Precinct and State Coordinators

[butterflyeblue]

I signed up to volunteer for RP and have done some of the phone banking and sign waves. However, I am at a total loss in regards to organization of the campaign and volunteers. I do not understand why they do not leverage skills sets through the volunteer sign up sheet, why someone does not reach out to individual volunteers, leverage skill sets etc. For example I received numerous emails from the Rick Santorum campaign, my sister has received a santorum letter in the mail. I have another sister who is coordinating a county for RP, but she does not have any RP volunteers to help, the direction from the top seems dismal and I believe there are volunteers willing to do work, but need direction. Am I totally missing something? We see all the youtube activity, thumbs up activity, yahoo and news article comments and thumbs up for RP, but what I don't see is the real boots on the ground stuff or direction.

[jemuf]

What is your skill set? What state & county do you live in? Have you contacted the campaign at http://www.ronpaul2012.com/contact-us/

[butterflyeblue]

I will reach out on the contact, thanks for the info. I am a data expert. For example, the campaign sent my sister a list of 22K names and my sister didn't know how to do anything with that information, so I compiled it for her, but had she not reached out to me, she would not have been able to do anything with the list. We are hard working girls and not afraid to do anything, but the lack of organization and strategy for the volunteers on the surface does not seem to be there, but again maybe I am missing something. They also reached out to her in the last 4 weeks and they vote on super Tuesday, so not much time for her to go to work on anything. My two sisters in their state are literally going door to door, handing out the super brochures to anyone they see and business people who will let them leave at their business and basically a lot of one on one, which in most cases is the only way to reach the older demographic people who sit at home watching fox all day.

I also signed up to try and be a delegate and so did my sisters and we are new to the process, and really confused by it. Is there a step by step guide for that? My sisters attended a meeting of the county chair and unfortunately they went in wearing their RP shirts and well the county chair people will not even talk to them now, assuming trying to block RP, so just little things that do not seem clear in terms of strategy and direction for the volunteers.

[vechorik]

If you're not working within the state organizational efforts, you're missing a lot.

Go to the main page and find your state. Search Facebook. Try to hook up with the STATE DELEGATE organizational page.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forum.php

[butterflyeblue]

I wrote the campaign and they responded back that there is not a state coordinator for tx.

[jemuf]

Anyone who's going to vote as a Republican should start at their state's GOP website to obtain basic information.

For Texas the website is http://www.texasgop.org/

Also go to Meetup.com enter your interest as "Ron Paul" and enter your zip code. This will lead you to current Ron Paul for President grassroot groups.


Please check out this top sticky thread from Eleganz in the Grassroots Central category of this forum:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ook-no-further!

Eleganz posted 4 very important links, and one is relevant to Texas. The others relate to delegate information.

I had no knowledge of or desire to be a delegate until I read Eleganz's thread.

Initially it seemed like too much information. But the most important thing is that you know where to go to vote for Ron Paul and how to start the process of becoming a delegate. The other info, like Robert Rules, can come later if you have time.

I didn't even use the RonPaul2012.com site to start the delegate process. I contacted my county Republican chairman by email. I kept my conversation simple; I didn't tell him who I was voting for. He told me when and where my caucus was.

My process starts by going to my county caucus and applying.

YES...hide your bumper stickers and don't wear Ron Paul clothes to these things. The Republican party is a good 'ol boys network.

[butterflyeblue]

Thank you and yes have been doing that and spoke with my county chair yesterday and they do not have a precinct chair for my precinct so we are suppose to meet and talk about that. I have figured out the tshirt thing because of my sister's experience, and guessing I will need to pull down the signs around my place, because the guy has my address and I think he will come by. Anything else I should understand about the precinct chair thing, because they do not have one for my precinct and we have 66 precincts and over a 50K pop? I do not mean to sound harsh of RP, but I am extremely frustrated. I would think running for three times and all the people who seem to behind RP would have a campaign running like a well oiled machine and sorry; that it is not. My sisters are struggling, not getting direction, they missed the opportunity for the precinct stuff, because we know the GOP had empty chairs for their country because they have 19 precincts but only had 5 people in the meeting with my sisters being two of those people, but because they went in there RP they were shut down and the guy will not even talk to them. That little bit of information would have been great to know prior to going in and no we do not have time to sit around all day on the computer researching and hunting for information especially when it seems so simple to state that in an email when someone tells you to go to the meeting in the first place. The spreadsheet thing is another. I am a little concerned about pouring money and time into something when it seems to be a cluster. I say this because I have also posted on FB pages and also sent private email to other RP supporters asking for help and understanding and I get NADA. I left RP groups because I feel it to be useless in terms of real strategy. Thumbs up and comments and videos are great, but thats being done to other RP supporters, so how does that really bring in other RP people. I am trying to also find other RP people in my county so we can communicate and work together, seems like that would be something very simple to do, but so far NADA and yes I have searched and posted on RP pages, meetups, for anyone in Grayson County, NADA. Don't get it. And this is my first time trying to be involved because this is how much I want to help but enthusiasm and money support is wanning in light of what I see.

