We had our best meetup ever. With a little over 80 people there, Atlanta had its first meetup in Decatur. We had a pleasant mix of people, and for the first time, these people were not here to investigate, they came to take action.
After I announced that I was the guy to talk to for volunteer efforts in the county of Dekalb, I was literally swamped by dozens of people asking me to contact them. This was much different from the last meetup.
I brought 60 business cards to this meeting, and all of them are gone now. And that's just one county out of the five county area that makes up Atlanta (though it is the most democratic).
This meetup was decidedly different than the others. People were much more ready to take action. They were energized. They were BEGGING for action. I don't know what y'all did in Vermont, but whatever it did worked here in the south. People here want their country back. And I'll have a team together that will not only carry Dekalb County, but quite possibly the State of Georgia for a, as the republicans so eloquently put "a liberal tax-and- spend New Englad Governor who is out of touch with America"
GO DEAN!
The Burlington VT Meetup was a smashing success. People seem to have gotten over their initial shyness and now ask more questions of the speakers and each other. The video from Howard was a nice touch. Photos and Dean Meetup stats.
I was in Brooklyn and the group was fantastic. Lots of questions and ideas and talk about why Dean is the man to take Bush down! Everyone was very excited about going out into the city and spreading the word. There were a few people there just to check out Dean's positions and I dare say the passion of the group won them over pretty quick. Go Howard!
The Cincinnati meetup was attended by about 30 people - no small feat considering that we had to scramble for a new location after the first location cancelled (they were worried that we would take up too much space!) About 3/4's of the people were new!
We organized ourselves, raised money and had a great time.
I agree - this is winnable!
sz
We had an enthusiastic crowd in boston again - about 85 people, and the majority were new to meet-up. Everyone is always amazed that we are all "just" volunteers. We've tried a couple of different formats for our meet-up in boston - and I'm eager to hear how other groups in the 70-130 person range organize the evening. What has worked well for you?
Thanks.
I went to my first Meetup, in Flagstaff, AZ. We are the largest meetup per-capita in the state -- 22 members, up from 3 two months ago -- and fifteen people showed up, filling the coffeehouse where we met. None of us had ever been involved in a presidential campaign before, save one who was a Brown delegate in 1992, and we were all excited about the possibility of taking our country back with Howard Dean. Topics discussed included contributions, house parties, participating in a 4th-of-July parade for Dean, and a possible Dean appearance at a local university event, sponsored by a student group on campus (Joe Trippi, are you listening?). Last Meetup had only 4 people attend; we think at this rate we will outgrow our coffeehouse and will need an auditorium to hold our members in July.
Based on today, I think that with a little effort Arizona is very winnable for Howard Dean. ROCK ON HOWARD!!!
Although I live in Oakland, this time I went to a San Francisco meetup to get a sense of what sort of people are showing up there. There were three in SF--I went to what I think must have been the smallest, at Cafe Mars with about 35 people. The size of the group was just right, because the back patio of the place where we got together couldn't hold many more.
The crowd was very diverse, age range probably 25 to 65 with a fairly even distribution between the two ends.
About half of the meeting was spent with an organizer and a few other people giving a strong pitch for Dean and talking about upcoming SF events. Then we had an open discussion, where other people talked about why they were so excited about Dean, and we discussed Dean's positions on some issues, particularly the environment. I encouraged everyone to sign up for Dean Wireless and visit the blogs.
Everyone agreed that the most important thing now is just to have people find out about Dean, preferably by hearing him speak. One interesting suggestion made during the discussion was that Dean come do an outdoor speech downtown during the lunch our on a weekday, preceded by several days of aggressive flyering at the BART commuter train exits downstairs. I think we easily get 1000 people for such an event and possibly multiple thousands. This would directly reach a large number of SF people, plus drive home the point in the media that Dean's campaign is about connecting with the people, not just hobnobbing with wealthy donors.
