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/
