RP Booths at Iowa County Fairs

The Rand Fans were a huge hit. At the 2010 KY State Fair, we went through like 4 boxes of them, and it seemed like every 6th person had one.

But getting literature and supplies from the campaign was like pulling teeth. In 2009 it was flat available (the campaign hadn't settled on designs, and didn't want to spend the money.) The grassroots had to provide almost everything, and couldn't keep it in stock... finally one of the campaign people broke ranks and funded a bunch of tshirts without permission.

By 2010, Rand had become a phenomenon, and even though the campaign supported the state fair effort, it cleaned out all the supplies in the entire state!!!

County fairs won't be as active or demanding, for sure, but they are effective and this project is a VERY worthwhile! It would be awesome if most fairs got covered. Folks in NH, NV, SC, FL etc. should consider emulating it.

I unfortunately I'm not in a position to donate much money, but I will be writing to friends in Iowa to ask them to get involved. I also have a 12' x 12' tent and some tables I could lend to the effort, but I'm in KY... not sure if it will be any use, but contact me if it would be!

Awesome thanks for the advice. I think Ron Fans would be a big hit here as well.

What's the tent look like? 12x12 sounds good to me, how high is it? I was going to get a 10x10, but a couple extra feet wouldn't hurt. Might be kinda tough to ship though.

I also think fairs can be an extremely effective recruitment tool. They bring tons of people to you in a short amount of time, but they are still low pressure sales environments because the people come up to you at your booth.

Would definitely like to see this get going in every state this summer, but especially the early ones. The next few months are our only shot at these fairs between now and the election. The nomination could potentially be won or lost in the next 2-3 months. We need to get this going everywhere we possibly can.
 
What's the tent look like? 12x12 sounds good to me, how high is it? I was going to get a 10x10, but a couple extra feet wouldn't hurt. Might be kinda tough to ship though.

My mistake, it is 10x10. Peak height 9.25 feet. And it looks similar to the one you posted on page 7. Identical in fact. ;) Maybe I could send it up if anyone from KY volunteers, otherwise it's probably not worth the expense of shipping... it was only $80 or so. Just thought I'd mention it in case!
 
If there's a group that's going to be at any of these fairs in Allamakee or Winneshek just let me know and then I can come in to help out.
 
All of the arm bands, fans, balloons and goodies in the world does not change hearts. Those are the badges of those who have been converted. I think it is human nature to want to go straight for the cake. Truth is that the most important thing is "Content." In the internet marketing world there is a saying, "Content is King." It is true! The Ron Paul motivational movie theater tent with educational information is the content. The armbands, balloons, stickers and such are the badges of those who have already been converted.
 
Sounds fun. I might be able to help in the NE corner. Here's what I've been working on. If it looks like I can help, please let me know.

Awesome website. Looks like a lot of good educational material.

Can I put you down to help BadgerPaul with Allamakee and Winnishiek counties then? This sounds like it might actually work out yet. We'll keep looking and hopefully find you guys at least a 3rd or a 4th as well.
 
Cool so someone will get the application submitted?

I gotta check out this yahoo group I guess!

Yeah I'm sending in the app for the booth momentarily. Not sure about any parade?

I also just posted this on the Des Moines C4L Meetup group, which has 160 members. So hopefully we can get some volunteers from there as well.
 
Bad news. Just got an email from the Iowa State Fair booth rental guy and apparently their policy is to only allow booths for political parties, not individual candidates. So, I'll call the state GOP and see if they are getting one, maybe even suggest it but our only chance would be to piggyback on their's and hand out literature from a Republican Party booth.

I'll check with the float people, too. Maybe we could still do one of those.
 
Bad news. Just got an email from the Iowa State Fair booth rental guy and apparently their policy is to only allow booths for political parties, not individual candidates. So, I'll call the state GOP and see if they are getting one, maybe even suggest it but our only chance would be to piggyback on their's and hand out literature from a Republican Party booth.

I'll check with the float people, too. Maybe we could still do one of those.

That's what we ended up doing last time. The GOP let each candidate have people at their booth, and most didn't or only partially staffed it. I believe we had someone there 100% of the time. It made a difference.

We also had a presence near one of the entrances with a RP painted van and got to interact with lots of people coming and going. It worked out well and cost us nothing beyond materials.

-t
 
Awesome thanks for the advice. I think Ron Fans would be a big hit here as well.

What's the tent look like? 12x12 sounds good to me, how high is it? I was going to get a 10x10, but a couple extra feet wouldn't hurt. Might be kinda tough to ship though.

I also think fairs can be an extremely effective recruitment tool. They bring tons of people to you in a short amount of time, but they are still low pressure sales environments because the people come up to you at your booth.

Would definitely like to see this get going in every state this summer, but especially the early ones. The next few months are our only shot at these fairs between now and the election. The nomination could potentially be won or lost in the next 2-3 months. We need to get this going everywhere we possibly can.

I really think the fans need to say "Ron Paul", not just "Ron", I don't know if you meant to put just "Ron" from what you said. 'Rand' is a much more unusual name, and in Kentucky there was NO doubting who was meant. In Iowa Ron has 70%+ name recognition but there are still lots of 'Ron's', and we want there to be no mistake :D
 
That's what we ended up doing last time. The GOP let each candidate have people at their booth, and most didn't or only partially staffed it. I believe we had someone there 100% of the time. It made a difference.

We also had a presence near one of the entrances with a RP painted van and got to interact with lots of people coming and going. It worked out well and cost us nothing beyond materials.

-t

That's good in a sense, because it would introduce Ron to people who might not come to a 'Ron Paul' booth because they don't know him (although the fans are a draw, in themselves.)
 
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