I have some suggestions for future Meetups. While the organizer was great and the crowd got very engaged during the engaged, we really needed some sort of warmup act, either live music, a Dean video, or if nothing else a boombox with the Dean techno mix. Unfortunately, we had a laptop but no projection equipment--I think the boombox suggestion could work. We could play an audio snippet of Dean speeches, along with the techno mix, to get people fired up right at the beginning.
Like last time I came away more confident than ever that the grassroots will carry Dean to the nomination and the presidency. Go Dean!
The Washington, DC Meetup at Visions Cinema Lounge had about 200 people. We got lots of people to sign up to help with DC for Dean. We also put out a Meetup Challenge request and raised $1,380!! There was press there from the San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, Gannett, and a newspaper in Scotland. And Scott Heiferman, the CEO of Meetup made an appearance! Overall a great night!
Our night at Essex (NYC).
There will be a full dispatch up soon on the MFA homepage with lots of video.
But I have to quickly say, the highlight of the night was Arrested Development performing an inspired “Everyday People”
Much Love to Speech, Rasdon, Eshie and Baba OJE’ for making everything soo special
Hundreds of people at the meetup on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My husband and I, who had been at the March and April events, spoke to two women who had been at the previous month's meetup. Both of them said that they had never been involved in or donated money to a political campaign. Just like us!
We were able to spread the word about the dean2004 and calltoaction websites -- in my opinion, even more valuable than the main campaign website as they are updated much more often. There wasn't much organization, but a lot of networking, and some really great people! (Plus an open bar with Absolut-ly bizarre-looking vodka drinks. What does blue taste like, anyway??)
David from Dean for America spoke, as did the cofounder of Music for America, a Dean PAC (which was apparently responsible for the brightly colored drinks and the appearance of Arrested Development who may or may not have started performing after 10 p.m., when we took off).
As fabulous as it was, we can't help wondering what it would be like to join a dozen strangers in a small town to talk about Dean!
San Mateo County, CA - about 50 people at our Menlo Park Meetup. (This is with the Santa Clara County Meetup right down the road at Stanford U., and the San Francisco and San Jose and other area meetups also happening.) We had about 15 people last month. It was a VERY enthusiastic crowd after showing the April San Francisco speech! About 1/3 had never before been involved in politics - and some local Dem pros who were there heard that and understood immediately what THAT means!
We are getting well organized - doing farmers market tabling on weekends, things like that. We will have more local house parties.
We had a reporter at this meetup and will have an article in tomorow's local paper.
First meetup tonight in Bakesrfield, CA.
For those who don't know, the Central Valley here is pretty conservative. Of the handful of folks at our first meetup, two were members of the Kern County Dem. Central Committee who saw Dean speak at the State convention and are total converts. It's my understanding that there are more supporters on the Cetral Committee as well that will be attending next time -- including centrists and labor.
One of our attendees tonight was a 16- year-old women who is full of enthusiasm for Dean -- very exciting.
It strikes me that most of them had not been following the news stories about the meetups that keep popping up in all these cities, so there was a great exchange of information. They were amazed to hear about the size of and growth of our ground army. When you are somewhere like Bakresfield, it's important to feel and understand that you are part of a much larger movement, and that literally thousands of people were meeting all over the country tonight in support of Howard Dean. I've a feeling the local paper may run a story as the "phenomenon" continues -- were gonna try!
I believe that it's going to be very exciting in the coming months, and don't think we should give any ground, even here in ConservativeLand. Dean has some positions that we think Valley residents will find appealing if we can get some media and a presence to help deliver the message.
All in all, excellent first meeting.
I was at one of three Chicago Meetups tonight. There were about 65-70 people there and lots of enthusiasm. For the first meetup (and I've been to the last 4) it seems like there were really concrete ways for people to easily get involved, whethere it be fundraising, flyering, or letterwriting. It is hard to believe that in 3 short months we have gone from utter frustration over our lack of direction, to the smooth oiled machine this campaign is helping make these meetups.
Most importantly, tonight I got the feeling that the grassroots support is snowballing and there is nothing that can stop it. See you all in Washington for Dr. Dean's swearing in January 2005.
