Email Database and The Grassroots HQ: Tick,Tock,Tick,Tock......

[goldenequity]

Exactly.

I think where we need a "command and control" is for sharing ideas. We have some great ideas on this board, but how to easily get them to 30,000 plus MeetUp groups?

THEN let the MeetUp groups (and their 30,000 members) decide how to use the info/ideas they are sent. Just like how the federal guv does not know how to run local schools, one marketing idea that sounds great here may not be good for all parts of the country - or many people may not personally feel comfortable with doing a certain marketing idea.

So, I DON'T think we need a grassroots command and control for giving orders or implementing ideas, but WE really do need a centralized way to deciminate all the great info and ideas we have on this board, or hear about from certain MeetUp groups, so EVERY MeetUp group can quickly get the idea/concept and then decide if and how they want to implement it. I would also suggest beefing up regional MeetUp communication, but having centralized communication would get everybody on board.

So, no big bosses of the grassrooots (except to manage the communications process), BUT what we need is better communication and ways to share info with 30,000 (and growing daily) people FAST.

If we were to have a nationwide idea, the way to do it is let ALL the MeetUp groups know at the same time and let it happen spontaneously. That is the key to grassroots - it has to be a groundswell of people WANTING to do something as opposed to being told to do something.

You said it better than I...... sorry if it seemed otherwize.

 

[tmg19103]

Thanks Golden. I have to go get some work done, but I for one would be happy ot be part of a communications team to help get ideas out to all the MeetUps and any other grassroots. Not evreybody reads this board from the MeetUps - especially the new ones that pop-up each day.

Let's brainstorm on what needs to be done to get info to the MeetUps FAST and at the same time.

 

[Ninja Homer]

well, perhaps we should just have a poll to vote on the "focus of the month" for meetup members nationwide - with the results posted on ALL meetup groups or here on the message board.

Like, letters to the editor. Creative fundraisers. Seeking endorsements. Educating local public officials and party members. Concerted nationwide sign blitzes. National print, radio, or TV advertisements. College campuses. and so on.

Of course, sign making and so on will just be considered an on-going effort, besides the "focus of the month"

We could also set up a fundraising quota and our own countdown ticker, since people complain the official HQ doesnt have one.

I don't think we need *too* much organization - just something we can all agree to focus our efforts on. Local efforts are good for local groups. Sign-making and waving is good for everyone. But big projects need to have a national focus.

just my thoughts.

Well put. Meetups work great for local efforts, but lines of communication need to be established for uniting meetup groups on national issues and action items. There's no reason to try to move from meetup to some big unified thing. Just build on what we already have.

Just throwing out an idea... How about setting up a forum here just for meetup leaders? It could either be set up as private or so that only meetup leaders can post, but others can read it. Then a secondary forum could be set up for everybody else's constructive criticism and creative ideas for what the meetup leaders are planning.

To further the open source analogy, meetups are like offshoots of a project to add features or fix specific bugs. However, open source projects always have a central place like at sourceforge.net with a bug list, what projects are being worked on, what features are planned for the future, documentation, etc. The grassroots needs to set up a central place like this on their own, because it has to be separate from the official campaign. I don't think it needs leadership or command, it just needs some people to hold it together and keep it organized.

 

[robatsu]

I think centralized communications networks are good for rapidly spreading word to distributed groups, although there is the risk of communication overload.

The most valuable part of a comprehensive comm network is the ability to solicit members of local groups for projects that have national, or at least greater than local, scope. If people then want to sign on, cool. Ultimately, there may have to be some sort of gatekeeper, or digg mechanism, etc, to keep such a network from becoming overloaded with random half baked ideas.

You see this in, for example, in Apache, where certain ideas have to get enough traction before they become official projects.

Perhaps there could be a forum where project ideas are posted for incubancy, if they get enough diggs/votes, etc, that promotes them to some level before they would be be transmitted to a nationwide network - it would be up to individual project constituencies to develop enough support for their idea to prove that it was worthy. Without this impedance, filtering, a nationwide network with unlimited access would just become spam, and with it, you get things that you know have some traction already.

 

[constituent]

hasn't there already been a thread about someone out there trying to bill themselves as the "official" national meetup... you know trying to tell people what projects to work on... etc...

yea, i'm pretty sure there has been... might UTSE on this one.

 

[robatsu]

There are two pieces to this.

The first is just some giant mail list, or distribution mechanism, the second is a piece that moderates what would get distributed.

