How effective are the Dean Meetups

[jiacinto]

I am curious. I've always wanted to go to one but I've been unable to go. So I wonder what are they like. And if they all actually do stuff after the meetups, like door knocking, and organizing.

[CMT]

1. go to one tomorrow night

anyway how effective? After we wrote letters to undecideds in Iowa a new poll put Dean in the lead in the state--or tied. After we wrote letters to undecideds in NH polls came out giving Dean the lead. We also organize for different local events such as fairs, farmers markets, and other activities in our hometowns to reach as many voters as possible. At meetups you also get information on how the campaign is going and hear occassional guest speakers. It is a great grass root happening.

[jiacinto]

2. I work at night

so I can't go.

[CMT]

3. well log onto Dean's local blog

and they should have a list of volunteer activities in your area even if you can't attend a meetup.

[usregimechange]

5. yes

if you can't go sign up and ask the host to keep you informed. You could pass out flyers for the meetup for example.

[usregimechange]

4. You Bet!

I am a host for a major Missouri city and we do tons of organizing. We rigister people to vote, sign them up for the campagn, and get the local media involved! You must go to one. I am a grad. student and will be skipping class to go. And that is difficult in grad. school.

[Evanstondem]

7. Dean Meetups

We've organized groups to appear on Dean's behalf at parades, festivals and Dean appearances.

Registering people to vote is a good idea that I'll suggest to my Evanston Meetup group.

[hedda_foil]

25. We got it covered, Evanstondem!

Sign up for voter registration training at the Democratic Party of Evanston HQ will take place tomorrow night at Prairie Moon. DPOE is committed to registering an astounding 15,000 new voters in Evanston alone and our MeetUp group is key to the effort. Four of us were part of the strategy session tonight.

See you there!

[Orangepeel]

6. It depends on the meetup, but generally, yes

In my 4 county metro area, there are several Dean meetups at various venues on the first Wed., plus a steering committee meeting on the fourth Wed.

The meetups are mostly social, with some planned activities, like writing letters to Iowa and New Hampshire the past two months. Based on the poll numbers, I'd say those were effective. The steering committee meeting is where events and activities get planned.

[imhotep]

8. well

If you are white, drive an SUV, and a conservative Democrat then Dean Meetups are perfect for you.

[KaraokeKarlton]

9. Was that really necessary?

[angee_is_mad]

17. but true

I went to my 1st meetup a couple months ago and was the only person of color there. I'm a black woman who has a close circle of friends of all races and is comfortable in any environment or people. What I mean is I've had other ethnic groups to my home and they have sat at my table. So when I say some of my bestfriends are white, it is an accurate statement. But when I went to a Dean meetup, I've never felt so black before in my life.
It took about 40mins before someone even approached me and that was an elderly white lady who invited me to sit with her and her friends. Thank god, for the elderly, us younguns could learn a few things.
I don't hold my experience against Dean and I still support him, but that incident left a very bad taste in my mouth. Needless to say that was me last meetup. Oh, and I did comment to the host about how I felt and her eyes started to glaze over. lol, Oh well

[Evanstondem]

19. but true

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience.

Dean will need to broaden beyond internet-based Meetups in order to get his message out to more people of color.

[Eloriel]

20. Boy, I'm really sorry about your experience, Angee

I do wish you'd give it another try. Heck, take a bunch of people WITH you.

Or, hey, come with me tomorrow. ;-)

Eloriel

[usregimechange]

22. That is not cool!

The Meetup guides do not condone this and I assure you this would not happen at my Meetup, we make an active effort to get everyone involved! Sorry this happened. If you can tell me the city where this took place I will contact the host and ask for more professionalism.

[Le Taz Hot]

28. If I may address this, angee?

I believe you have a valid criticism as I've had the same experience. I'm not a person of color but, as a Californian, am accustomed to a multi-cultural environment so I very much noticed the lack of hue at the MeetUps.

I can tell you that the Dean campaign recognizes this shortcoming and is dedicated to doing something about it. There are now several sub-groups in the Dean campaign including AfricanAmericansforDean.com, LatinosforDean.com, etc. It is not, of course, a panacea, but at least they recognize the lack of diversity and are trying to address it.

