RP Booths at Iowa County Fairs

[IDefendThePlatform]

Yeah I don't think we push them to attend the straw poll, unless the county is within ~1 hour of Ames. But I do think that a lot of people will be interested and will be willing to provide contact info, which is all we need to get the ball rolling. We can always send them a couple e-mails asking them to attend the straw poll, and detailing transportation options for them.

Yeah good call.

 

[malkusm]

I appreciate all the work - is there any way we could get the list prioritized in some way? Maybe population of the county, to start. If you don't have time, I'll try to do it later this week. I just think that we should have it ordered in a way that we can sign up volunteers and get them to the locations that are the biggest "bang for our buck."

 

[eduardo89]

I appreciate all the work - is there any way we could get the list prioritized in some way? Maybe population of the county, to start. If you don't have time, I'll try to do it later this week. I just think that we should have it ordered in a way that we can sign up volunteers and get them to the locations that are the biggest "bang for our buck."

I'd make two lists. Size of fair and proximity to Ames. Then cross reference.

 

[malkusm]

I'd make two lists. Size of fair and proximity to Ames. Then cross reference.

I had been thinking date, in terms of "time between fair and straw poll." If we had all 3 lists I could probably use some statistical method to rank them all

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

I appreciate all the work - is there any way we could get the list prioritized in some way? Maybe population of the county, to start. If you don't have time, I'll try to do it later this week. I just think that we should have it ordered in a way that we can sign up volunteers and get them to the locations that are the biggest "bang for our buck."

Yeah I think thats a good idea. I'm on it.

 

[eduardo89]

I had been thinking date, in terms of "time between fair and straw poll." If we had all 3 lists I could probably use some statistical method to rank them all

Ah yes, date of course needs to be taken into account. Target the biggest fairs in July that are within 1.5 hours of Ames I'd say. Gun shows too.

 

[FluxCapacitor]

I think it would also be good to have some copies of Liberty Defined for sale at each of these fairs. People will read that and pass it along to their friends and generate interest.

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

Prob the best one to start would be the Des Moines Gun Show on June 24-26 in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fair grounds.
Not sure about its attendance, but its in the biggest city, closest to Ames and has a sympathetic audience since its a gun show.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

I like this site/list better:

http://www.countyfairgrounds.net/iowa/iowa.php

The targeting is a little short sighted here. There are 2 targets: The Straw Poll which just gets us electability creds nationwide and the PRIMARY which is what really counts! We won't have another chance to reach this many people before the primary, this easily again.

Ranking by cost would be another way to look at things.

In general:
The bigger the fair, the longer it runs and the more expensive booth space is.
Bigger fairs sell out of booth space sooner. Sometimes you can strike a deal with a political party or the RNC to share booth space if it's sold out - we did this last time.
Staffing is one of the biggest problems.

While we are at it, one of the best ways to get access to PRIMARY voters is a week after the straw poll. I'm referring to putting up a table during orientation week on college and university campuses. Sometimes you have to be an exiting on campus organization to do this, and sometimes not.

-t

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

Prob the best one to start would be the Des Moines Gun Show on June 24-26 in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fair grounds.
Not sure about its attendance, but its in the biggest city, closest to Ames and has a sympathetic audience since its a gun show.

Go to some early ones and if you can find vendors that really like RP, ask if they will put some lit on their table about him and if so give them a box full. They go from show to show.

 

[malkusm]

I think it would also be good to have some copies of Liberty Defined for sale at each of these fairs. People will read that and pass it along to their friends and generate interest.

Good idea!

I like this site/list better:

http://www.countyfairgrounds.net/iowa/iowa.php

The targeting is a little short sighted here. There are 2 targets: The Straw Poll which just gets us electability creds nationwide and the PRIMARY which is what really counts! We won't have another chance to reach this many people before the primary, this easily again.

Ranking by cost would be another way to look at things.

