What is the point of Meet Ups??

[VoteClark]

Not to rip it down or anything. But I fail to understand how a bunch of people that are meeting to talk about a candidate they already support really helps a candidate other than to say,"Hey, look how many supporters I have."

I would tend to think it would be of greater use to go out and campaign, go door to door, sit in front of store with a booth, or attend a community event and tell others about your candidate.

I might be wrong, but I think this sounds like preaching to the choir rather than making converts.

Can somebody explain exactly how this really helps a candidate?

J4Clark

[ryharrin]

1. Well, to start

Dean's letter writing campaigns to Iowa and now NH will help convince undecided voters. It has already put him in the lead in Iowa. Also, my meetup group evolved into a separate Syracuse Dean Team group that has meetings on two days before the meetups for actualy campaign stuff. People who come to meetups are invited to join the Dean Team. We have over 70 members in a republican leaning city of 130,000 people. Not too bad for the beginning of August. Plus, we'll see how many people we can get at our meetup on wednesday.

[SGrande]

17. C'mon, ya can't prove that

unless you can show me a random sample, plus a test group and a static group and remove all other variables, then you could say that.

Iowans could of been totally won over by the letters or thrown them out before reading them.

Iowa polls could be up because of that or it could be the media Dean has been buying early, which is stupid imo because iowa and NH have spending caps

[ryharrin]

41. I can't prove it.

But come on, how can you say 30,000 people receiving handwritten letters from all over the country didn't make any difference? I agree that it isn't the only reason for it, but it has to have helped. I also disagree with you on the advertising. Dean's campaign is all about the grassroots. And unless people know who he is, the grass won't grow.

[SyracuseDemocrat]

47. Syracuse?

I'm from Syracuse. Can i help out ryharrin? Message me if you think I can.

[poskonig]

2. Certainly.

One can organize local events to support a candidate, write letters to undecided Democrats, introduce newbs to the campaign, etc. You have the right idea --

"I would tend to think it would be of greater use to go out and campaign, go door to door, sit in front of store with a booth, or attend a community event and tell others about your candidate."

and more are the things discussed during meetups.

[madfloridian]

3. Most are writing letters as per request of the campaign.

We are getting printouts made to hand out, at our cost. Wearing the shirt and having extra pins has made many friends. The meet-ups are getting better organized. Home groups will be formed to take up donations and have phone calls from him.

It is like having a whole base of people already built up and waiting to do the necessary activism. Dean now has 74,000 signed up and meeting and waiting at local levels. It is a good idea.

That said, I am also very much liking Graham as well.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

4. Meetup is to introduce new people

I can only speak for the Dean Meetups, but here's how it works for our local group: between every meetup, a lot more people sign up (4000 just today, across the country), which means every Meetup includes new people. This is certainly true at our local Meetup, which seems to almost double every month.

New people come to Meetup and can get their questions answered from existing supporters. We had a great Q&A session at the last Meetup, where new people asked questions about Dean's various positions. Our particular Meetup is always good because we have a very dedicated and hardworking coordinator; she's well on top of things, and very organized.

The national campaign is also starting to work with the Meetups more closely; last month we were given addresses of Iowa Dems and we wrote personal letters to introduce them to Dean. This month there will be more letters, this time to New Hampshire voters. I expect the campaign to give more "tasks" to the Meetup groups as time passes.

We also have announcements about events, flyering opportunities, etc. It does not try to be a working group, though; that's a separate meeting. However the Meetup inevitably brings more people to the working group, as they might not otherwise know about it.

The main purpose of the Meetup is to introduce new people to the candidate. It's a great idea, and is definitely working for Dean.

[Frances]

5. I have not been to a meet up

but I would like to do so. I am new to this area and I think it would be a good way to meet other supporters. I expect we will talk about what we can do for our candidate. I hope that there will be different options if there are a lot of people and I can choose the one I like best.

In other words, campaigning will probably grow out of the meet ups.

[sfecap]

6. Grassroots organizing.

At virtually no cost to the campaign.

It is highly effective because it brings local people together and creates a sense of community, which is an important concept in the Dean campaign.

Dean will probably have over 100,000 meetup members a month from now. That is a lot of people.

