Golly! I get first post? Nashvegas met tonight, and we got some fresh blood, but some of the folks from our first meeting didn't come back. One thing we learned tonight is that some people come to the meetups to learn more about Dean, and if you get bogged down in other stuff, well, they can get turned off.
So after the meetup broke up, we die-hards siezed power in a bloodless coup (affirmed by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision), and we've decided to have literature and Wal-Mart™ greeters available at the front door, and work out an agenda in advance.
A little over 125 people came to the Los Angeles meet up at the Hard Rock Resturant at Universal Studios. Our program went as follows:
1. Local Dean Finance Leaders and Organizers updated those in attendance of campaign activities and successes since the last meetup. We passed out News clippings and flyers from the campaign.
2. We watched the Governor's speech to the California Democratic Party state convention.
3. We broke things down... and began planning the campaign beyond the meetup up monthly meetings.
4. Those in attendance were able to sign up for meetup subcommittees that included:
a) Press - Authoring letters to the editor for supporters to sign. Also includes clipping newspapers that aren't major. i.e. weeklies, monthlies and small town independent papers in the county.
b) Local Politics - Signing up to join and get active in the endorsement process of local democratic clubs and the county party assuring that the campaign will have a visible presence at meetings and a seat at the table when it comes to endorsements.
c) House Parties - not everyone can raise $5000 so we will be putting together kits for people to hold lower dollar events with their friends that include DVD's and campaign materials. We will be connecting those in attendace with the Dean campaign who are able to raise larger sums.
d) Looking ahead to larger events. Signing people up who can give more or would like to help with larger dollar events in the coming months.
e) Field Work - Preparing for the California Primary. We will begin the process of signing folks up to make calls into Iowa and New Hampshire once things start rolling for get out the vote in those states. We will then transition into Dean supporter identification in California and focus on turnout for the California primary.
f) Outreach - getting campuses, unions and friends/family/coworkers involved in the campaign in Los Angeles. We will also try to register Greens, Libertarians and GOPers who want to vote for Dean as Democrats so they may vote in our primary. We will also supply supporters with materials to provide their friends and families in other states to boost Dean's message there.
Thats about it. We'll be launching an LA4Dean website soon with all kinds of stuff. We'll keep you posted. It's late and I don't want to spell check so i'm going to press send. 
The Los Angeles meetup is heading in the right direction, but will certainly be much better once we have a better venue. We held this meetup at the Hard Rock Cafe @ Universal Studios.
We started the meeting outside, as I talked thanking people for being there and reminding them that meetup is about us joining together for a common purpose and making this campaign our own.
Rick Jacobs, the director of the Dean campaign for Southern California was present and explained the value of meetup in helping to set up the grassroots movement.
More Organization came as Karl Frisch showed up and spoke to the group, showing them the Howard Dean video from Sacramento. Unfortunately sound and volume were a problem and reactions weren't quite as positive as I hoped. Much of this I fear was the fault of people being unable to really hear everything clearly and getting a bit lost in the lack of solid organization.
After now attending 3 meetups, I think I am drawn to a slightly different conclusion than hamletta above.
Although some people are there simply to learn more, I find the majority are there saying, "I want to know what I can do to help", and unfortunately other than saying "Well, give more money" we don't have the solid answers yet. I've noticed three completely different groups at each of the meetups and repeat attendance isn't quite as common as I would like/hope.
There was a sign up sheet in LA asking people to sign up for various sub-groups for which they may be interested (Press Corps, Phone Banks, etc..) and I am hoping this will lead to better organization in the future.
For the next meetup, we are supposed to have a much better venue that won't have loud music playing throughout most of the night.
All in all, I have to be honest and give it a very mixed review. The turnout was good, but I fear that most people left with the same confused looks on their face as when they showed up.
If you are in an area facing LARGE meetup groups, I encourage you to try and organize BEFORE arriving, so people won't have to question where to go and what to do... Laws of physics seems to say that a milling mass will remain a milling mass unless an organizational force is stronger than the combined will of the milling mass.
