wizardwatson
Member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
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The Grassroots Connect Initiative
Someone linked me here, what exactly am I supposed to do?
At this stage we are collecting emails in order to create the largest grassroots contact list in existence that is managed by the grassroots themselves. Your email will not be public or spammed and you can always remove yourself from the contact list by emailing the state coordinator for your area (see bottom). When the initiative is off the ground and we actually start sending out event information you may receive perhaps an email a week intially, it isn't really set in stone yet. All you need to do at this point is email (or PM via RPF) your name, primary email, city and state to your state coordinator listed below if you haven't already done so prior to this. The primary goal/benefit is that you'll be able to organize and be informed of events via one contact list and you won't need to scour and post to all the various social networks just to get information out. For more info please read on.
A couple things
First off, before I get people posting on here that we need to focus on RP2012 instead of doing things like what is described here, let me just say that this effort (in my opinion should have been done long ago) is not about the RP2012 campaign. It's not about any campaign for that matter. It's about what we, the grassroots, can do or should do in the aftermath of whatever happens after the campaign, win or lose.
Secondly, if you are not a Ron Paul supporter please read on. Maybe you don't support Ron Paul. Maybe you are an occupier or an independent or a democrat and someone linked you to this site/post and you feel a little hoodwinked. Don't. The R3VOLUTION-the grassroots movement-is not about Ron Paul it's about a message. That message is not for democrats, republicans, young or old, black or white. It is for everyone. I hope this post helps you understand what we are trying to do and how it can relate to where you are and what you believe in.
The R3VOLUTION
The R3VOLUTION (notice that 3VOL is love backwards if you're not familiar with the weird spelling) was coined as part of the Ron Paul movement which started back in '06/'07. But that movement is really part of a much larger movement that began long before Ron Paul. That movement is about a message. That message is about limited government, social justice, anti-corruption and corporatism, sound money, civil liberties, anti-war, anti-two party politics, and equality before the law among other things. If you've been around these forums this is nothing new. If you haven't been around these forums or part of the Ron Paul movement I encourage you to sign up and engage the community. All are welcome here.
Now the movement is at a critical juncture. We are soon to be without our leader Ron Paul and without a national campaign to rally around. The question is what are we going to do to keep the movement alive and growing. We've made a lot of progress and it would be a shame if everyone crawled back into their hidey-holes and wallowed in apathy. So to continue on what we need is leadership and a plan, and that's what this post aims to communicate and create.
Outreach
Before getting to the nuts and bolts I want to stress again that the movement is about more than Ron Paul or any national campaign. While the Ron Paul movement is quite large, nationally it's still a minority and we need to reach out to all groups of people who want to see some positive change in the social landscape. Even if you're not all that familiar with the "message" or what it means we still want you to be a part of the grassroots and engage with other people in the grassroots. The grassroots can be defined as anyone who sees something wrong with the status quo and wants to affect some change in the political realm or the in the realm of public opinion. The grassroots is not corporate sponsored, it has no anointed leader, it isn't tied to this party or that. Whether you are democrat or republican, whether you are an occupier or for free markets, I believe there is something to be gained by organizing in the manner described below even if we find it hard to agree on every issue (FYI not everyone on these forums agrees on every issue by a long shot, but we're still here together!).
GCI Overview
The overall goal is not that complex, and if it was it probably wouldn't work anyways. Basically the aim is to create the largest existing contact list of grassroots supporters collaboratively managed by the grassroots themselves. The purpose of which is to notify supporters of events and initiatives taking place in their local area that they are most likely and able to participate in. Another goal, no less important, is to get supporters to engage one another through a common social medium.
Email is the most basic and effective communication method and it is time tested. Not everyone participatees in this or that social network but nearly all people have an email not only via web but also on their phones. So in order to get relevant information out to local supporters an email list is the primary and necessary component. Campaigns have there email lists that they don't share. Meetup has a list. Facebook has your email. Many other bulletin boards and social networks we participate in have their own email lists, yet the grassroots doesn't have any unified way as of yet to get info out to the people it most relates to. This is elaborated in "Phase 1" below.