[wistfulthinker]

butterflyeblue, it really starts with reading the tedium of your local GOP bylaws. But that hour you spend will pay off. I promise. Precinct captains/committeemen/women are the voting members of your county or district GOP. These are the people who will get to vote for the delegates you send to the state convention. So understanding how to get Paul supporters in precinct positions is the ground-floor action.

Many party bylaws require a waiting period between when a precinct person is elected and when that person can vote. So be sure to pay particular attention to the dates. It may be too late for you to do any good as far as electing Paul-friendly delegates from your county. That doesn't make the effort useless, but it does dilute the power you will have to deliver Paul delegates to your state convention.

If you proceed with trying to get folks into precinct positions, go about it in a smart way.

1. Go to a party social functions, (i.e. not the central committee business meeting) first. Glad hand a lot. Wear Republican clothes. Meet everyone you can. Offer to volunteer for something or another; they're always looking for people.
2. Get the list of current precinct folks and go over it with someone in the know. Identify all the Paul supporters. If there's only a few, call each of them. If there are a lot, call a couple and ask them to spread the word to the others that you are going to be offering yourself as a precinct person at a specific party business meeting. (You'll know the process by reading the bylaws.) You may also have to have one of the current precinct people nominate you for the position. (Again, know your bylaws.)
3. While you're waiting for the meeting at which you'll be nominated, call the precinct people from two contiguous precincts and talk to them about the position. Ask those kind of questions that showcase how eager-beaver you are to be involved and really hit the pavement for candidates. You can even call candidates running for any positions that include your precinct and kinda whet the grindstone by asking them how you can help once you become precinct captain. The earlier you do this sort of stuff, the more time you'll give folks to spread the word that there's a new person in the game who sound really motivated. You're just preparing the ground so that when the vote goes down, you'll have a better chance of getting in.

I did all this stuff and still only made it in by one vote. So far we've got 11 of us into precinct positions in the last two months. We have only another week. The cool thing is that for each person you get in, you've got that much more of a chance of getting more people in. It snowballs.

I know it's frustrating. The campaign isn't focusing on my state, either, and so it's just the grassroots trying to figure out this stuff as best we can. One thing that has been very helpful here is getting the counsel of the guy who the campaign hired to head the state in '08. Even if the campaign isn't hiring someone time around, those people from the last cycle may still be around and able/willing to give guidance. Find out who was in charge last election and track him/her down.

[butterflyeblue]

Thanks, yes that is the track I am on now, it has just taken some time to get there, because sad to say my first go around in trying to volunteer and support a candidate. Just wished I would see more organization and planning tinkle down from the top. But I am hanging in there and will keep plugging along.

[libertylastchance]

Have you gone to the Ron Paul meet-ups?
It appears that there is only so much money to go around, and the campaign comes into each state may 2 or 3 weeks before the caucus/primary
When you go to the meet ups there is usually a top Ron Paul person there who can direct you.. just make sure you go to Ron Paul Meet up..
I've seen many many in the state of Texas,
Anyone who applies to be delegate needs to go through the Ron Paul delegate training site, and this is a very confusing process, each state is different.. get your information from someone in your state.

[libertylastchance]

It's good that you share this information..

[butterflyeblue]

No, I have not been to a meetup because I have not found one for Grayson County. I am a member of the meetups in Dallas and am trying to make it to one of those, but difficult due to child situation and opposite direction of my home. I am in contact with the county GOP party and trying to figure out how to grab the precinct chair because the current precinct chair person wrote me and she can't do it anymore, so I am trying to figure out the process to take it. I have made contact with head GOP guy, and he has reached out to me, but a little concerned if he is checking me out. Just fyi to everyone because I am data guru and this is public information, if you made a campaign contribution I know who you are, where you are and to whom you contributed for ALL of US. So I am afraid even though I do not go in there with RP written on my face, and because I have contributed to RP I am afraid the GOP would have the same information and therefore try to avoid me getting the precint chair and I am igonorant of the process, so not sure how to hold their feet to the fire with rules. So that is where I am at with the precinct stuff, which I know is probably to late to help RP but just maybe I will be better able to help for next go around. :-)

[Jeffersonrion]

Hi;

As we have been announcing for the past week we have officially launched our new website and are in the process of migrating to it. We are phasing out the yahoo groups immediately. There are a few Coordinators who have not yet created a group, this is the last call to existing State Coordinators to move to our new site and take control of their group. If you would like to maintain a presence on Yahoo as well as our new web site that will be your prerogative. In either event existing State Chair Coordinators should go to our web site immediately and create their state groups and start receiving your members.

[jemuf]

Hi;

As we have been announcing for the past week we have officially launched our new website and are in the process of migrating to it. We are phasing out the yahoo groups immediately. There are a few Coordinators who have not yet created a group, this is the last call to existing State Coordinators to move to our new site and take control of their group. If you would like to maintain a presence on Yahoo as well as our new web site that will be your prerogative. In either event existing State Chair Coordinators should go to our web site immediately and create their state groups and start receiving your members.

What is the new website?