolution signs. Memphis got motivated by out doing Phoenix at their own game. Phoenix got motivated by a Memphis challenge and it goes on and on. Videos are pretty essential to motivation these days. Real editing needs to be done not just some film and post.

4)Get on the local news/local papers/local radio. This gets members fired up and gives them something they can "touch and feel" as a result of their earlier efforts.

5)With large groups, get niches going. Get break offs going.

6)Above all get a group of HARD hitters. 20% of your membership being "hardhitters" is ideal. 30 members going at it full force can do more than 150 going half ass. When the half assers see what the 30 are doing, they emulate.

7)Dont let the big groups turn into mini-governments. Governments are always inefficient and un-motivational.
I (a Katrina rider outer) tell the example of the little church from TN and how they saved a whole town (Picayune, MS) with food, water, and everything else. They had little to no resources other than some raw materials and the shirts on their backs (they were in the hurricane zone before the Interstates even "officially opened"). And then I compare them to the Red Cross who took 3 weeks to make its first appearance. They came in with they fancy rides and big trucks and did not do shit. They had the workers but they were not the same as the church workers. Heck there was no comparison.

So if a little church from TN with little to no resources can come in with only a few thousand dollars and do a job 10x faster, 10x higher quality than the than the Red Cross who had near a billion dollars in donations than that same concept can work for other volunteer organizations. (if you learned anything from this example I hope it is that your volunteer effort for disaster relief is better spent with a church than a quasi-government non-profit agency).

Resources and numbers are second; Quality and motivation are first.

[michaelwise]

Ok everyone has hit on many reasons and most all of them are right.

This is not directed directly at NYC or OP, but this is what I have found after organizing the Birmingham (130 members) and Tuscaloosa (19 members) groups.


1)The email situation must be as flawless as possible. No emails go out unless it is event related. People who have already signed up like Ron, everyone does not have the time nor the will to read all the articles we do on here.

2)Dates and times must be STABLE; I have noticed that the time and date dont seem to matter too very much (you get different people at different times) but once a date/time is set it needs to stay there.

3)The group needs to get motivated. Phoenix got motivated with the proliferation of the Revolution signs. Memphis got motivated by out doing Phoenix at their own game. Phoenix got motivated by a Memphis challenge and it goes on and on. Videos are pretty essential to motivation these days. Real editing needs to be done not just some film and post.

4)Get on the local news/local papers/local radio. This gets members fired up and gives them something they can "touch and feel" as a result of their earlier efforts.

5)With large groups, get niches going. Get break offs going.

6)Above all get a group of HARD hitters. 20% of your membership being "hardhitters" is ideal. 30 members going at it full force can do more than 150 going half ass. When the half assers see what the 30 are doing, they emulate.

7)Dont let the big groups turn into mini-governments. Governments are always inefficient and un-motivational.
I (a Katrina rider outer) tell the example of the little church from TN and how they saved a whole town (Picayune, MS) with food, water, and everything else. They had little to no resources other than some raw materials and the shirts on their backs (they were in the hurricane zone before the Interstates even "officially opened"). And then I compare them to the Red Cross who took 3 weeks to make its first appearance. They came in with they fancy rides and big trucks and did not do shit. They had the workers but they were not the same as the church workers. Heck there was no comparison.

So if a little church from TN with little to no resources can come in with only a few thousand dollars and do a job 10x faster, 10x higher quality than the than the Red Cross who had near a billion dollars in donations than that same concept can work for other volunteer organizations. (if you learned anything from this example I hope it is that your volunteer effort for disaster relief is better spent with a church than a quasi-government non-profit agency).

Resources and numbers are second; Quality and motivation are first.

I concur.

[DjLoTi]

If you go here:
http://www.meetup.com/account/?tab=comm

you can choose to disable the community emails.