BTW...a bunch from the Santa Fe meetup are tabling at a Peace Day event here on Wednesday. They are doing exactly what you mentioned...getting out and talking to the community about their candidate. From meetup members come all kinds of good ideas, and the volunteers to implement them.

Here's what makes meetup important...volunteers organized this in the span of a couple of weeks. All volunteers...

http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/000518.html

[Melsky]

7. It's kind of like a planning meeting

where you talk about what type of events and campaigning you could do. It's not just a big love fest!

I have been to one so far. I went there to learn more about Dean, and to see how I could become more politically involved offline.

I haven't 100% made up my mind who I would vote for at the primary. Dean is looking pretty likely though. I don't agree with him on everything.

It's also just nice to meet other Democrats. I live in a very isolated area, with tons of freepers, so it was great to meet people who I knew were at least capable of intelligent thinking.

[liberalnurse]

8. It is a catalysis for Dean supporters.

We are not on the outside looking in as in all other campaigns. We all can contribute and assist with the election of our President. I make sure I have that entire day off of work. It is that important to me....I want to take responsibility in taking back America...for my children and in respect to my father who passed away in 99. He probably turned over in his grave a few times since 2000 election.

[Fleshdancer]

9. I love Dean meetups.

Down here in Austin, the last meetup had well over 300 people attend. It seemed more like a rally than a meeting, but it was fun and suprisingly very organized.

For us, the meetups allow us to get updated on the Dean campaign both nationally and locally. The past two months Texas has had large Dean rallies in both Austin (3200 people) and Dallas (2200 people) so the meetings help get everyone up to speed on what is needed for it. Now we're having another rally in San Antonio at the end of August so tomorrow we'll be getting up to speed on that.

As you know from other posts, we'll be writing letters to people in NH, and we also have sign-up sheets so people can commit to volunteering at various events around town.

I've had the pleasure of talking to several undecided voters at the meetups and I get to learn from activists who have been doing this sort of thing for years. And yes, we talk about Dean, but we also talk about our disgust and shame of Bush...something many people aren't always comfortable doing in Texas.

I hope this helps you understand the point of our meetups a little bit better.

edit: as an after thought, just to let you know, the amount of people signed up for meetups for Clark are pretty good since he isn't technically in the race. Since he'll be jumping in later than other candidates, I would highly recommend that his campaign take meetups seriously. Many undecided voters will probably be very interested to go to a Clark meetup after he announces.

[blm]

10. They are useful...some candidates who have no chance

at getting endorsements from longtime organized advocacy groups can have at least SOME organization of newbie activists behind them.

The Sierra Club
League of Conservation
AFL-CIO
AFSCME
etc........will mobilize MILLIONS of activists, as they have done for DECADES. It's nice that some newbies are seeking an alternative organization to join. The more the merrier.

[dajabr]

11. And yet...

The only group prominently featured on the front page of : http://www.johnkerry.com/site/PageServer

is MeetUp...

[ProudToBeLiberal]

12. dajabr

good one. That'll put blm on his bottom

[blm]

15. My bottom

is female and quite beautiful, thankyou very much. No Deanie has come close to upending this bottom. The facts weigh against them.

btw...I did specify internet, dajabr. Isn't Kerry's site an INTERNET site? The internet activists are more than welcome to join those of us who have fought alongside populist lawmakers like Kucinich and Kerry and Wellstone for 30 + years.

[SGrande]

18. and AFSCME is about to endorse Kerry and the Teamsters just

did in Chicago, BUCKING the national union...

HRMMMMMMMM!

[quinnox]

13. I haven't the foggiest

I wouldn't go to a meetup myself even for a candidate I support, it's just not my thing.

[deutsey]

14. In addition to what others have said

Meetups are an effort to re-engage people in the social dimension of politics.

For too long politics have been a spectator sport where only the really gung-ho political types get involved in the party/campaign machinery.

What turned me on about the Dean Meetup I went to in Baltimore is that it's not like other political/volunteer things I've gone to. For one thing, it was fun. For another, there were a lot more "average people" than there were functionaries. People had a chance to get to know each other (also, to see they're not alone in what they think, how they feel...God knows, watching corporate TV is wonderful at alienating people), brainstorm, strategize about local community effort, hear updates from the official volunteers about the campgain, get some campaign work done.

