Operation Cat Herder

[tangent4ronpaul]

Welcome to Operation Cat Herder

The project is launching - go to:

http://OperationCatHerder.com/wiki2/


As a movement, we have several serious problems:

[1] We are not all talking to each other
[2] We don't know who we all are
[3] We are loosing supporters, organizers and Meetups
[4] We lack a corporate memory

*Please give us 15 minutes of your time, and maybe more if you are interested in a bigger part.*

To address these issues, Operation Cat Herder was created. Dr. Paul has stated that beyond the upcoming states and the delegate process he wants us to transition into a long term movement. What exactly his plans are in this regard is anybodies guess – he hasn't announced them yet. What is clear is that we don't have a well oiled and tuned movement to give him.

There is a lot of responsibility and leadership sitting on the table here, just waiting for someone to pick it up. A lot of someones. We need people to show initiative, pick a corner they want to work on and run with it. It is a very distributed effort. We are here to provide tools, outline a direction and NOT to micromanage anything.

[1] Get all the known organizers talking and in the same loops on a national basis
[1a] Bridge the 3 organizer groups (158/511/RPMO) – done (158 should be bridged in a week)
[1b] Conference calls – 511 and RPMO both used to have a weekly conference call,
we need to re-establish these on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. - started, next call 4/18
[1c] Establish a opt-in organizer directory that will only be available to those listed. - pending


[2] Get the rest of the organizers on board and map out Ron Paul space.
[2a] Contact and invite all the organizers that are not part of the bridge or Alliance to join us. That's over
half of them. - ongoing
[2b] Contact all the organizers that are part of either the bridge or the Alliance and ask them to join the other.
There is very little overlap. - pending
[2c] Update state group list and make sure all organizers in a state know about their local one. - ongoing


[3] Supporter networking and migration away from Meetup – or more often, migrating to bigger Meetups in their
area. - This is a ongoing distributed, local effort – we just want to know where you end up and what Meetups
are being phased out so we can add the information to roadmap sites.
[3a] Adopt a Meetup project for maintaining Meetup presence through November, staggered migration away
from Meetup and Group consolidation within states. - ongoing
[3b] Adopt a Social Networking Site project to map and organize State groups on MySpace and Facebook, etc.
[3c] Map other Ron Paul resources: web sites, blogs, suppliers, chat systems, etc. and refer to road map
sites, as above – pending
[3d] Map special resources groups and network people, as above. Video, Artists, Bands, etc. - starting
These people are our most valuable resources!

We currently have contact information for about half the organizers and somewhat less than that are members of one of the 3 organizer groups or Meetup Alliance. This is a easy and quick job that we need a lot of volunteers for – please step up! Write to OperationCatHerder@gmail.com and we will send you a list of 25 Meetups that we don't have contact info for the organizer of. Go to each Meetup and click on “contact the organizer”, and cut and paste this message (what you are reading) into the mail, add a title “Operation Cat Herder” or something, and click send. Then do the next one. It should take you about 15 minutes tops. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO DO THIS! - we need 30-40 people.

Feeling a bit more ambitious? We need to map out and organize Ron Paul space. Avery and I are doing Meetup, Kevin is working on Facebook, Yahoo is done, we need people to take on MySpace, Youtube and anywhere else we have a presence. Web sites, blogs, special skills – artists, promoters, meteorologists, programmers, bands, pilots and so on. If you want to step up, we can point you to known habitats for these folks. If you have special skills, or have someone in your Meetup that does – please write and tell us about them. We are trying to develop “go to” lists. Websites, blogs and Social Networking Sites state groups are encouraged to join http://www.meetupalliance.com/RonPaul2008/

If you are a Meetup organizer or assistant organizer and do not belong to one of the 3 organizer groups or Meetup Alliance, please join the other or both. The organizer groups are bridged, so a post to one goes to the others – so just join one of them. (158 will be bridged in a week).

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/511/
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/158/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPMeetupOrganizers/
and/or
http://www.meetupalliance.com/RonPaul2008/

On state group lists – we are referring to Meetups or web sites, generally forums, that are used to communicate across the entire state. Some are organizer only, while others are open to any supporter. This list will be distributed and is another communication channel in addition to the mailing list and organizer groups/alliance and conference calls – giving us resilience and redundancy. The ability to route around communications problems.