[Slugg]

Okay you want my take. Can you handle the truth? Most people do a pathetic job of making a meeting worth coming to. First they don't have an agenda put out before hand. Second they build no sense of community by any emails during the week. Add to this that most people do have a combination of fear and inertia (read lazy). I know I'm generalizing here so you can skip the sophomoric responses of 'not me.'

Let me explain in detail. It is imperative that you invite your meetups to email through the meetup client software. We learn about what each other are like and become curious about who they are in real life. Then when the actual event comes they know a little of what to expect. Yes, some will complain about excessive emails. I say that building the community comes first. Tell these whiners to learn how to hit the delete key. If they feel this is too inconvient it is no wonder that they won't get off their butts to come out to something. Enough said.

But there are some things that we as leaders can do. How about a good old fashioned barn burner speech. Listen I live in Florida. You think that it is easy to get people to come out for rush hour sign waivings when it is 93 degrees?? Nope, it's not. That's when I take a deep breath and lay out the situation. You tell your people, "It's frickin' 130 degrees in Iraq. And their wearing heavy protective clothing. Anyone that thinks it's 'uncomfortable' for them to pull themselves away from their American Idol tv show OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. We have kids getting parts of their BODIES blown to BITS and worse. And you can't make time to hold up a sign. F.U. Yeah, you know what I mean. I think it is appalling that we have a candidate that is 72 years old and willing to give up his retirement time. When most seniors are out fishing, RP flys from one end of the country to another to spread the word of FREEDOM. Now how about it (your city). You want to lay around clicking on endless poles. Go to H___. Sorry, I know two families already devasted by the loss of their sons. And I have a friend over there right now serving. He sent a hand written letter home telling that if it wasn't for his faith in Jesus, he would go insane over there. He says the mayhem, blood and guts, and corruption is awful. I want to get him home NOW. Not next month, not next year. NOW! He's got a wife that you better believe her faith is being tested.

And we have trouble getting people out to a meetup event. What the heck are we waiting for. Maybe we are to smug in thinking that we have plenty of time. Let someone else do it. Oh, no. I'm not letting you off the hook. It is people like you, yeah you, that sit back and say, 'Ahh, my civil rights are okay.' I can still go out and have my fun.' You're the ones that got us into this mess (and I'll put myself in this same category) and it HAS to be us that raise such a ruckus that we get RP in the White House.

And no I'm not finished. To the lardasses that think that it doesn't make a difference, let me tell you a story. This past Monday we had our biggest turn out ever for sign waiving. 45 people toughed it out through rain to YELL RON PAUL at the top of their lungs and pass out literature along the busiest street in Orlando. We had lots of fun. Handed out all the litereature we had. Made some new friends and went home satisfied. Three days later one of the volunteers went to a city that was 20 miles away to oversee service work at a sub station for his company. He OF COURSE asks the tech that showed up to do the work, "Can I take a minute of your time to tell you about presidential candidate Ron Paul?" Guy says, 'Hmm You know I just saw some people in Orlando waiving signs about him just a couple days ago." My friend says, "Well I was one of those people." So don't tell me that this stuff doesn't work.

You leader commend the living tar out of any member that sacrafices time for the campaign. But by golly, you make sure that every member within earshot of your meeting knows that we are at a deadly serious work here. We are attempting nothing less than a non violent revolution. Great movements of the past called for great orators. I don't have to remind you of who they are. Now go out there and fire up your troops.

I gotta stop typing now because my keyboard is smokin'

I'm not going to proof read this at all. What I wrote is what I feel. Talk to anyone in our meetup. I pull no punches. But I tell you with tears in my eyes. We've got some of the best people volunteering that I've EVER had the pleasure to have met. And at 52 years of age I've met quite a few. They deserve the very BEST that I have to offer. They'll get it too.

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Ron Paul 2008 Organizer
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/184/

<standing ovation> Well said!</standing ovation>

[megan]

all this week I worked at a Ron Paul booth (financed by volunteers) at the Pottawatomie County Fair (the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa). we were the only booth for a specific candidate, but the dems and reps had booths too. we found RP supporters working in the dem booth, but not the rep booth.