Unfortunately, a major Manhattan Meetup snafu here in Eugene, Oregon.
They sent Eugene Dean Meetup confirmees on a wild goosechase to a venue that was no longer located at the address supplied. Several people arrived at the appointed time and address...and the venue had "changed" from an internet coffee shop to a beauty salon of some kind! I have written the Manhattan Meetup crew, and scolded them on their research and vetting skills! Here's hoping, and expecting bigger things for May 7th. I look forward to reading about other, more lucrative meetups nationwide.
We started this in Portland two months ago with a small group of twelve. Last month we were up to 100 members and 40 attended meetup. WE began organizing by neighborhood, and for things like peace rallies between meetups. This month we are at 250 members in Portland and about 100 attended Mississippi Pizza in North Portland. A great crowd. Not only did we exceed attendance expectations, but Willamette Week (Portland's largest weekly) showed up to cover the event (we put out a news release in advance), and the joint was packed with a line out the door.
In advance we made up signs (from aforementioned rally) that were posted around the room and outside our venue so folks knew they were in the right place.
We started with a show of hands for prior attendees and new attendees. Newbies had us by about 2-to-1, I'd say. This was good to know since it helped frame the rest of the night. We started with the Dean videos, and a Dean staffer provided the DNC video. This was very well received and there was much applause, cheering, etc. I think we made a good impression on each other, and on the reporter covering the event.
The capper of the evening was when former Gov. Barbara Roberts made a surprise appearance to announce Dean's official Oregon co-Chairs (including Sec. of State Bill Bradbury, and Terry Bean) and endorsed Gov. Dean. A news release on this from Gov. Roberts goes out first thing in the morning. She was, in a word, amazing.
All of this bodes really well for us. If we get good coverage in WW, and other news venues (the Oregonian ran a blurb in their weekly political notebook) our size is sure to double again. Next time we're planning on twice the venue, an A/V set-up (there was a pro in the audience who said he can help), and a convention-style floor set-up so that people can gather in sections by neighborhood. One hour for speeches and accomplishments, and one hour for brainstorming and planning. Also, we handed out about 200 bumperstickers and collected more donations.
It really helped having local celebrities (Gov. Roberts!), and the Dean staffer - a shout out to Jay Schrader - on hand for this event. I would encourage others to get endorsers to attend. Could be a city councilor, mayor, or local state rep., or senator. Then you can pitch local press on your event.
Photos to come on the meetup site...
Don't forget Christopher that Barbara Roberts said that there were other former Democratic governors who are about to announce their support for Dean. She mentioned Colorado and Washington.
Atlanta's meetup went over great! Other than a small venue, the evening was awesome. Over 60 first-time meetup people showed up. We opened the floor for dialogue and had a great idea of discussions. We're moving on to a more formal structure and are meeting next week to start dividing up some responsiblities and begin focusing on major interest groups and target voters within the state, and most importantly, getting the Dean Message out to as many people as possible. One interesting note is the wide variety of people attracted to Dean. We had Greens, Republicans, doctors, lawyers, moms, dads, students (both HS and college), and activists from all over the state. Some people drove 3+ hours to the event. What a great night!
New mexico meetup a little screwy. The venues that meetup suggest are no longer there. I've suggested a different venue and never heard back. Thinking of bypassing meetup altogether and using the dean yahoo group to set meetings.
The Seattle meetup was my first meetup (I think Meetup.com is evil so I've tried to avoid them on principle - I hope the campaign can move away from Meetup and toward other venues).
The restaurant was packed out the door and sizzling with enthusiasm as the guys from the new campaign office, soon to be opening in Seattle, talked about Dean.
Next we had a rep from the King County Democratic Party come and explain that, in a caucus state like Washinton, in order to help Dean win the primary we'll need to join our legislative district precinct committee and start agitating for him there.
Then it broke down into an ad hoc session where people announced what special interest group they were organizing (anti-war, Students for Dean, Greens for Dean, etc.) so people could contact them after the meeting.