What about a social medium? Where do I go to have discussions with other people in my area? Basically this needs to be done by consensus. It doesn't make sense for, as an example, a 100 supporters here in Topeka, KS to be on Facebook, Twitter, CFL, Daily Paul, RPF, Meetup, and numerous other sites where their posts are lost in the echo chamber of the internet. So to get going I'm pushing for everyone to initially engage and discuss here at www.ronpaulforums.com (liberty forest). It is a large board with nearly 40,000 members, it is well moderated (if you are attacked, cussed at, berated, etc. there are moderators to help you out) and it has subforums dedicated to individual states. For more info about this read the "RPF and engagement" section below.
Phase 1
Phase 1 is simply to build the email list. We need someone (or some people) from each state to start mining for name, email, city, and state information for grassroots activists and supporters. To start with, as an RPF'er, you can go to the state level subforums and start PM'ing members from your state. After that you can join your local meetups and get contacts from there and also can start messaging members in your area at www.campaignforliberty.com (new website is .org). This is just a couple examples, there are other relevant sites and even some lists already compiled by other state-level organizations. We need to compile these. Let me know if you are doing this (collecting contact info) by emailing me (my email is below) or PM'ing me via RPF and I will add your name and email to the list below so supporters can email you directly. We will keep these lists on a shared google spreadsheet. One at first and then split them out by state as the list grows. Initially I will act as the primary coordinator so you can email me your lists and I will create the initial document and share the doc with those interested in being coordinators. We will keep a running tab of how many supporters we've amassed in this thread so people can see how the effort is growing. For now, to keep it simple, if you don't want to maintain a list for your own state, just email me everything, and I'll cry for help if it becomes too much work. Here is the email template I'm going to use, let me know if you think it can be improved:
SUBJECT: The Grassroots Connect Initiative
CONTENT:
Dear Grassroots Supporter,
There's currently an effort under way, of which I'm a part, to get all the grassroots activists and organizers on the same page as far as notifying individuals of events that are happening in their area, and collaborating and engaging each other on a single website. Right now we're just asking for email, name, city and state from activists which will be used to email you a compiled list of all activities and initiatives happening in your local area. Your email will not be shared with other organizations or made public and you can remove yourself from the list at any time.
Detailed info can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/7kyh7p9
A lot of us have realized that the grassroots needs its own contact list of supporters that is not controlled by any corporate organization or campaign headquarters where we have no voice and are simply an entry in their database. We need two-way communication not just one way. In addition we are trying to get a consensus among supporters as to where we should engage and collaborate with one another online. Right now we are pushing for activists to use www.ronpaulforums.com as that place so we encourage you to sign up for an account there and join the community (almost 40,000 members). Use the link above to give feedback on the project or to make suggestions for improvement (if you think there's a better place for your local supporters to converge online for instance).
At this stage we are still building the list and if you'd like to contribute to building the list see the link above for information on how to help. If you just want to collaborate and engage fellow supporters please visit www.ronpaulforums.com and post event ideas or grassroots building ideas in the grassroots central forum there or post in your individual state forum. There are plenty of supporters on there from all 50 states.
So please help us build our list and reply to this message (or visit the link above) with your name, email, city and state and you will be added to the list. To see how the list is growing check back at the link above for statistics. This is your list too, as much as anyone elses so I hope you will contribute. This initiative was just started on May 21, 2012 so don't be discouraged if things haven't taken off yet.
Thanks!
A fellow grassroots activist,
[YOUR NAME, EMAIL]
Phase 2
Phase 2 is where we start actually emailing supporters events and info specific to their area. I've outlined my general idea of how this could work in this thread. Please post your ideas there or on this thread for ways you think the idea could be improved or elaborated on. So while I don't know exactly how everything will be handled at this point the general idea is to have supporters email their coordinators for events and info that they want propagated to their local area supporters. Events could be anything from a grassroots candidate meet and greets, a moneybomb, a sign waving, a cookout or poker party, a strategy session, an occupy demonstration, etc. So anything really that could help achieve local goals or simply to "get to know your neighbor". All this notification is done through simple emails, while event details can be elaborated in the forums if space is a factor. For this phase, which won't go into effect until we have a substantial list-say 5000 or so nationally, I'm hoping to get some input from you others out there on the best ways we can put the list to use and share info about how to organize information and events and such.