We handed out so many fliers, brochures, stickers, and pamphlets. I sold some t-shirts and yard signs (financed and contributed by our meetup members). But MOST of the people I talked to hadn't even HEARD of ron paul and seemed incredibly passive. Of the maybe 50-80% of them who accepted literature, probably only 30% of them read it.

Honestly this bummed me out. So many people seemed uninterested, willingly ignorant, or seriously blindly conservative ("I watch fox news for 12-14 hours a day, so if ron paul ever did anything good I would know! he's nothing but another liberal democrat!")

I knew what to say. I had great lines prepared. I knew what to say to every reply. I was proud of myself and the people who worked with me. We were aggressive but very friendly. It was a great week for us.

There WERE some people who came around or were already supporters--particularly the Sturgis people. Motorcycle dudes. There was a HUGE sturgis booth/turnout at this fair and most of them seemed interested. They even took lots of signs, literature, and buttons to put in THEIR sturgis booth (which was a huge attraction). Mrs. Paul even showed up on Thursday night!!!!!! TOTALLY UNEXPECTED.

But honestly, personally, I feel a little unsure about Ron Paul's turnout at the Straw Poll. The Iowans I talked to were not completely receptive.

Halp! I need cheering up!

[mport1]

Excellent advice everybody. I really think some kind of instruction list should be compiled that would provide easy access to the methods necessary to get the most participation out of a Meetup group. Maybe it could be stickied in one of the sections.

[CurtisLow]

I started my own meetup a month ago.

Here's our booth at the local fair. Local news papers are the way to go.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1682/007yl5.jpg

[Mom4Ron]

"Tell those whiners to hit the delete key" :rolleyes:

Yeah, if they don't want to hear about me teaching my cat to say Ron Paul, screw them!

Or people could utilize these tools responsibly and have some respect for those whose help they desire to enlist.

[kylejack]

I think one important factor to a successful group would be to get alternate contact methods for people who are willing to give it. E-mails are easy to ignore, but not text messages blowing up your phone. Obviously you should only be texting people who chose to opt in to such a thing.

[LibertyEagle]

Hang in there, Megan. The ads are coming soon and my understanding is that close to 13,000 DVDs were handed out this weekend. There's also a group of people going door-to-door handing out literature, isn't there?

You did great. All we can do is what we can do.

[LinuxUser269]

I agree that it seems that if you have lets say our group in sarasota florida has 75 ppl now and we have decreased in turnouts for sign wavings. but our group has diversified ..mutated if u will our core group has splintered to start a group in venice , bradenton , punta gorta and talk of a regonal group to incompus us all. i know some of our ppl had vacation they were going on .and its hot here in florida but i make every meet up i can ...........your concerns have merit.. keep up the good work and they will return to the fold. RP08

[aknappjr]

The keys to getting people off their computers are the same for any kind of promotional events:

1. Women. Women like meeting men, and men like meeting women. Married people like meeting other RP supporters.

2. Drinks. Go out for drinks afterwards. Builds a sense of community.

3. Song. People like music. Fundraisers are great for this.

[LinuxUser269]

We handed out so many fliers, brochures, stickers, and pamphlets. I sold some t-shirts and yard signs (financed and contributed by our meetup members). But MOST of the people I talked to hadn't even HEARD of ron paul and seemed incredibly passive. Of the maybe 50-80% of them who accepted literature, probably only 30% of them read it.

Honestly this bummed me out. So many people seemed uninterested, willingly ignorant, or seriously blindly conservative


But honestly, personally, I feel a little unsure about Ron Paul's turnout at the Straw Poll. The Iowans I talked to were not completely receptive.