And, again, it's just an excuse to turn off the fricking TV and computer and socialize. What a radical concept.

Some pix from the July Meetup in B'more:





These are from June, the one I went to...




Below has yours truly in it. That's me in the center, losing my cynicism (I have the beard and green shirt):

[CMT]

16. point of meetups

1) plan grass roots activities in your community. For example in Madison, Wi the Dean team is represented at Farmers Markets every Saturday, at local fairs such as the upcoming Willy Street Fair and Atwood Community Fair (also we had a presence at the Dane Co. Fair a few weeks ago). By having this presence we are getting the message and messanger out and more people are becoming exposed to Howard Dean.

2) It is a great way to introduce undecideds to Howard Dean, Meetups are not only for the committed but for those who might be uncommitted. They come and hear more about him and are able to ask questions and speak to his supporters.

3) We do special projects which can have positive results: Such as last months writing to undecided voters in Iowa--the result of this is the recent Des Moine Register Poll showing Dean moving to first place in Iowa 23-21 over Gephardt. We will be doing the same thing in New Hampshire this week.

Meetups are an important grass root network and very effective.

[sfecap]

22. Dean Meetup just broke thru 75,000.

Kerry won't need Meetup, with him having professionals and all that...

:shrug:

[SGrande]

19. another organizing tool

to be honest, in about a month, i doubt the Kerry camp will be needing meetup anymore...see we actually have professionals running things and we can send out e-mail reminders too, cause thats all Meetup really is.

[LuminousX]

21. I'll take that bet

I'll bet Meetup becomes more and more used by Kerry's campaign as a way to control cost.

[SGrande]

23. no, no, no

ya missed the point. We'll still use it, its not that, why the hell would I want to help the campaign call 200 people or e-mail them, when Meetup will do it for me.

All im saying is it becomes less relevent, because we already do what meetup is doing, I have a local city meeting next week, outside of the meetup schedule, with about 40 supporters, but it gives staff time to work on other stuff.

[corgigrrl]

24. MeetUp is more than a tool of the campaign

sad that you think the Kerry campaign won't "need meetup" soon -- i'm sure that makes all the Kerry MeetUp folks feel really grand.

Meetup is far more than just "emailing" folks for updates and such. In Dean MeetUps, we take the intiative to take on projects for the campaign, the campaign treats us as the valuable grassroots organizing force that we are and allows us the freedom to run our own shows on the ground to help the campaign where and how we can.

MeetUp is not seen by the Dean campaign as a "tool" to be used or not used, it's seen as vital, "grow from the bottom" aspect of the campaign itself. We meet to plan events, tabling, voter reg, ways to outreach local Dem candidates to help them and urge their support.

Glad Kerry will just have professionals to do all that. Unfortunately, he has to pay them, and we Dean MeetUps are nuts enough to work for free.

[SGrande]

26. dont jump the gun

and actually read the post ...

sheesh.

Meetup will always be used, but it won't be some independent arm like Dean has. See, we dont' waste $100,000 on wasteful ads in Texas, we put staff on the ground in almost every state so far...

And we do projects too, and while I think the letter writing campaign is nice and quaint, what we'll be doing is organizing over 100 small Annoucnement watching parties all around each state, and in places like California, hopefully over 1,000.

because see, we are bidding our time, our campaign announcment is in Sept, in front of the USS COnstitution in boston Harbor, with Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Terry McCauliffe and every top Democrat in this nation there where Kerry will declare that the first revolution happened in that harbor and a nation was born when it fought back against a ruthless tyrant, and now a second revolution is born in that same harbor where we once again rebel against a ruthless tyrant.

it will be the media spectackle of the year, broadcast live on CNN, NBC, FOX and CBS. Kerry is spending thousands on a fireworks display, plus a full orchestra.

And what I meant by not need meetup is that we already have planning meetings,I have one next week for my city for Kerry, meetup is a nice quaint thing, but we meet all the time and dont need a website telling us how to take this country back.

[ProfessorPlum]

25. I'm surprised you don't really know what Meetups are all about

since you've said you've been to at least two Dean meetups already.

Or was that a little fib?

[SGrande]

27. read above posts and stop the fishing trips

Your not going to catch me in a lie, cause I dont lie.

or perhaps your bitter because you have a wack-job in Arizona that is driving people from the Dean campaign as we speak.

[ProfessorPlum]

28. the world is full of wack-jobs

.

[SGrande]

29. yes and *hint -hint*

if the Dean campaign dumps Caroyln Maxon, Im back on with Dean...but until then, its my second choice, John Kerry

[ProfessorPlum]

30. I have a modest suggestion

until you decide who you would like to actually work for (you might do some, oh I don't know, reading on the candidates or something to help you with your decision), stop posting all of your inflammatory threads which are smear jobs on Dean.

Don't post any threads which are smear jobs on anyone, for that matter.

I really can't take you seriously anymore. I think you just enjoy riling people up. Take some time to learn something, then work hard, respect your fellow Democrats, and contribute something when you've got something to say which strengthens our unity, instead of weakening it.

[SGrande]

32. I went through the candidates already

I've read many pages in each candidate's issue section and their bios

I even took a test on which candidate most matches up to me through a series of questions, its some survey off politics1.com. Kucinich was my main guy and Kerry was #2, but as i said, I saw Dean in 2001 at a few Dem events and he impressed me, he still does.

I was a gung-hoe Dean supporter...then I met Carolyn Maxon, and we know the story from there

[ProfessorPlum]

34. I'm not really sure we would want you back

but it has also been suggested that you not post names of people who cannot refute your "stories", because they aren't here to do so.

You may also want to consider how inappropriate it is to smear someone who might object to having her name posted on a very widely read message board (along with a link to her phone number) and calling her (among other things) a "wack job".

[SGrande]

35. I dispute that because she put her own name and # on a

campaign website to be contacted and she put herself in the public domain by agreeing to be an organizer.

We all take those risks by helping to elect a candidate.

And she and I have words every time im out in Arizona for business and i go to hang out with Sam, who is always down at the Dean hq helping do data entry.

[ProfessorPlum]

39. that is definitely not the same as posting her

name here and making accusations about her which she cannot defend.

I would hope that this woman would not suffer by your hand for "risking" to work for a candidate.

Many of us have legitimate reasons to be ticked off at the DLC.

Also, it looks like you know her and talk to her and are using a personal vendetta against her as a reason to post calumny against a candidate and his supporters on this board. You really are a piece of work.

[sfecap]

40. Tombstoned.

n/t

[sfecap]

38. Thank you, Prof...

I see that the situation has been resolved.

[deutsey]

37. Who is Carolyn Maxon?

I've missed this news...Why is she a "wack job"?

[sfecap]

33. You might also suggest...

...that he not post names of people who cannot refute his "stories", because they aren't here to do so.

He may want to consider how inappropriate it is to smear someone who might object to having her name posted on a very widely read message board (along with a link to her phone number) and calling her (among other things) a "wack job".

I'd do it, but I think I'm on ignore...darn.

[SGrande]

36. imagine that, the ignored one speaks!

wonder what the ignored one is spewing now?

[Forkboy]

43. LMAO

Wonder what the tombstoned one is spewing now.Oh thats right...nothing!

[VoteClark]

42. When did I say that?

[ProfessorPlum]

44. my post was not responding to you

sorry for the confusion.

[Evanstondem]

46. Kerry Won't Need Meetup Anymore

If that's what the Kerry camp believes, they are misjudging the potential of Meetups. The Meetup that I attend helps with fund-raising and organizing groups for Dean events, and establishing relationships with local Democratic groups. If the Dean professionals do their job, it can also become a base for get-out-the-vote efforts come primary season.

[Upfront]

20. I'm Going

I am going to attend a meet up in the next town over. I want to meet people who are smart enough to see that Dean is our next President. lol I also want to start a meet up in my town, and maybe some of these people will be from my town. Hope to get some bumpper stickers , t-shirts, and a mug. Haven't been this excited before, well, maybe, when JFK ran. This guy packs the gear folks, get on board!:toast:

[Feanorcurufinwe]

31. I'm hoping it will be a good place to meet girls

[RevolutionStartsNow]

45. Whatever the point...5,000 more will be there tomorrow!

Over 5,000 new people have signed up for Meetup for Dean since yesterday morning. Outstanding!