Our grassroots organizer Ray Minchew did a great job by preparing handouts and goodies for people, and helped everything stay on track with a paper easel on which he maintained a list of URLs and contact emails as people suggested them.
Here's what I would've done in hindsight:
1. Hand out our flyers at the door, because once people get inside there'll be no room to move around.
2. Prepare a list of informational URLs in advance, maybe as a flyer. Even the campaign guys weren't clear on the URLs and said "deanforamerica.ORG" once or twice.
3. About 20% of people were coming to learn more about Dean or to shop candidates; the other 80% were just dying to be given some work to do, which the campaign guys weren't that prepared to think of. I'm thinking of customizing the 10 things you can do to help Dean get elected page for Washington state then printing it up as a flyer for next time.
the Fort Worth meeting went pretty well in large part to the Dean campaign's organising materials. you can download them from deanforamerica.com/meetup. We definitely need to get some video tapes, because most of those in attendance hadn't heard the DNC speeches. if anyone knows how to get ahold of tapes, please email me at ugspambox@yahoo.com. i now have a co-chair for tarrant county, which helps a lot. and we all assigned tasks, such as gathering signatures to get him on the petition in texas. we also talked about the main goal in texas: delivering our democratic delegates to howard dean. since texas WILL go republican, the best thing we can do is become delegates and attend both the state and national conventions, therefore delivering our delegates to the dean campaign.
Nina, just curious... why is meetup.com "evil"? It's worked great for us in Portland, and we've only received assistance from the meetup.com staff. Please elaborate.
CC
Baltimore had a showing of 55 people, up from 23 in March, and 8 from February! We started with some campaign news announcements, local fundraising efforts and new ideas, and talked about the direction of the campaign. We made sure everyone signed up for the local email listing and had bumper stickers and campaign flyers to pass out. We then discussed the work completed from the previous Meetup agenda and formed committees to handle: Marylands website design, organizing the road trip to the South Carolina debate, community outreach, fundraising, local media strategies, lobbing our Dem central committee members, and financing our own local efforts. Our goal is to have a state wide organization already in place by the time the campaign establishes its Maryland field office. Must agree with some of the comments above regarding Meetup, the pub where we met thought Meetup was some kind of dating service and they were unprepared for the number of people that showed.
Meetup in San Francisco was, by all accounts, a wild success!! Last month we had 27 people (our first meeting) and last night we had 120 show up, even though it was raining. The evening went as follows:
1. For the first 30 minutes people mingled, drank a bit, talked politics, etc.
2. Introduction. Talked about the last Meetup, the tremendous growth and four or five of us shared why we support Dean for President. (This was great because one of the guys who showed up was a first cousin of Howard Dean, John Hill, and they grew up together. It was great hearing a prospective from a person who has known Dean all his life.)
3. Announcements (Two low dollar fundraisers for Howard Dean and one high dollar fundraiser at the end of the month.) Jay Rosenthal, official Rep. from the Dean camp spoke for a bit.
4. I was able to obtain a video projector and we watched the speech given by Howard Dean at the California State Democratic Convention. Everyone loved it!
5. We then broke up into groups according to interest: Media, Fundraising, Outreach, Voter Registration, Q&A, etc... Tons of ideas exchanged, lots of questions, events planned, etc.
6. Set a goal to bring at least one person to the next Meet-Up.
The night went incredibly well, very smooth. Everyone was very helpful, energized and practically begging for something to do.
We created info./interest sheets that we've entered into a database and we're going to have mini-meetups each week. The support for Howard Dean in this city is tremendous.
Oh, how could I forget, Carla Mariuchi from the San Francisco Chronicle (S.F.'s largest newspaper) was there all night with her photographer and she interviewed several people. There will be a big (most likely page one) story in tomorrow's paper most likely. Leading up to the event two other newspapers in the Bay Area interviewed a couple of us. Those stories came out last week.
Representatives from the Bay Area Young Democrats were there, a woman who's started her own community newspaper that highlights Dean, another woman who is starting a California Doctor's for Dean group, and several student association reps.