Halp! I need cheering up!

megan

I feel your pain!
The Bradenton Florida meet up group had a booth this weekend at the suncoast gun show. We ha a lot of good responses. the vendors were very receptive around us and helped by returning some of our discarded campaign fliers .I also rescued some from the refuge for recycling:)
My speculated reasons for People not receptive to the Ron Paul Message.
1.They are very sleepy and refuse to wake up.
2.pre occupied by the though of which Simpson's rerun would be showing twice tonight.
3. you can add more if you want

Some people said they like RP but didn't think he would make it .We proceeded to inform them we were volunteers for the campaign and how much the areas support has grown since its beginnings 6 weeks ago. Also that the majority of us had never been politically active none the less donated to a campaign before ,and the amount of personal time and money we put in to bring the message out.Then I would ask if they would at least give him a vote in the primary .THEIR RESPONSE WAS ALWAYS YES.
Watch some campaign videos of supporters...be positive .. keep up the good work........


RP
08

[michaelwise]

megan

I feel your pain!
The Bradenton Florida meet up group had a booth this weekend at the suncoast gun show. We ha a lot of good responses. the vendors were very receptive around us and helped by returning some of our discarded campaign fliers .I also rescued some from the refuge for recycling:)
My speculated reasons for People not receptive to the Ron Paul Message.
1.They are very sleepy and refuse to wake up.
2.pre occupied by the though of which Simpson's rerun would be showing twice tonight.
3. you can add more if you want

Some people said they like RP but didn't think he would make it .We proceeded to inform them we were volunteers for the campaign and how much the areas support has grown since its beginnings 6 weeks ago. Also that the majority of us had never been politically active none the less donated to a campaign before ,and the amount of personal time and money we put in to bring the message out.Then I would ask if they would at least give him a vote in the primary .THEIR RESPONSE WAS ALWAYS YES.
Watch some campaign videos of supporters...be positive .. keep up the good work........


RP
08

I think the main reason why they are not receptive is because they do not see RP on TV. This is why I think we need to do something radical, to get noticed by the TV people. A march Across America Tour for Ron Paul, or something like that.

[max]

I had similar problem but it's gotten much better since I assigned useful tasks that do not require facing the public. I don't know how people could be so afraid (God, I used to sell vacuuum cleaners door-to-door when I was in college!)...but it is a reality.

What I do is pester the dead weight to contribute a few bucks to the group fund and I ask them to mail out our Ron Paul Postcards. The mail Iowa program also got a lot of these shy folks involved. We were able to put out 800 letters with many of these "sleeper" members buying their own stamps!

The success of Mail Iowa leads me to believe that direct mail is the best way to get shy sleepers activated.

One more observation of a problem that pissed some of my group off. The Meetup e-mails and responses can inundate mailboxes and turn people away. MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE KNOWS that they can adjust their e-mail settings..

Click on "Account" at top of page...Then click on "Membership/Communications"...then selct option to receive all e-mails as they come...or just receive one daily e-mail conating all the day's e-mails.

This e-mail thing does piss some people off and its so easy to address. Tell your new members about this as soon as they join.

Beyond that, I think you will see that if RP starts to make some waves, then all of your "'I like RP but he can't win" members will wake from their slumber.

It's unfortunate because if the 30,000 Meetup members really got committed....this thing would really catch fire.. All we can do is keep stoking

[Mom4Ron]

Changing the mail options to use the daily digest is a good idea, but then if people are sending email about every time Ron Paul sneezes, then there's still a lot to sort through to find out when the events are happening, which is what we signed up for.

My biggest problem was the lack of organization. We're meeting here, 5 minutes later we're meeting there, 10 minutes later, we meeting earlier.

Make your plan, solidify it and then send out the notice, lots of people won't/can't continually reshuffle their schedules to suit organizers who can't make up their minds.

[michaelwise]

Changing the mail options to use the daily digest is a good idea, but then if people are sending email about every time Ron Paul sneezes, then there's still a lot to sort through to find out when the events are happening, which is what we signed up for.

My biggest problem was the lack of organization. We're meeting here, 5 minutes later we're meeting there, 10 minutes later, we meeting earlier.