For a lite weight first pass, here is a proposal:

1) Put together a mail list of at least 1 person per meetup, or the organizer, so we can let them know what we are proposing, which is essentially asking them to post to their meetup lists things that will occasionally be transmitted globally. Explain also what is described below:

2) Set up a topic area on this forum where people post new project ideas. Each project idea has to have as part of it, a poll. When the project reaches some threshold and/or percentage, or some additional acceptance criteria, it could then be distributed to the meetups for further solicitation either via the organizers, or direct mailing. The project sponsors would have all responsibility for getting a proposal to a point where it would qualify for national distribution/solicitation

The idea in this is that ronpaulforums (or some other site) is an incubator. This would be really easy to set up and get running quickly, and we don't have a lot of time/resources for some huge organization to do this.

Comments?

 

[constituent]

How about you just make sure that all meetup groups are aware of this site. then they can come here and contribute.. if someone sees an idea they like then they add to, subtract from, etc. and then go out and do it, rather than wait for some seal of approval from some 'leader' or 'organizer.' that's the beauty part of things the way they are...

oh yea.. and it's working, that helps.

 

[DjLoTi]

I think this is a good idea. If I could, I'd like to make my radio station a part of such effort. Just think... 2 HQs!

And here's the thing... the RP HQ can only do so much because of laws. The 'Grassroots' HQ has much more freedom and flexibility. I think it's a great idea. People like to complain about 'management', but the fact is, everything we do is managed by one thing or another. The hardest part is getting really motivated people who have enough time and energy to do something like this. This will require a team.

My radio station could be like their media broadcast. I think that'd be fun.

I think this should really be pursued, and I would like to be a part of it, though my radio station takes up so much time/effort that I can only contribute in a limited way.

 

[robatsu]

How about you just make sure that all meetup groups are aware of this site. then they can come here and contribute.. if someone sees an idea they like then they add to, subtract from, etc. and then go out and do it, rather than wait for some seal of approval from some 'leader' or 'organizer.' that's the beauty part of things the way they are...

oh yea.. and it's working, that helps.

None of this is to say that any of the existing workings would be replaced. It would be providing an additional channel for soliciting support or communicating about projects. The only seal of approval for using such a channel is not some ego bound leader, but neutral criteria of viability so that a bigger channel doesn't get clogged with spam and thereby become irrelevant to recipients.

The way to get most meetups informed: First, publicize it on this forum, probably most meetups have at least one member who reads this, publicize that we're setting up a grass roots comm network and looking for points of contact in local meetups that would be relay points for info.

 

[goldenequity]

So far so good! What next?

roxic27

"Here’s the gist of it. The FEC (Federal Election Commission) has a code of rules and regulations that apparently makes the IRS codebook look like nursery rhymes. And, because other groups are not, shall we say, encouraging our campaign it is especially important that we follow the code to perfection. The code mostly deals with money - how it is received by the campaign, how it is used, etc. The tricky part for grassroots campaigns is that our activities must clearly be separate (in general) from the National campaign or someone is gonna end up in a little prison cell with a roommate named Bubba.

What they explained to us is this: They hate it, but they have to live by it. They want, they need for us to do what we’re doing and do more of it.

Do you see what this means? It means we don’t have to wait on the national organization to make decisions. We don’t have to feel stymied because we don’t know what they want. The truth is this: they can’t tell us! It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s just that they aren’t allowed to. So, you and I can promote Dr. Paul with our best efforts. We can coordinate with each other and help each other as we have been doing. And we can do more of it.

That’s the only direction we really need. In the end, there are two campaigns - national and grassroots."​

cujothekitten Moderator

"This should probably be done. One massive mailing list would make communication a lot easier."​

robatsu

"Ultimately, there may have to be some sort of gatekeeper, or digg mechanism, etc, to keep such a network from becoming overloaded with random half baked ideas."

"You see this in, for example, in Apache, where certain ideas have to get enough traction before they become official projects."

"develop enough support for their idea to prove that it was worthy. Without this impedance, filtering, a nationwide network with unlimited access would just become spam, and with it, you get things that you know have some traction already."

"The way to get most meetups informed: First, publicize it on this forum, probably most meetups have at least one member who reads this, publicize that we're setting up a grass roots comm network and looking for points of contact in local meetups that would be relay points for info."

"There are two pieces to this......The first is just some giant mail list, or distribution mechanism, the second is a piece that moderates what would get distributed."
​

tmg19103

"I for one would be happy ot be part of a communications team to help get ideas out to all the MeetUps and any other grassroots."

"I think where we need a "command and control" is for sharing ideas. We have some great ideas on this board, but how to easily get them to 30,000 plus MeetUp groups?"