Email, RPF, and engagement/feedback
I could say a lot in this section but will try to keep it short as this wall of text is probably already large enough to deter the faint of heart. Email in my opinion is the one thing that reaches out to people in the most effective manner. People know this. In my opinion that's why they only give out their primary email to groups or websites that they want important updates from. This initiative aims to be an important enough medium to qualify for that spot. Rather than a supporter being on the email list of 4 or 5 candidates email list, and a CFL list and a host of other grassroots lists, we give them updates for multiple initiatives in a single subscription-like email. We "push" the information out to supporters instead of them having to be everywhere on the web and "pull" relevant info. The benefits should be clear enough. However, email does not cover a lot of important bases. People need a place to collaborate and get feedback about how events are going, who else is out there, what else can I do, etc. In essence a place to expand their involvement. Facebook, Meetup, etc. provide that medium but in a disjointed way. We need to get away from activist diffusion and have activists in a certain area to be able to converge in a central medium. This can only be done via consensus. Everybody in the area needs to agree where to meet on the internet. I believe, and I'm pushing anyway, for www.ronpaulforums.com to be that place.
It has almost 40,000 members, it welcomes everyone, it has very good moderation, it provides a place to post event details, get feedback, connect with others in your area and a host of other benefits. What's more, I think it can be a very useful guidepost for the movement. Members here are active, passionate, and many have a "never give up" attitude. Essential things for true grassroots involvement. People here on the whole know the message appeals across the political spectrum. Sure there are a few drawbacks-nothing that can't be improved-like a few posters who too often throw around collective terms like "sheeple", "socialist", "statist", etc. but all in all, in my opinion, I haven't found a community this large that is more open to debating in a civil manner all points of view and who by and large believe in truth, non-violence, and doing what they can to affect real change. So if you aren't already a member I encourage you to engage the community and sign up. Whether or not you are a Paulite or a progressive or just your average American I encourage you to get involved here are talk about your ideas and ask questions. It's fun here, there are a lot of creative people, and we do want to make a difference in our town, state, country and world. End RPF plug.
Conclusion
Simple enough I think. Work to grow the email list at first with updated feedback on how the list is growing in order to get people psyched about the prospect of what we can do with it. Collaboratively maintain the list so one person isn't in charge of the whole list. No leader, no fixed plans, just grassroots activists engaging one another and being on the same page with ONE place to get all relevant info and post events for grassroots related agendas. In addition we promote www.ronpaulforums.com as a base of operations and one stop shop for information for grassroots activists to communicate and collaborate with one another so we're not all over the web and disconnected. How the emails will go out, what info will be acceptable for propagating, how many coordinators for each area, and other things can be ironed out in Phase 2 once we see that the listbuilding is viable. The point though of the whole project, and I think many will agree is this: WE NEED OUR OWN GRASSROOTS CONTACT LIST. A lot of people might think this is a great idea but might not be on board until they see that its working. So Phase 1, the beginning, is to build the list and go from there. A simple enough plan that's easy to get started and easy to chart our progress. Hope you will help. Feedback appreciated.
P.S.
Again please post feedback here on ideas we can use to help the effort or on this thread that I started last week on how the overall organization could be set up. It's kind of sketchy right now as I don't know how it will all come together and there is a lot of room for improvement and input. But this initial stage of gathering contact info is pretty straightforward. I will try to update this thread text as needed as things take shape. This is a long term effort but I think if it gets going we can have a incredible list and info propagation network in place to make a major impact in the 2014 elections and beyond. Time will tell.
Thanks again.
[CURRENT STATE LIST] Emails are listed phonetically to confuse bots. [email protected] "joe at web dot com"
Kansas wizardwatson wizardwatson at gmail dot com (David Watson, Topeka, KS)
I'm very lonely right now.
[ALL OTHER STATES]
wizardwatson wizardwatson at gmail dot com (David Watson, Topeka, KS)
Someone linked me here, what exactly am I supposed to do?