TED from Seattle, Uptown Espresso
[Hi, Zephyr, are you reading these??
I signed up to host an event in Seattle, but I deleted the email with the password!!
btw, this is from one of your college classmates. please help me!]
Here's our event summary:
Wow! That was fun!
I went to Piecora's as scheduled but could not get in the door at 7:05! I
was crestfallen, but sheer tenacity led me to motor across town to Uptown
Espresso in Belltown. There were probably 100 people there, but a lot more
room!
The contrast between the two sites was interesting. At Piecora's we had
been privileged to hear Greg or John or Betty speak. Indeed, I heard one of
those fellows speaking to a captive audience tonight at Piecora's before I
left. Uptown did not have any specific leadership. When I got there at
7:30 the group had split into smaller, more manageable groups to discuss
various topics. The primary advantage of Piecora's meetups was that there
was someone steering the ship, and answering Dean-specific questions. The
disadvantage was that people who already were on board for Dean did not
really have the chance to speak a lot about how we can help Dean win. The
scene at Uptown was decentralized, but a small group of people organized the
email list and promised to send it to HQ in VT. Although it was a bit
chaotic, I found it enjoyable to watch and hear what people were thinking.
Some people wanted to create a heirarchy. Some folks were a little dismayed
at the lack of structure and the fact that there was no specific Dean rep at
the meeting. I chimed in that there are fewer actual Dean reps than there
are meetups in Washington state.
While people talked in groups about caucuses and ways to spread the word, I
got to work selling stickers and buttons. I sold 56 total. I was ecstatic!
I also sold 7 flyering notebooks studiously compiled by Bev and Aimee.
Thank you for those. The people who took them were fired up! I also handed
out the flyer created by Nina with all the relevant urls. That was a winner
too!
I was amazed at the level of excitement and also at how many people weren't
sure where to get information. I hope that I steered many in the right
direction. There is an excellent new tool for organizing flyering events
right on deanforamerica.com. Check it out. Flyering and tabling events are
the only way that we will get the offline folks to know about Dean. Let's
get out there!
I met a lot of gung-ho people ready to work for Dean. Sorry that I can't
remember all of your names, but we shall see a lot of each other soon, I
predict. I even met a person who worked for the Governor in Vermont! A
celebrity!
Good night, spread the word, and keep all the energy flowing,
TED
Medford OR (#2 on the growth list this week!!!) had a scramble, as our venue decided we were too big. We knew that as of 1pm and set to find an alternative and make sure the word got out. Email to 18 folks at the last meeting. Getting a volunteer to hang out at the original venue with a Dean sign and maps to the new location, and TA DA! all was well.
This time out we had over 50. Lots of new faces. We had a CD with several Dean speeches burned, but given out time constraints in the new location (the County Courthouse Auditorium, with an 8pm 'Out by' time), we went with the 16 minute California Dems speach from a couple months ago. The bulk of the room had never seen the Gov. speak - they were VERY impressed.
We are now getting a listserv up for local action and are anticipating outgrowing our 'new' venue by next month.
Take Back America!
here's an email I got from Mom about the first meetup in Vancouver Washington (Dean is so far ahead of any of the other contenders in Washington State, which holds a key caucus on Feb 7th):
"Just returned from a Vancouver meetup-about 40-45. Good turnout, saw a video of a interview with Charlie Rose from yesterday. Bill Bradbury from Oregon came by about half way through the meeting...all of a sudden WA is of interest to OR-because we have a early primary and we have a caucus system-that takes place Feb. 7. So the OR organizing meetup want to come and help...that means take over the caucuses for DEAN. Its ok with me, WA has a hard time turning out anybody for the caucus. The one I went to about 10 years ago had 6 people show up. They let me be a rep for the state convention in Spokane. I did not have a clue about the whole thing...anyway now I do. I can guarantee the caucus meetings next year will be swamped by DEAN supporters."
3 very enthusiastic Dean supporters and a newspaper reporter out here in Amish country. Having the "media" there made it worth while. The meetup basically turned into a group interview. The young intern who was doing the write-up periodically broke character to voice her support for Dean and against Bush.
Again, maybe I'm young and I've spent too much time on the Left Coast but excuse me while I gush a little:
This is AWESOME! Since 2000, then 9/11, Enron, then midterms, the tax cuts, Afghanistan and Iraq, peace rally's referred to as focus groups, this has been a real Prozacky couple of years for liberal-minded human beings. The soothing drone of my AM radio dial spewing Michael Savagery has not helped. We need this. This community we're building, this movement, it's a beautiful goddamn thing. I've been an internet enthusiast since giving reports on the "information superhighway" back in 6th grade. Even then I knew this would have profound effets on American democracy..."some day". Well that day is now. We are going to prove that the internet is about more than free MP3s, porn and Bermudan casinos. I don't want to sound too much like our Evangelical overlords, but we are fulfilling a prophecy here. As soon as radio was invented, you knew someone like FDR would come along... some day. Whoever saw the first television must have come to the logical conclusion that a JFK would be inevitable...some day. And so it is with the internet. And that day is now and Dean is the man. Even with 3 people at Barnes and Nobles in Lancaster PA, I got that electric vibe that you get at peace rallies and really good rock concerts or in front of one of those really huge Jackson Pollacks. It's the feeling you get when you see America fulfill its promise. When you see people acting independently for a common cause and a noble cause without authoritarian structures or financial gain involved. And before I thought Dean's line about "the greatest lie politicians tell is 'elect me and I'll solve all you're problems" was a little hoaky and confusing, but now I get it. This isn't even really about Howard Dean. It's about us. It's about proving that American's aren't lazy selfish couch potatoes yawning through Armegeddon. It's about reminding the world that democracy is not some rigged, meaningless TV gameshow. All power to the people! Seize the time!
Damn it, I'm going to go take a shower, read some Walt Whitman and listen to Ornette Coleman records.
Peace! Thank you Howard.
I was one of two co-hosts at one of the three meetups in the Portland, OR area. We had about 55 people there (pretty good considering the venue changed at the last moment) and they all seemed pretty psyched.
We started things off by introducing ourselves, giving our personal stories about how we came to Dean. We then shared some of our local goals (raise money, Dean awareness, and start helping out in the Washington caucuses) and the national goals. We passed around fundraising forms, volunteer forms, signup sheets, etc. I hope no one got writer's cramp 
We then broke everyone up by the tables they were sitting at and had them talk amongst themselves for about 15 minutes about why they were interested in Dean. We then had one person from each table stand up and give a little report (each speaker got a Dean button as a prize for being brave).
It was amazing how many inspiring speakers we had. Moses and I both said a couple of them would be great as motivational speakers at future rallies.
This was perhaps my favorite meetup yet and I think it was because we focused more on the personal stories of why people were interested in getting involved in the Dean campaign and less time on actual organizational details. The latter are important, but I think we are adopting a strategy of off-loading those details to outside the meetup structure and keeping the meetups as more a sort of revival meeting than anything else.
People need to be renewed in their enthusiasm for this campaign. As one person said, this isn't going to be a sprint, it is going to be a marathon. The meetups could fulfill an essential role in keeping people stoked.
Music City Presente!
We doubled our head count from last month with over 80 participants. We had our new banner on display, and we did a divide and conquer and split up into committees for media, outreach, recruitment, finance, etc.
We have a booth at this weekend's Pride event, we bought a full-page ad in the JJ dinner program (and we're trying to get up a table).
Eek! I'm so excited. This thing is taking off!
Although I live in Oakland, this time I went to a San Francisco meetup to get a sense of what sort of people are showing up there. There were three in SF--I went to what I think must have been the smallest, at Cafe Mars with about 35 people. The size of the group was just right.... I have some suggestions for future Meetups. While the organizer was great and the crowd got very engaged during the engaged, we really needed some sort of warmup act, either live music, a Dean video, or if nothing else a boombox with the Dean techno mix. Unfortunately, we had a laptop but no projection equipment--I think the boombox suggestion could work. We could play an audio snippet of Dean speeches, along with the techno mix, to get people fired up right at the beginning.
Gabriel, I was very interested in your comments re SF and Cafe Mars -- because the coordinator was struggling to find video projection equip this afternoon. Why at the last minute? Well ... I have to say, SF is having some very bad luck. And to be truthful, much of it has stemmed from the 'success' factor of Meetups. We can't find decent venues... Meetup changed one of the 3 SF venues not once, but twice within a 3 or 4 day period, with Mars cafe being added only a few days ago.
It's very disconcerting because SF is very well organized and great teams of people... yet... May's Meetup (the main one of 3)?? Disaster. terrible space, no video projection, couldn't hear a word, couldn't break out inot small committee groups. And our 'de-briefings afterwards led to a view of "this won't happen again" -- along with some heated discussions with Meetup company in NY.
Well it did happen again. Frankly, I wish I had gone to Cafe Mars because, once again, the 'large' venue for SF, this time a place called "Metro" was, to me, another disater. Couldn't hear, music overbearingly loud (and shitty) and the place was, unbeknownst to us, being shared by a birthday party. Extremely frustrating... Another SF attendee left really pissed, and has written about it at our sf4dean.com forums.
I don't know what is going wrong, but it's going in the wrong direction. April was a smashing success -- at one venue with 125 people. May, the split inot 3, disater. And now June, at least 1 of 3 was disaster. WASTED opportunity and energy... The conversion rate of new attendees to new committee members has dropped like a lead balloon. Most of the SF leadership and organizing of today came from April's meetup.
I read all the comments here last month... and people were talking about growing pains in some places. How are other cities that have been split been fairing?
And finally, a toast to Flagstaff Arizona -- sounds like a great success! (And I won't hold any grudges about when I drove my U-Haul west years ago and it overheated in Flagstaff and the gas station ripped me off )
The Hollywood California meetup continues to hold strong. This month we had 115 people, up from 75 last month. We spent a good deal of time recapping the past month and Gov. Dean's visit last Sunday for the CTA speech. We also recruited donors for a series of fund raisers Dean will be attending in late June. This month Los Angeles meetupies are preparing for the LA Pride festival, a rally & presidential debate at UCLA with all 9 candidates and many small festivals, farmers markets and Democratic club meetings. Photos coming soon.
Growing pains indeed! In San Rafael, CA, we had our second meetup. The first being last month's famous Border's parking lot meetup. Yet, we prevailed and dealing with the logistics brought the group together.
For this month we found a great meetup place. Secluded area at a good restaurant. We had nominated it, but the vote went to for coffee house 4 blocks away. So we had two meetups! The new one attracted 25 1st timers who all gave compelling testimony about why they are coming out to work in HD's campaign.
The other "preferred" site had 35 people (12 new) who are moving toward more formal organization, committees, and even PAC formation.
So over 60 people in two meetups within 4 blocks in a town of 50,000! We're still trying to find the balance of work, planning, and meetup socializing.
Generally, it seems that 25 is about max for a good interactive group. Peole need a chance to speak!
Lawrence Ks. First meetup.
No official host could be identified, but that didnt stop us from getting to know eachother. About a dozen people came. We shared information on what we were concerned with, gauging eachother's areas of interest, passion and knowledge. Criticism of mass media coverage, a desperate need for quality journalism was of course a point of all issues that arose.
Concensus was quickly found that we all agreed on a goal:
Regime Change at home in 2004
We all were seeking a candidate that we can support, that we believe can win in 2004. Some were tentative Dean supporters, others were already very interested in working specifically for Dean, but we all were ready to work on the goal of taking back our country's government and putting a stop to the abuse and neglect of the Republican cabal of elite currently running this great nation into the ground.
We discussed the effect we could have being in Kansas on the political process, (lots of us have learned to be pragmatists here) leading up to the caucuses and then once a Democratic nominee is chosen. We agreed to follow up on interest groups existing in Kansas that would we could be in touch with to promote Dean's candidacy, and get a yahoo group established.
The Philadelphia meetup last night was a smashing success. I counted 90 in attendance.
After much trial and error over the last three months at trying to find the right venue for a very large and growing group, it looks like we've found our place. It's a large "after hours" club that lets us have the full run of the place since it doesn't actually open for business until after midnight. I strongly recommend to the San Francisco meetup folks and other groups in large cities that they consider after hours clubs as an alternative.
The Philadelphia meetup people have gotten very sophisticated and organized over the last few months. They now routinely have a sign-in area at the front door, a place to buy Dean buttons, bumperstickers, etc..., a 30 minutes meet & greet period, a video of Dr. Dean and then a question/answer/comment period and updates from committee chairs (fundraising, website, outreach, letterwriting, media). The meeting then splits up into committees. It all works quite well.
Just a side note, but I think one of our next tasks is to consider finding an location to open a small office. While this is clearly a netroots organization, it would still be nice to have a place to go to pick up materials, hold meetings, leave messages, etc.
Quick note from Milwaukee:
46 people attended and we picked up a few more from among the other patrons of our East Side venue.
We had a very simple and quick program:
1. Introduce the curious with literature/videos/hordes/volunteer commentary.
2. Put the converted to work...We set up a recruitment table to gather volunteers for three upcoming events: PrideFest; a rally Jun 13 at a local school (Killmer School on the South Side) where Dean will speak; next week's Democratic Party of Wisconsin Convention (June 13-14) where Dean will also speak.
Recuritment was an easy task as volunteers crowded around two excited coordinators.
More importantly, we grew by around 30% over the last Meetup (from 35-46).
The venue was cramped and difficult to work with, but the event was a success overall. the excitement for this candidate is clearly building, and I know I speak for all the other Milwaukee volunteers when I say i'm proud to be a part of it.
...
shux
ok i just need to make a disclaimer: i am easily the worst proofreader EVER!
it's mostly because...well, because.
so sorry to the grammar/spelling conscious among you.
...
shux
60 people came in Dallas. (84 had confirmed, so 24 couldn't make it.)
The main topic for us was outreach strategy and we brainstormed on that.
I also mentioned the DeanTalk.com site so people could submit their digi stills and videos.
A great nigt - motivated people - each with a job to do.
We are having a follow-up meeting next Thursday.
There were 44 people at the Iowa City meetup (officially only 19 said they could come on the site). Once again, the group was really diverse, including (as it has for the last three meetups) at least one registered Republican. Our space is REALLY tight, but we aren't sure where to move to...so everyone has to do some brainstorming for next time. A lot of good enthusiasm...and a lot of good ideas for next time. It's definitely an evolving process. We read part of the DLC memo, and a selection of responses, and that really fired people up. My mind is just whirring with thoughts for next time.
Santa Monica/West LA
A few miles from Karl, Dean supporters hudled into the back of a British Pub. Through no fault of the owner, the bar was just to small for the 75 people or so. LA is like SF in that there is a well-organized steering committee who acts as leaders of the vaious meetups.
Meetup started out with a well-edited video of clips from various events. Two spindles of CD's containing audio and video of Dean were passed out, along with buttons and booklets on Dean's issue positions and a few articles.
I spoke to mention the planned rally at UCLA to coincide with the debate on the 26th. I was taken aback by the applause when my name was announced. People like to see energized youth. The campaign really needs to harness their campaign liasons and student for dean chapters.
All in all, a good meetup, but again facilities are a problem. Bars and restaurants work great for 30 person meetups, but they can't accomodate 100.
Way to go Flagstaff!
Yuma, Arizona had its first Dean meetup last night and about a dozen people showed up in this small, very conservative, military dependent, big agribiz town.
We are pumped just by knowing that we really aren't alone in wanting an America that lives up to its ideals. Living in a place like Yuma can be dispiriting for progressives thinkers. Now we are talking about having car washes, ice cream socials and taking over the local Democratic committee.
God bless Vermont for giving us a candidate that we can come together and rally behind.
ˇPoco a poco, nosotros iremos lejos!
From a Bruin alum to a fellow Bruin, keep up the great work Cameron.
Update on the Menlo Park (San Mateo County) Meetup -- http://
www.sanmateocountytimes.c...1436796,00.html
We had a great meetup in Santa Fe, New Mexico! The local press covered our meeting.
Read about it int todays New Mexican:
www.sfnewmexican.com
The support grows daily!
The meetup in Providence was attended by over 20 folks, with much good discussion about why we were all there (nearly all of us novices to the political campaigns).
We agreed that little Rhode Island is not exactly a big priority on the electoral map, but our close proximity to New Hampshire is a plus when it comes to recruiting volunteers to canvass up there.
I have a general suggestion for a way to channel all this incredible energy around the country -- let's use the Dean Meetups as an organizing tool to REGISTER PEOPLE TO VOTE!
The 40% of the voting age public who don't vote (many younger folks) represent an incredible mass of potential Dean backers.
Perhaps there's a way to get voter registration information to the "hosts" in advance of the next meeting. Then all the attendees could leave the next July meetup with a tangible goal in mind for the next one: Register 5 voters and introduce them to Dean. Assuming we have 60,000+ at the next meetup, that's potentially 300,000 new voters!
IT CAN HAPPEN!
The Chicago meetup at Joe's was much improved over last month, and more people were there. There were excellent two-sided fliers with a list of links-- both the big main ones and the local ones-- on one side and a list of upcoming local events on the other. We discussed fundraising opportunities, but no actual fundraising occurred-- I think everyone this month is concentrating on the upcoming Dean visit on the 22nd, so we want to save our bucks for that.
Someone had the brilliant idea of making homemade Dean 2004 buttons from the downloads on the website, and brought a basket full of them for free. Everyone grabbed one.
There was also a lot of discussion on how to get the word out. Some of us are too shy to actually hand out flyers so we've taken to putting the health care flyer (the one with all the tear-off strips at the bottom) up at bus stops and other places where people are bored and waiting. One woman said she heard about Dean for the first time from a letter to the editor in the paper, and encouraged us to write to our local papers to tell them about the MeetUp we'd just been to and about Howard Dean. Excellent idea.
We really pushed the links this time-- main site, blog sites (both this one and the official one) and the Dean Defense Force. People were really curious about these resources.
I think that most of the work is getting done online these days and that the MeetUps are turning into the place where new people come to find out more and explore Dean as a candidate, and the people who have been there before come to get re-energized, network with other Dean supporters, and brainstorm. It's an experience like no other; I've never been involved in politics before and now I've just volunteered to be a host for the next MeetUp. It really is amazing.
MN meet ups went well, we don't have all the reports in but things are looking great. We are getting lots of people to sign up for events like TC Pride and our road trips to IA & WI.
Late yesterday, we got word that Dean is going to be here on the 20th for a short period of time. We can't wait to make more homemade signs. If people are interested in driving up from WI & IA, etc., please contact volunteerMN@minnesotafordean.org We'll have information on our web site soon!
We are also very excited to have Dean in MN this weekend (Sunday June 8th).
We have a large group going to IA on Sunday & to WI for the rally on the 13th. The midwest needs to stick together & support Dean together!
I was the host for the smallest of the three Chicago Meetups, our first one down on the South Side. Any one familiar with Chicago will be able to guess that Illinois for Dean has been much more successful in organizing the North Side than the South (thanks to the famous Digital Divide), but we're going to start making the South a priority. We had the Meetup at the bowling alley on the University of Chicago campus, so we mostly had students from the area. It was a more social, less business oriented meeting, but we signed up a bunch of volunteers to do some flyering at local events this weekend. All in all, a good first time for the South Side.