In general:
The bigger the fair, the longer it runs and the more expensive booth space is.
Bigger fairs sell out of booth space sooner. Sometimes you can strike a deal with a political party or the RNC to share booth space if it's sold out - we did this last time.
Staffing is one of the biggest problems.

While we are at it, one of the best ways to get access to PRIMARY voters is a week after the straw poll. I'm referring to putting up a table during orientation week on college and university campuses. Sometimes you have to be an exiting on campus organization to do this, and sometimes not.

-t

True, we need to scout out what the cost might be for each of these. I think it's a very worthy project, but a very big one to take on comprehensively. I'll be willing to help starting this upcoming week (I'm just finishing up my final exams presently). If we can get contact info for these fairs and ask how much a booth runs at each, as well as estimated size of the fair, that would be very useful info....

Go to some early ones and if you can find vendors that really like RP, ask if they will put some lit on their table about him and if so give them a box full. They go from show to show.

Another great idea! +rep to the both of you.

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

The contact info and estimated attendance can be found by clicking on the individual counties from the website I linked in the OP. Pretty much every fair has a website with attendance and either an email or phone number to contact about booth rental. Most of the attendances range between 7,500 and 40,000 from the ten or fifteen I've looked into so far. And I tried to prioritize them in red in the first op based on the criteria you guys were posting: size, early date, proximity to Ames. But like I said I've only checked about fifteen so far and there are 106 plus the gun shows.

Has anyone here done fair/gun show booths before? Who can we contact about making the banners? I'm assuming ronpaul2012.com will start selling some literature soon for us to use.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

I've done fair booths before.

Some things to consider:
costs can vary a lot. One I was looking at cost $250 a day for a prime spot (building), a step down was $100 a day (also inside) and there were lesser spots. Some offer outdoor spots - that means BYO tent! This was for a fair that lasted 1-2 weeks. Can get expensive fast! Booth size can also vary along with pricing. Some are uniform throughout.

Another I was looking at cost $80 for the week, inside, and electricity was included. Most often electricity is an additional charge. Some have secure storage space you can rent, most don't. It's common but not guaranteed that they will rent tables and chairs - which really helps from the logistics end - otherwise you need a pickup at a min, but there are folding tables that fold in the middle and can conceivably fit in a car. Outdoor tents that are like 8'x8' we picked up for about $100 last time, but the sides were extra.

I saw one fair that was for CHILDREN! Might want to check what kind of fair you are dealing with.

When we called around last time, we found that some fairs DO NOT ALLOW POLITICAL BOOTHS!

We also found that most fairs (in this state) were sold out of booth space by this time of year. Some were not. Then again, we only have 7 counties and Iowa has tons - so that may be different. State Fair booth space sells out before the first o the year.

As to literature, the campaign just shipped it out to us from the beginning to fairly late in the campaign, and then started charging for it. I should note that I run Meetups, and they may not for just any supporter asking for it. Their charging for it toward the end, all of a sudden, didn't work really well as most of us were maxed out on donations and buying from the campaign store counts to your donation limit.

Banner making is pretty well established. Coroplast, spray paint, grommets, etc. There are youtubes available on it. The very few that were made last time commercially on vinyl were very, very expensive.

Seriously - your main concern is staffing booths! Finding volunteers to cover all shifts can be difficult, more so if the fair is 150 miles from nowhere. Consider possible costs of renting a motel room and food if it's not an easy commute.

All fairs have rules about being set up by X time in the morning so you are not setting up when people are walking through and you have to have your booth secured and packed if you put anything away by a certain time in the evening. It's very common for them to have rules about how/if you are allowed to mount things to back walls or booth partitions.

-t

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

A local making some calls could firm up some of this, but I recall motel rooms being much more reasonable in Iowa - maybe $40 or $50 a night. Say the volunteers are coming from Ames, and it's a couple of hour drive each way and they need to be there 10am to 10pm. The gas is going to be bad enough, out and back once.