I left at the end of last night completely exhausted, but elated. The movement here is amazing. For those of you who are interested, Paul and I (my politico pal) are going to outline our Meet-Up model and send it to other cities. Leading up to the event we created Media Alerts, posted Howard Dean Meet-up info on various local websites, etc.
Grass roots works.
Lastly, I just wanted to say what I enoyed the most about last night was that the crowd was very diverse. Old, young, gay, straight, single, married...even someone with their kids! It was great to see a community come together, working together to get Howard Dean elected to be the next President of the United States!
Peace!!! Thanks San Francisco!!!
I forgot to add, we even registered 5 new voters last night!!!
Oakland had about 86 people, up from 25 a month ago. The 12 things you can do flyer was passed out, along with Dean Meetup bumper stickers. The meeting provided focus for the frustration many feel toward the direction of the Democratic Party and the direction of the country. One young woman stood up and said amid laughter, "I'm tired of not getting my way!" An older woman across the room stood up and said "I haven't gotten my way since Harry Truman!" The second woman later said "I will vote for whatever nitwit the Democratic Party nominates!"
We broke up into groups: union workers, "geeks", women's groups, students, and a group to learn more about Dean. Overall, it went well, although we hope to get a better venue next time, probably by reserving a room at a library.
My prior experience with Meetup is 2ndhand and non-political. It's just really hard to pick your own venue. At the Dean meetup last night someone was saying that we have a good, large-capacity hall who's repeatedly volunteered to host us, but Meetup can't move us to there because it's not a restaurant. Personally I would really rather give the $10 to Dean than spend it on pizza.
BTW I'm blown away at how organized the California meetups (LA, SF, Oakland) are. You guys should put together a bunch of tips for the rest of us!
My two bits...I think those of us in California know that whomever wins the primary here, will eventually go on to win the nomination. In the last election when the Repugs "swept" the country (less than 20,000 votes and the Democrats would have actually gained a seat or two) every single State Office in California was won by a Democrat. We're very motivated out here. BUT, we need this movement across the entire country! If people are want some guidance, feel free to e-mail me at kipzoo@hotmail.com.
Regarding Meetup. It's a great conduit to gather those of us who support Dean, but we've already started to develop a plan that will allow us to work outside of Meetup. We envision the monthly Meetups becoming an "orientation" for new people. We bring them into the fold and the much larger movement that will have developed. Next month we'll probably have 500+ people (that's our goal) at the Meetup event. You can only do so much in a group that large. So, we're creating a Northern California Board that is highly organized and will get the most out of every Dean supporter.
One last thing and then I'll quit. Meetup isn't perfect, but overall, it's been great for S.F. Those of you are having a difficult time, don't give up! Make it work for you, be proactive in your community!
milwaukee here....this was my first meetup, and though i was quite skeptical, i left feeling energized and ready to go.
we did a brief recap of some of the good news from the campaign (Q1 fundraising results, new hampshire poll results, etc.), and review of the last meetup event.
we did brief introductions tried to get a handle on who among us knew who/what organizations that we can pull into the dean mind-cult - i mean that in the best possible way .
considering our modest numbers (though, happily, we've doubled in size from our last meeting - 22 last night), our pirmary goal is to get bigger as fast as possible. we each pledged to bring a new person to the next event.
we broke off from there...the hard core among us remained to strategize. we're planning a kick-off of sorts for april 26th - not coincidentally, the anniversary of governor dean passing c.u. legislation in vermont.
we plan a modest event - to be used primarily as a recruiting tool, though we'll try and raise some money too.
this small core group will meet more often than once a month (bi-weekly for now). we plan on creating a more strucured environment...using meetups as recruiting events, while holding working meetings at other times.
all in all, it was a good night. but i would like to echo the venue complaints that many have shared. meetup has some learnin' to do.
Minneapolis had 78 people last night. This was our third Meetup. We've grown from 11 people in Feb. to 35 last month, and now 78. We are doubling every month. I don't know how long we can keep that up, but it is heartening to see this many people involved this early on.