[4] Establish a corporate memory

Here we are talking about searching the Ron Paul space and collecting expertise from people. The goal is to end up with a R3volution field manual written by the grassroots, for the grassroots. To preserve knowledge before people and sites drift away for future use. Mike Esler is setting up a Wiki to aid in this and for other project purposes. A message forum may be added later.

We are looking for people to take on pieces of this, form teams and find or put to pixel all the HOW-TO's we have learned in the past year and 3 months. We want to document the lessons learned, so we don't have to learn them again and can use that as a building point. Things like: making banners and stencils, Burma shaves, reaching out to special communities, infiltrating and taking over the GOP and DNC, the delegate process, setting up a Internet radio or TV station, remote broadcasts, working with audio and video (capture, embedding in web pages, post processing, transcription, compression settings, making YouTube video's, etc), getting ads on radio or TV, renting billboards, projection bombing, preparing fliers and getting them printed, DVD production, setting up call centers and auto-dialers, setting up PAC's, buying newspaper ads and how to read ad rate cards, event promotion, renting charter buses, getting permits for events and renting space, interacting with the media – both positive and negative ways, setting up and using an Advokit system, obtaining voter registration data and precinct maps, yard signs and t-shirts, tableing, voter registration drives and GOTV efforts, hiring a banner tower or a blimp – that kind of thing.

To volunteer, please e-mail us at: OperationCatHerder@gmail.com

[Kotin]

sounds interesting..


bump

[orlandoinfl]

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Originally Posted by orlandoinfl

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

Oh you are so right - like I have not been able to reach out to fund raise and get an aircraft to fly a banner over a debate in Florida, like I have not been able to network artists and writers to produce fliers that were printed and distributed in many states, like I wasn't able to get folks in multiple states to build floats and enter them in parades, etc...

/sarcasm

-n

[orlandoinfl]

Hey, if you can pull together a rag tag of half-hearted internet Ron Paul supporters in any meaningful way (ie doing something OTHER than typing their credit cards and refreshing ronpaulgraphs.com), more power to you brother.

I like the points you bring up, especially getting some big money donors. Of course, you know the Golden Rule, right? He who has the Gold makes the Rule.

[tangent4ronpaul]

blimp!

-n

[constituent]

truth be told, i think we're passed the era in human history where people are looking to be a part of something (anything really) on the long-term, excepting perhaps family.

people are more coalescing around certain events/people/causes and then dispersing, some regathering here, others over there.

i wouldn't expect anything different for the rpr. some will infiltrate the repub. party, some the democratic. many will return to the libertarian party, and others back to the greens. still others won't be involved in the political process but will take what they've learned to the dinner tables and coffee shops of america (the most important aspect, imo. i believe it is rp who said the politicians only respond to consensus/noise... we must individually work to manufacture consensus in whichever way we can).

[speciallyblend]

the problem is the gop,not ron paul supporters.. GET OVER IT

[rpfan2008]

Originally Posted by orlandoinfl

If nothing else, Ron Paul has proven that "virtual" communities are even more false than 'real-life' communities. All planning and organization must happen in the old skool fashion, face to face and local.

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

are you sure...?

I can give you a good example of what online communities can do..go here. This is a 3d movie project created only using free software and online funds, powered by a internet community of a free software called Blender.
If its possible to make/sell a full 3D animated movie without seeing all the people making it..what the OP wants here is not such a big deal imo.

[JS4Pat]

Originally Posted by orlandoinfl

Herding a bunch random internet people all across the country is an exercise in futility.

I disagree.

Although I understand the limitations of centralized control (especially given the nature of the membership of this group) I believe it is both possible and essential that there be some type of top down direction. The movement needs a leader, a name, a way to identify ourselves, a mission statement and some clearly articulated long and short term goals. There IS strength in numbers and good communication will be key to our success.

I applaud the efforts of both those just "making it happen" locally and those who are focusing on "herding cats".

I plan to do both. Here in North Florida I am helping organize the NE FL Republican Liberty Caucus - where we plan to educate, recruit and gain power for the movement with the Republican Party.

I am also interested in getting involved in any efforts on a national level that bring us together and facilitate better communication and a stronger organization as a whole.