I use to do catering for conventions, and we charged $10 a chair per day and $75 a table (round) that would seat 8. One of those places quoted $5 a table and $1 a chair and that was for the whole fair. I've picked up 8' folding tables, used for under $50, and seen new plastic ones in the same price range. Folding chairs (cheap) in the $10-12 range. This is to buy and they can be re-used. Remember, the truck/van vs car consideration when thinking rent or buy. They also only have so many tables/chairs available if you go rent.

So on the low end, we had $80 for a 3 day fair + $7 for furniture, and your covered. Except add in gas, lodging, and food - maybe $250-300 for that. This is most likely a small fair.

Now take that other one that lasted a week or two and charged $100-$250 a day per booth and everything was extra... well, that's a huge difference! Fair costs are the major expense, and lodging, etc are the minor ones. This, however is going to be a larger fair with many more people. But it could cost ~$4,000 to do it.

-t

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

A local making some calls could firm up some of this, but I recall motel rooms being much more reasonable in Iowa - maybe $40 or $50 a night. Say the volunteers are coming from Ames, and it's a couple of hour drive each way and they need to be there 10am to 10pm. The gas is going to be bad enough, out and back once.

I use to do catering for conventions, and we charged $10 a chair per day and $75 a table (round) that would seat 8. One of those places quoted $5 a table and $1 a chair and that was for the whole fair. I've picked up 8' folding tables, used for under $50, and seen new plastic ones in the same price range. Folding chairs (cheap) in the $10-12 range. This is to buy and they can be re-used. Remember, the truck/van vs car consideration when thinking rent or buy. They also only have so many tables/chairs available if you go rent.

So on the low end, we had $80 for a 3 day fair + $7 for furniture, and your covered. Except add in gas, lodging, and food - maybe $250-300 for that. This is most likely a small fair.

Now take that other one that lasted a week or two and charged $100-$250 a day per booth and everything was extra... well, that's a huge difference! Fair costs are the major expense, and lodging, etc are the minor ones. This, however is going to be a larger fair with many more people. But it could cost ~$4,000 to do it.

-t

Great advice, thanks tangent.

Some other numbers:
The average attendances of these fairs runs from 7,000 to 40,000 to 90,000 to 265,000 (Scott county, thanks Malkusm). The state fair in Des Moines is ~ 1 million over 11 days.

If Dr. P is polling at 10% in Iowa, that means a 40,000 person fair will have about 4,000 likely Ron Paul voters walking around. If some people get counted twice in attendance figures, and not everyone goes near the booths, that still probably means something like 1,000 Ron Paul voters walking past our booth. We do that at 10 fairs and get them all to Ames and we will absolutely dominate the straw poll.

 

[CaseyJones]

bump for more volunteers!

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

One last note on the state fair. It SHOULD be sold out by now, but that is the first # you should call. If they have ANYTHING, grab it! Even if it's behind the pig pens If they don't, ask to be put on a waiting list and try to find out if the RNC has a booth, or a libertarian group or something.

This is probably happening after the straw poll, but for the caucus/primary - where else are you going to be able to have contact with a third of the states population?

Seriously, the State Fair is priority #1!

-t

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

Wow good call tangent. I just checked and The Iowa State fair deadline is June 1st, so two weeks away! Have to check on cost and I'll get back with you.

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

shit, the state fair wants two references, with contacts, from other fairs or trade shows that I/we have done in 2010. I personally haven't done any, tangent you want to sign this form for me?

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

I did the footwork in 2007. No experience in 2010.

The RNC let us share their booth then, and I think we did one other county - but I didn't make those arrangements/sign those contracts.

See if you can get around it? I suspect someone doesn't like RP and is trying to dissuade you - try calling later in hopes of getting someone different, and if not ask for a manager or owner. They know we're a presidential campaign, so on a 4 year cycle. Requiring a ref from last year is something they know we can't provide. (call them on their tactic) You did tell them we are a grassroots presidential campaign, right?

If that doesn't work, I'd sugest becoming very familiar with anything they have online, and getting to know a reporter with the Des Moines paper... also ask if any other candidates have booths there - because they shouldn't have been able to meet that requirement either.