At this stage we are collecting emails in order to create the largest grassroots contact list in existence that is managed by the grassroots themselves. Your email will not be public or spammed and you can always remove yourself from the contact list by emailing the state coordinator for your area (see bottom). When the initiative is off the ground and we actually start sending out event information you may receive perhaps an email a week intially, it isn't really set in stone yet. All you need to do at this point is email (or PM via RPF) your name, primary email, city and state to your state coordinator listed below if you haven't already done so prior to this. The primary goal/benefit is that you'll be able to organize and be informed of events via one contact list and you won't need to scour and post to all the various social networks just to get information out. For more info please read on.
A couple things
First off, before I get people posting on here that we need to focus on RP2012 instead of doing things like what is described here, let me just say that this effort (in my opinion should have been done long ago) is not about the RP2012 campaign. It's not about any campaign for that matter. It's about what we, the grassroots, can do or should do in the aftermath of whatever happens after the campaign, win or lose.
Secondly, if you are not a Ron Paul supporter please read on. Maybe you don't support Ron Paul. Maybe you are an occupier or an independent or a democrat and someone linked you to this site/post and you feel a little hoodwinked. Don't. The R3VOLUTION-the grassroots movement-is not about Ron Paul it's about a message. That message is not for democrats, republicans, young or old, black or white. It is for everyone. I hope this post helps you understand what we are trying to do and how it can relate to where you are and what you believe in.
The R3VOLUTION
The R3VOLUTION (notice that 3VOL is love backwards if you're not familiar with the weird spelling) was coined as part of the Ron Paul movement which started back in '06/'07. But that movement is really part of a much larger movement that began long before Ron Paul. That movement is about a message. That message is about limited government, social justice, anti-corruption and corporatism, sound money, civil liberties, anti-war, anti-two party politics, and equality before the law among other things. If you've been around these forums this is nothing new. If you haven't been around these forums or part of the Ron Paul movement I encourage you to sign up and engage the community. All are welcome here.
Now the movement is at a critical juncture. We are soon to be without our leader Ron Paul and without a national campaign to rally around. The question is what are we going to do to keep the movement alive and growing. We've made a lot of progress and it would be a shame if everyone crawled back into their hidey-holes and wallowed in apathy. So to continue on what we need is leadership and a plan, and that's what this post aims to communicate and create.
Outreach
Before getting to the nuts and bolts I want to stress again that the movement is about more than Ron Paul or any national campaign. While the Ron Paul movement is quite large, nationally it's still a minority and we need to reach out to all groups of people who want to see some positive change in the social landscape. Even if you're not all that familiar with the "message" or what it means we still want you to be a part of the grassroots and engage with other people in the grassroots. The grassroots can be defined as anyone who sees something wrong with the status quo and wants to affect some change in the political realm or the in the realm of public opinion. The grassroots is not corporate sponsored, it has no anointed leader, it isn't tied to this party or that. Whether you are democrat or republican, whether you are an occupier or for free markets, I believe there is something to be gained by organizing in the manner described below even if we find it hard to agree on every issue (FYI not everyone on these forums agrees on every issue by a long shot, but we're still here together!).
GCI Overview
The overall goal is not that complex, and if it was it probably wouldn't work anyways. Basically the aim is to create the largest existing contact list of grassroots supporters collaboratively managed by the grassroots themselves. The purpose of which is to notify supporters of events and initiatives taking place in their local area that they are most likely and able to participate in. Another goal, no less important, is to get supporters to engage one another through a common social medium.
Email is the most basic and effective communication method and it is time tested. Not everyone participatees in this or that social network but nearly all people have an email not only via web but also on their phones. So in order to get relevant information out to local supporters an email list is the primary and necessary component. Campaigns have there email lists that they don't share. Meetup has a list. Facebook has your email. Many other bulletin boards and social networks we participate in have their own email lists, yet the grassroots doesn't have any unified way as of yet to get info out to the people it most relates to. This is elaborated in "Phase 1" below.