Make your plan, solidify it and then send out the notice, lots of people won't/can't continually reshuffle their schedules to suit organizers who can't make up their minds.

We just need instructions on how to reply. If someone sends something out on a mass mailing, and someone is interested, they don't have to send out another mass mailing as a reply. They can be shown how to contact individually that person who sent out the initial mass mailing.

[Mom4Ron]

We just need instructions on how to reply. If someone sends something out on a mass mailing, and someone is interested, they don't have to send out another mass mailing as a reply. They can be shown how to contact individually that person who sent out the initial mass mailing.

Yes! Unfortunately, the reply-to address is the list address so users would have to replace it with the senders email address, which is listed in from: field and in the notice at the bottom. A lot of people just don't think of it.

The replies are not as bad as just the non-event related stuff.

[empirenine]

Just a word of encouragement in the southwest. I'm told that the San Diego meetup continues to grow in numbers AND participation. This past meeting was my first but everyone said the numbers were getting better. We had about 25 people at the last meetup and everyone was very enthusiastically involved.

[bygone]

...I don't know how people could be so afraid...

Because we have things like this in the world...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4

[michaelwise]

Because we have things like this in the world...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4

I noticed in the background of that children's murder show, there were English numerals. I thought they used different symbols for numbers in Arabic. Maybe that show was produced by the CIA? I could be wrong.

Check out Wickopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

[Paul4Prez]

Our group's turnout has been been in the 10-15% range. I think the Meetup groups need to mix in some fun events for people to get to know each other, along with the hardcore campaigning.

[McDermit]

Because we have things like this in the world...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4

Plus people in general tend to be unfriendly, if not plain old mean.. at least around here. We had a lot of larger folks at the meetup I attended this week, and nearly all of them preferred to make signs or mail letters from home rather than get out on the streets. It's certainly not that they're lazy, they wanted to help, but just weren't very outgoing.

I think a huge part of it is that there are a lot of assholes out there that make life difficult for no reason. Juvenile highschool crap transcends into every day life. When I was overweight, people would literally throw fast food bags at me if I was walking down the street. If I walked past someone at an event, I'd hear people making comments about the big guy. Nevermind going out to dinner. Now since illegals immigrants have moved into this area and caused a lot of problems locally, I'm seen as "one of them" and get a lot of dirty looks and comments because of the color of my skin. For some people, it's a lot harder to ignore than others. I'm trying to get people out on the street with me locally, but it's an uphill battle.

[McDermit]

I've only been to the one meetup so far and it had about a 40% turnout rate.

The group closest to me only seems to meet once a month.. and so far only 6 out of 23 have RSVP'd yes. :(

[bygone]

I noticed in the background of that children's murder show, there were English numerals. I thought they used different symbols for numbers in Arabic. Maybe that show was produced by the CIA? I could be wrong.


Very observant, but makes the video more disturbing, imo.

McDermit, one would hope we could live in a better country than that.

Some people still don't seem to understand that when you get a bunch of people from the Internet together, what you have, in the majority, is introverted and intuitive people.

To get them to do an extroverted, sensory activity may prove an "uphill battle".

[ThePieSwindler]

I noticed in the background of that children's murder show, there were English numerals. I thought they used different symbols for numbers in Arabic. Maybe that show was produced by the CIA? I could be wrong.

Check out Wickopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

Yeah the wikipedia article proves you are wrong. The west borrowed the numerals we now use FROM the muslim scholars.

[michaelwise]

Yeah the wikipedia article proves you are wrong. The west borrowed the numerals we now use FROM the muslim scholars.

Maybe I read it wrong. Hindu-Arabic are like ours while Arabic-language are completely different looking. Look at the telephone key pad in the right hand column.

I noticed this because central bakhsters get a kick out of funding both sides of a war. I wounder who is funding that TV station. Maybe someone should follow the money. Lets get Max on the case.