We had too many people to address at one time in our venue, so a few of the hosts had to go by table for table to talk about Meetup, spread the good news about Dean's 2.6 million, announce our new website (http://www.minnesotafordean.org) and talk about upcoming local events.
We also passed out Dean literature. Unfortunately, we did not have the "12 things" from the campaign nor a locally produced "how you can help" document. We'll be better orgainized next month. We also want to coordinate with the other regional meetups to make sure that they have events lists, literature, etc.
We are compiling these lists of things you can do and events because most of the people who come to the Meetup want to know what they can do to help.
I agree with Shane that Meetup is an orientation tool. We've been having small group meetings on various topics since March.
"Regarding Meetup. It's a great conduit to gather those of us who support Dean, but we've already started to develop a plan that will allow us to work outside of Meetup. We envision the monthly Meetups becoming an "orientation" for new people. We bring them into the fold and the much larger movement that will have developed. Next month we'll probably have 500+ people (that's our goal) at the Meetup event. You can only do so much in a group that large. So, we're creating a Northern California Board that is highly organized and will get the most out of every Dean supporter."
I had the exact same thought--the Boston Meetup was 130-odd people, which was about the upper limit of a size where you can have a successful meeting in a bar. I assume the real work will start being done in smaller, more regular meetings by various groups.
I am going to start working on organizing students at my law school & hopefully connecting with the undergrad college connected to it too.
I think one key thing will be to carpool a group up to NH once and see Dean make a speech in person. Does anyone know where I can find a schedule? I have no interest in crashing small fundraisers or meet-and-greets but he must give decent sized stump speeches from time to time in the Granite state. Seeing the candidate in person seems like the best way to get people off the fence and fired up.
Regarding the selection of Meetup venues, it is not restricted to commercial locations. If a site is pre-selected, you can tell Meetup and they will include it as one of the choices to vote on. Unfortunately for us, our group grew so much that those of us from last month who voted for the library were outvoted by newcomers who preferred a location that serves beer. I asked the proprietor at last month's Meetup, and he said they didn't pay anything to Meetup to be on the list of venues.
Our SF meetup last night rocked. Shane did an awesome job taking the lead on getting it all organized. The overview of the event he wrote above was great and I won't try to duplicate it.
Needless to say, it's vital to get organized beforehand. Little things we did made huge difference such as 1) holding a mini-meetup to brainstorm and plan; 2) doing a walk-through of the space a couple days in advance to make sure we the exact location and layour and 3) making a general agenda and list of materials.
Also remember that there are distinct groups that are will come out to the meetup - everyone from candidate shoppers to potential die-hard volunteers. I think we were able to make the meeting relevant for everyone and I think the crowd had an intensely positive experience.
Using the convention video as the evening's focal point worked really well. I'd recommend everyone trying to do that if possible. I have the speech as a windows media file and would be willing to burn it onto a CD for anyone interested - contact me at paul-at-voterzone-dot-com.
Hey dean blog folks, can you post threads for discussing meetup organizing ideas - at least a week before the next one - so we can trade ideas?
Keep up the good work everyone. We're gonna shock the world.
Katherine, we are carpooling to NH on Saturday. I was also at the Boston meetup and you can get a ride and coordinate meeting times by writing the massfordean mailing list on yahoo groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ma...up/MassForDean/
or you can call our Coordinator: Mike Weissman, (781) 789-1504
See you on Saturday!
Vegas, Baby!
We held our very first Dean meetup in Sin City at a local pizza shop. Ten people showed up, but of the ten I think two had previously been chairs of the Nevada Democratic party, several were well connected with local progressive organizations and two were prominent local attorneys. All seemed very anxious to get the word out in Vegas. Since the meetup, we have set up a Las Vegas mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/La.../LasVegas4Dean/
and a website, www.nevadafordean.org has been registered and should be up this weekend. Reno/Carson/Tahoe people, please e-mail me so I can add your contact info to the website.
THOUGHTfully Yours,
Clark Adams
cadams@pobox.com