What about a social medium? Where do I go to have discussions with other people in my area? Basically this needs to be done by consensus. It doesn't make sense for, as an example, a 100 supporters here in Topeka, KS to be on Facebook, Twitter, CFL, Daily Paul, RPF, Meetup, and numerous other sites where their posts are lost in the echo chamber of the internet. So to get going I'm pushing for everyone to initially engage and discuss here at www.ronpaulforums.com (liberty forest). It is a large board with nearly 40,000 members, it is well moderated (if you are attacked, cussed at, berated, etc. there are moderators to help you out) and it has subforums dedicated to individual states. For more info about this read the "RPF and engagement" section below.
Phase 1
Phase 1 is simply to build the email list. We need someone (or some people) from each state to start mining for name, email, city, and state information for grassroots activists and supporters. To start with, as an RPF'er, you can go to the state level subforums and start PM'ing members from your state. After that you can join your local meetups and get contacts from there and also can start messaging members in your area at www.campaignforliberty.com (new website is .org). This is just a couple examples, there are other relevant sites and even some lists already compiled by other state-level organizations. We need to compile these. Let me know if you are doing this (collecting contact info) by emailing me (my email is below) or PM'ing me via RPF and I will add your name and email to the list below so supporters can email you directly. We will keep these lists on a shared google spreadsheet. One at first and then split them out by state as the list grows. Initially I will act as the primary coordinator so you can email me your lists and I will create the initial document and share the doc with those interested in being coordinators. We will keep a running tab of how many supporters we've amassed in this thread so people can see how the effort is growing. For now, to keep it simple, if you don't want to maintain a list for your own state, just email me everything, and I'll cry for help if it becomes too much work. Here is the email template I'm going to use, let me know if you think it can be improved:
SUBJECT: The Grassroots Connect Initiative
CONTENT:
Dear Grassroots Supporter,
There's currently an effort under way, of which I'm a part, to get all the grassroots activists and organizers on the same page as far as notifying individuals of events that are happening in their area, and collaborating and engaging each other on a single website. Right now we're just asking for email, name, city and state from activists which will be used to email you a compiled list of all activities and initiatives happening in your local area. Your email will not be shared with other organizations or made public and you can remove yourself from the list at any time.
Detailed info can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/7kyh7p9
A lot of us have realized that the grassroots needs its own contact list of supporters that is not controlled by any corporate organization or campaign headquarters where we have no voice and are simply an entry in their database. We need two-way communication not just one way. In addition we are trying to get a consensus among supporters as to where we should engage and collaborate with one another online. Right now we are pushing for activists to use www.ronpaulforums.com as that place so we encourage you to sign up for an account there and join the community (almost 40,000 members). Use the link above to give feedback on the project or to make suggestions for improvement (if you think there's a better place for your local supporters to converge online for instance).
At this stage we are still building the list and if you'd like to contribute to building the list see the link above for information on how to help. If you just want to collaborate and engage fellow supporters please visit www.ronpaulforums.com and post event ideas or grassroots building ideas in the grassroots central forum there or post in your individual state forum. There are plenty of supporters on there from all 50 states.
So please help us build our list and reply to this message (or visit the link above) with your name, email, city and state and you will be added to the list. To see how the list is growing check back at the link above for statistics. This is your list too, as much as anyone elses so I hope you will contribute. This initiative was just started on May 21, 2012 so don't be discouraged if things haven't taken off yet.
Thanks!
A fellow grassroots activist,
[YOUR NAME, EMAIL]
Phase 2
Phase 2 is where we start actually emailing supporters events and info specific to their area. I've outlined my general idea of how this could work in this thread. Please post your ideas there or on this thread for ways you think the idea could be improved or elaborated on. So while I don't know exactly how everything will be handled at this point the general idea is to have supporters email their coordinators for events and info that they want propagated to their local area supporters. Events could be anything from a grassroots candidate meet and greets, a moneybomb, a sign waving, a cookout or poker party, a strategy session, an occupy demonstration, etc. So anything really that could help achieve local goals or simply to "get to know your neighbor". All this notification is done through simple emails, while event details can be elaborated in the forums if space is a factor. For this phase, which won't go into effect until we have a substantial list-say 5000 or so nationally, I'm hoping to get some input from you others out there on the best ways we can put the list to use and share info about how to organize information and events and such.