Now, having said that, and as one of our local Dean coordinators, I chose not to wait for instructions from headquarters and we started addressing this issue by going out and FINDING local organizations with greater diversity. Most have weekly or monthly meetings and I started calling Chairpersons/Presidents and asking to be put on the agenda. All welcomed me with open arms and we've been making presentations to these diverse groups and making a HUGE effort to invite members to the Meetups and into the campaigns. We've met with limited success but I'm chalking that up to most people not being interested in the primaries yet. The only thing that means for us is that we must redouble our efforts.

Activism is in my blood and I find that if I see a need and if no one else is addressing that need, then *I* should be that person. Perhaps this might work in your situation. I'm sure you can find others within your local MeetUp group who would be willing to help. Just offering up a friendly nudge. ;-)

[liberalnurse]

27. No, that was not necessary but typical.

.

[usregimechange]

10. Criticize Dean

What moderate position of Dean's do you dislike?

[imhotep]

13. it has nothing to do with Dean

I am talking about the Meetups, not Dean himself.

[usregimechange]

15. humm

What is conservative about Meetups?

[imhotep]

23. just in my experiences

I don't consider people who are just anti-Bush and anti-this-war to be "liberals." Also, a bunch of yuppie, SUV driving, selfish suburbanites who drink mocha lattes and who pretend to be rich when they aren't and are ignorant about the real issues...they are not liberals. Maybe it is different in other places, but from the looks of the photos on meetup.com it is the same in every city.

[JNelson6563]

30. Wow!

You seem bitter.

Thanks for the inaccurate generalization--BTW, not one person in our meet-up matches your description. You shoulda left off after your experience. The more you talk the less plausible your grievance appears......I think this is more than hurt feelings from a less-than-diverse meet-up.

Julie

[Kool Kitty]

11. Gee, I guess that it won't be perfect for me, then.

I don't drive ANYTHING and I'm a veeerrryyyyyyyy liberal Democrat. Oh, well-I am white. Maybe I'll be okay. I'm going to my first meetup tonight.

[angee_is_mad]

26. have fun

[angee_is_mad]

12. well there's not alot of diversity

[Evanstondem]

16. Diversity

Probably no less than we have on Democratic Underground - perhaps more, since I don't see too many conservative Democratic points of view on this site.

[angee_is_mad]

24. what is a conservative democrat?

[LynneSin]

14. Delaware is going quite nicely

The letter writing stuff I find tedious.

But we organize ways to get out there and campaign and had a great time at the August Quarterly last Sunday in Wilmington (August Quarterly is the oldest African American Celebration, it's the 190th year of the festival).

[Evanstondem]

18. Teddy Roosevelt Quote

I'd like assemble a set of TR quotes that run counter to W-think. W and Rove are supposed to be TR fans; I'd love to see them compare W to TR and then get roasted for it.

[Eloriel]

21. Carlos

The best way to get a gauge of what's going on in Deanland is to visit the blog -- regularly.

http://blogforamerica.com/

If you'll wander over there, you'll see that the Dean campaign has outlined some activities for September that they'd like the various MeetUp groups and other supporters to get involved in, in 3 phases. If you spend a little time reading some of the blog comments, you'll see some of the things that are going on, and some of the people involved, and some of the stories about why people are Dean supporters. It's a very dynamic, vibrant, totally incredible campaign.

I know your time is limited, but you could take 10 - 15 minutes a day to check in with the campaign, surely.

The various MeetUp groups have at times gotten very creative about what they've been doing, and they share some of that in the comments sections.

Eloriel

[Le Taz Hot]

29. It depends

The MeetUps are as diverse as the people involved. Some do ONLY what MeeUp headquarters tell them to do on any particular night. These are the ones in which most people are new to politics and they don't know anything else to do.

Others go WAY beyond that and go "full-tilt-boogie" (aging myself here) and are fliering, tableing, registering people to vote, attending fairs, parades, farmers' markets, etc. Our group has decided to do a monthly food drive and donate boxes of food (with "Donated by "Dean for America" labels on the boxes) to our local food bank AND will be working that food bank during the Thanksgiving holidays. The opportunities and NEEDS are endless.

What I might suggest is that you check out different Meet Ups (and Meetings -- not all are MeetUps) in your area to find the most activist group. Explain that, although you are not able to attend the meetings, you are interested in helping out the campaign. If they're the activist kind, they'll put you to work.