"THEN let the MeetUp groups (and their 30,000 members) decide how to use the info/ideas they are sent. "

"what we need is better communication and ways to share info with 30,000 (and growing daily) people FAST."

"let ALL the MeetUp groups know at the same time and let it happen spontaneously. That is the key to grassroots - it has to be a groundswell of people WANTING to do something as opposed to being told to do something."​

ghemminger

"HQ set me an email list of 400+RP leaders I have available"
​

pwnsey

"I'm willing to get some money together to run a sever capable of handling this if someone gets the database and scripts together."​

DjLoTi

"I think this is a good idea. If I could, I'd like to make my radio station a part of such effort."

"The 'Grassroots' HQ has much more freedom and flexibility. This will require a team."​

 

[Ninja Homer]

Declare and Establish a GRASSROOTS HQ and nominate the LEADER (Lord Xar and others have shown MUCH capability and desire) .
Pay them.

Sorry, but it just struck me how funny it would be to have somebody named "Lord Xar" as the Ron Paul grassroots HQ leader.

No offense to Lord Xar, but I'm sure you can appreciate the irony.

 

[LibertyEagle]

...

 

[Scribbler de Stebbing]

I strongly suggest that we fight the urge to centralize the grassroots campaign. There is already one centralized campaign -- the official campaign. Let them take the lead on things that require centralized focus.

Our strength is decentralism. Someone suggests an idea. If people like it, it gets funded and takes off. If not, it dies on the vine.

These approaches are not in conflict -- they complement each other. Let each aspect of the campaign do what they do best.

I was going to say the same thing. Ron Paul supporters are not lovers of bureaucracy; they do not like being told what to do. I, for one, like to take on my own projects without direction and would NOT be productive under orders from command.

There may be some beneficial aspects which could be organized, such as email lists. But that seems to be handled pretty well via the Meetups. If everyone would continue to encourage supporters to join the meetups, that would ensure that important action items make it down the pipeline to all.

Edit to say: now that I've finished reading the posts, it sounds like this is the direction you're taking. Good. Improved communication, not top-down directives.

 

[LibertyEagle]

I watched Jennifer's effort to alert "all" meetups to her College campus blitz idea.

It was an awsome effort by her and forum members....but was excruciating to watch.

Things that absolutely need to happen: (Military calls it the 3 "C's")

COMMAND
CONTROL
COMMUNICATION​

Every organizational/military strategy is firmly built on those 3 foundations.
So..... we FLAIL AND STUMBLE UNTIL AND UNLESS:

COMMAND
a GRASSROOTS HQ is established and supported ($$$)

CONTROL
the GRASSROOTS HQ coordinates and delegates

COMMUNICATION
a 32,000+ (protected) database of email and cell #'s established with the COMMAND.


PLAN: Declare and Establish a GRASSROOTS HQ and nominate the LEADER (Lord Xar and others have shown MUCH capability and desire) .
Pay them.
Setup HQ website and have all MEETUPS register to the site with emails/tele's.

I see "frustration" posts and threads popping up (again)......
It's getting late.....don't cha think..... WHO and WHEN is this going to happen?
.

I support this 100%. I'm not sure who should be tapped as the coordinators. Nor, do I think there should just be one. In my opinion, we need a team to devise strategy, composed of people in various areas. For example, marketing, financial, a couple of people with a large amount of campaign experience, an attorney, IT professional, etc. Once an overall strategy is devised at this level, subsequent plans need to be developed to support that strategy and then implemented.

 

[constituent]

what i love is that 3 or 4 people plug this same idea thread after thread after thread... and no matter how many people chime in stating that this is a bad idea, their voice is ignored. typical authoritarian garbage.

wish you well though... just don't claim to represent those you don't. (again refer to the "national meetup group" threads, i'd link but there are several out there). don't call yourself the grassroots hq, b/c you won't be... you'll be one faction's hq, which is fine.

Just make sure that this fact is abundantly clear, particularly if you stand to benefit monetarily.

 

[DjLoTi]

I support this 100%. I'm not sure who should be tapped as the coordinators. Nor, do I think there should just be one. In my opinion, we need a team to devise strategy, composed of people in various areas. For example, marketing, financial, a couple of people with a large amount of campaign experience, an attorney, IT professional, etc. Once an overall strategy is devised at this level, subsequent plans need to be developed to support that strategy and then implemented.

Liberty Eagle, you speak the truth. Lets get this going. If in any way my radio station can help with this effort, I'm more then willing to work with people to get this going. I'm serious, we should do this. If people don't like it, and they don't agree, that's fine. My parents told me my fixation on my radio station was unhealthy. They thought I should stop.. but I knew it was a good idea. I think this is also a good idea, and is going to require some big players in their respective field. I think it should be done, and could be a major boost in a number of ways. It could really make us stronger. Once again, I can't manage this, the radio station is enough work, but because of the radio station I do know that something like this is going to require a lot of work and probably won't get up and running until like... September (if you guys really work it hard).

You guys have my full support on this, and I hope you find the right people to really help take this thing off.

 

[goldenequity]

More and Faster:

One of the obvious benefits to having the 32,000 database for example:

When someone is accruing support and nods on this forum on their "creation".... (a grassroots radio spot/TV ad/newspaper insert/locale DVD),.....

donations (unlimited, NO $2,300 cap!!!!) can be solicitated almost immediately via Paypal (or whatever) and the request immediately targets the exact geographic support base. Not every willing supporter MONITERS this forum.....isn't that the point?????
P.S.---- I'm NOT SAYING the donations are "channeled" through an HQ.....the monies go direct from donor to the project creator....like they have been..... i.e. monies to Lord Xar's project account that enabled the Ames Mosaic AD success.

I know..... not rocket science.... but this powerful equalizer is MISSING folks in our fight against the Main Stream Media bias and censorship.

This "Campaign message brought to you by Concerned Citizens for Ron Paul" thing has such enormous potential....... and WE ARE ON OUR OWN.... Official HQ doesn't even want to "know" about it.

Peace

 

[LibertyEagle]

what i love is that 3 or 4 people plug this same idea thread after thread after thread... and no matter how many people chime in stating that this is a bad idea, their voice is ignored. typical authoritarian garbage.

wish you well though... just don't claim to represent those you don't. (again refer to the "national meetup group" threads, i'd link but there are several out there). don't call yourself the grassroots hq, b/c you won't be... you'll be one faction's hq, which is fine.

Just make sure that this fact is abundantly clear, particularly if you stand to benefit monetarily.

LOL! Mostly, it's just you whining.

 

[Lord Xar]

Hahahaha.. I can be known as "Dean".... not Lord Xar... hehheeh


Anyways, Jennifer had great ideas - the orginal poster had great ideas etc...

The thing is this... This is my take.

You have a central grassroots campaign in which those involved work together. Nobody is in charge per se' but we all coordinate together. No egos, no agendas... majority vote rules. If anything comes down to a vote.

You divide the united states into regions. Each Region has a representative from the 'said group' - 2 people per region. but only one vote per region.

So, each regions representatives will gather, maintain and inform the meetups that fall WITHIN their regions.

I can set up the site and get the hosting, that is not a big deal, what we need is representatives. Also, lets talk about how to divide the regions.

hmmm.. good idea/bad idea?

actually, let me set this up tonight.. I will set up the site to maintain this.. I will use one of my current domains.. since this is informational and a base of operations only, then we don't need a "unique domain" name....

ALSO, please note that the bureacracy will ONLY fall within this command strucutre and those who want to take part. So, if the majority of Ron Paul supporters do not like to be part of a cohesive unit, that is okay. We are just getting out information. And if certain regions take to an idea moreso than others, that is okay. Better some than none.

 

[LibertyEagle]

I was going to say the same thing. Ron Paul supporters are not lovers of bureaucracy; they do not like being told what to do. I, for one, like to take on my own projects without direction and would NOT be productive under orders from command.

No command. I think what we're talking about here is a team who devises strategy. We of course, would have to agree to that strategy, for us to be willing to be involved in creating the tactical plans and implementing them.

There may be some beneficial aspects which could be organized, such as email lists. But that seems to be handled pretty well via the Meetups. If everyone would continue to encourage supporters to join the meetups, that would ensure that important action items make it down the pipeline to all.

Think about when we were trying to send out emails to all of the Meetup organizers and how we had to get several people engaged to even cover 1/2 of them, due to the 25 emails per month max in Meetup. I know you were helping with that. Or, how about when Jennifer was trying to do the same with her University idea? I couldn't even assist her, because I was maxed out. I think she finally found the people, but it was an ALL DAY EFFORT to do so and I mean, ALL DAY. If we had the ability to contact at least all the meetup organizers all at one time, probably around 18 hours would have been saved on that one task alone. Or, how about when we were doing the last ad, I would have loved to have sent out an email asking everyone to please upload their pictures, so we wouldn't have had so many dups. But, I couldn't. I couldn't even send it to 25 meetup organizers, because I was still locked out from the fundraising for the 1st series of ads we did.

What about a repository for high resolution video? How many times have we heard people on here griping that the only video they could get was from YouTube and the quality was horrible? If we're going to get past this, we are going to have to take some kind of action.