Email, RPF, and engagement/feedback
I could say a lot in this section but will try to keep it short as this wall of text is probably already large enough to deter the faint of heart. Email in my opinion is the one thing that reaches out to people in the most effective manner. People know this. In my opinion that's why they only give out their primary email to groups or websites that they want important updates from. This initiative aims to be an important enough medium to qualify for that spot. Rather than a supporter being on the email list of 4 or 5 candidates email list, and a CFL list and a host of other grassroots lists, we give them updates for multiple initiatives in a single subscription-like email. We "push" the information out to supporters instead of them having to be everywhere on the web and "pull" relevant info. The benefits should be clear enough. However, email does not cover a lot of important bases. People need a place to collaborate and get feedback about how events are going, who else is out there, what else can I do, etc. In essence a place to expand their involvement. Facebook, Meetup, etc. provide that medium but in a disjointed way. We need to get away from activist diffusion and have activists in a certain area to be able to converge in a central medium. This can only be done via consensus. Everybody in the area needs to agree where to meet on the internet. I believe, and I'm pushing anyway, for www.ronpaulforums.com to be that place.
It has almost 40,000 members, it welcomes everyone, it has very good moderation, it provides a place to post event details, get feedback, connect with others in your area and a host of other benefits. What's more, I think it can be a very useful guidepost for the movement. Members here are active, passionate, and many have a "never give up" attitude. Essential things for true grassroots involvement. People here on the whole know the message appeals across the political spectrum. Sure there are a few drawbacks-nothing that can't be improved-like a few posters who too often throw around collective terms like "sheeple", "socialist", "statist", etc. but all in all, in my opinion, I haven't found a community this large that is more open to debating in a civil manner all points of view and who by and large believe in truth, non-violence, and doing what they can to affect real change. So if you aren't already a member I encourage you to engage the community and sign up. Whether or not you are a Paulite or a progressive or just your average American I encourage you to get involved here are talk about your ideas and ask questions. It's fun here, there are a lot of creative people, and we do want to make a difference in our town, state, country and world. End RPF plug.
Conclusion
Simple enough I think. Work to grow the email list at first with updated feedback on how the list is growing in order to get people psyched about the prospect of what we can do with it. Collaboratively maintain the list so one person isn't in charge of the whole list. No leader, no fixed plans, just grassroots activists engaging one another and being on the same page with ONE place to get all relevant info and post events for grassroots related agendas. In addition we promote www.ronpaulforums.com as a base of operations and one stop shop for information for grassroots activists to communicate and collaborate with one another so we're not all over the web and disconnected. How the emails will go out, what info will be acceptable for propagating, how many coordinators for each area, and other things can be ironed out in Phase 2 once we see that the listbuilding is viable. The point though of the whole project, and I think many will agree is this: WE NEED OUR OWN GRASSROOTS CONTACT LIST. A lot of people might think this is a great idea but might not be on board until they see that its working. So Phase 1, the beginning, is to build the list and go from there. A simple enough plan that's easy to get started and easy to chart our progress. Hope you will help. Feedback appreciated.
P.S.
Again please post feedback here on ideas we can use to help the effort or on this thread that I started last week on how the overall organization could be set up. It's kind of sketchy right now as I don't know how it will all come together and there is a lot of room for improvement and input. But this initial stage of gathering contact info is pretty straightforward. I will try to update this thread text as needed as things take shape. This is a long term effort but I think if it gets going we can have a incredible list and info propagation network in place to make a major impact in the 2014 elections and beyond. Time will tell.
Thanks again.
[CURRENT STATE LIST] Emails are listed phonetically to confuse bots. [email protected] "joe at web dot com"
Kansas wizardwatson wizardwatson at gmail dot com (David Watson, Topeka, KS)
I'm very lonely right now.
[ALL OTHER STATES]
wizardwatson wizardwatson at gmail dot com (David Watson, Topeka, KS)
Last edited:
