I went to another organizing meeting this afternoon

[SharonRB]

We had about 10-15 people, in addition to the organizers, at the meeting. I heard a lot of the same stuff I heard last time, but this was really to get the statewide organizing started and to decide what we're going to do at our convention next week. We're using meetup.com as our main venue for people to sign up. At first, groups will be started for fairly broad geographic areas (e.g., S.E. Michigan) rather than single counties or communities. As these groups grow and start to become unmanageable, we will break off into countywide or congressional district groups, as appropriate. It's been proposed that we try to get two or three people from each of our 15 congressional districts to attend once-a-month statewide meetings to share ideas, report on progress, etc. This may be difficult for the outlying districts, especially the Upper Peninsula and northern parts of the mitten, but we'll see how this goes.

At our state convention on Saturday, we plan to make ourselves visible by wearing Gore 2008 shirts. We will give away bumper stickers, hand out literature, sell buttons and shirts and gather signatures on petitions, as well as try to sign up volunteers.

I have a local meeting Tuesday night and will report back after that one.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Got a picture of your t-shirts?

I'd love to see one.

[SharonRB]

4. No, I don't

They are kelly green with blue lettering (I don't remember exactly what they say, but I'll check at home and post later).The blue is a bit hard to read on the green. When they're ready to order again, we're going to talk about changing the color, perhaps just white lettering on a darker forest green.

[Jeanette in FL]

2. How did your groups get started?

Were you an organizer? How about the local meeting, how did that start?

I am thinking of starting a meetup Draft Al Gore in my area, Palatka, FL, which is the nearest "big" town by me. It is centrally located in the county (Putnam). My county is split almost 50/50, so I might be able to get some people.

Right after the SOTU address, we protested against the escalation of the war, there was 8 of us. That was triple the amount who protested before the war started. 6 of the people were from the Unitarian Church, who were passing out their literature to promote their church.

I was looking at the 2000/2004 Election results for the Putnam county, I didn't live here 2000.

2000 Results:
Bush - 13,447
Gore - 12,102
Nadar - 377

2004 Results:
Bush - 13,158
Kerry - 9,360
Nadar - 101

Dems lost ground in 2004.

Hopefully, I can get something started. Any help from others who started groups in their area will be gratefully appreciated.

[SharonRB]

3. I didn't start it

I heard about the first meeting I went to from someone I know. The organizers have been working closely with www.algore.org, who provided coupons for meetup.com charges for a limited time. I can get you the contact information for one of our organizers if you want to contact them directly for advice. I will see them again tomorrow night and will ask them the best way for you to get started.