At the Buffalo Meetup we had a fairly enthusiastic crowd and decided to try to organize to leaflet two upcoming cultural events here in June and decided on a quieter location for our next Meetup.
From the Lancaster, PA Intelligencer Journal:
Dean Backers find each other on Web
Say Democrat candidate has chance here
By Colby B. Itkowitz
Elliot Sharron [that's me] approached the people sitting at a table in the Barnes & Noble in Red Rose Commons. He was sporting an upside-down Bush/Cheney button.
"Four more years of Bush is scary," Sharron, 22, said.
The group knew immediately he was there to meet with them.
The intimate gathering had formed to rally support for former Vermont governor Howard Dean, one of nine Democratic presidential candidates. They found each other through an Internet startup called Meetup.com.
Meetup.com gives people with similar interests or beliefs the opportunity to meet face-to-face by arranging events for them. Individuals may sign up with an existing group or start a new one.
The site then chooses a date at random and declares that "National Knitting Meetup Day," for example, will take place Tuesday at a predetermined location. Group members check the Web site to see where and when their group will meet.
Local Dean supporters found that the Web site had declared Lancaster the meeting place for "National Dean-in-2004 Meetup Day" on Wednesday. Some 31,000 supporters nationwide have registered with Dean's group of supporters.
Although only three people showed up in Lancaster, the turnout was gratifying for the group, because some posted events did not materialize at all.
"At this stage of the game, getting people together and mobilized is the most important," said Jen VanBuskirk, 24. "It is hard to get people motivated early on."
Primary election season does not begin for another eight months. But Dean needs an advanced start. He has less name recognition than Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Rep. Dick Gephardt, and his chances could be further damaged by his fearlessness in speaking publicly against President Bush as well as his own party.
"The playing field is so uneven," VanBuskirk said. "Especially in a place as conservative as Lancaster."
But according to the group, there are "underground anti-Bushers in the county," and the goal is to convince them to get involved. "It is hard to get even the really politically active involved two weeks before the campaign, let alone eight months." said Ben Donahower, 19.
But this campaign season is different, with a fragmented Democratic party searching for a candidate to challenge Bush for the Oval Office. And according to the group at Barnes and Noble, with issues like the economy, health care and education at the forefront of the Democrat's attack agenda, a liberal like Dean is the party's best chance for 2004.
"Dean seems like the only one to be proud of," Sharron said. "He's consistent, believable and blunt."
And, using a Dean slogan, he added, "Let's be proud of being Democrats again."
"Smashing success" seems to be the consensus! So it was in Bloomington, Indiana. We had at least 20 in attendance, which is four times our group of five from May.
One thing I noticed was that our Meetup had two very distinct portions. There was the introductory portion, where we did meet-and-greet, sharing of campaign literature, and my wife talked for about 15 minutes about the campaign highlights. Many people were there to get more involved, while others just wanted information and left earlier, but seemingly very impressed.
Those who stuck around for food, drinks and conversation, got into informal discussions on more ogrganizational issues, such as house parties, yard-signing, info-tech, etc. On the way home, I came up with the idea of calling this after-meeting the "POST-OP", to fit with the "Doctor is In" theme. 
The idea here is to have the Meetups focus on introducing Gov. Dean to new people, and give existing supporters the opportunity to get together in person and share info and experiences. Literaure can be passed out, videos from the National Media Network shown, that kind of thing. Contributions would be encouraged, without the Meetup being a formal fund-raising event. Then, all those who already involved or interested in getting involved, are invited to stick around for "POST-OP", which would be an organizational meeting. Obviously we would have other organizational and committee meetings on nights other than Meetup, but many will be fired up and ready to get practical right then. This would give them a chance to get to know the local campaign committee, and what activities they may want to sign on for. Thoughts?
LightTraveller, I like the "POST-OP" idea, since that is what happens anyway. I'm looking for ideas on how to get a little more organized in that portion of the meeting-- over this way it mostly just turns into a networking session. There's always a risk of leaving out the newbies when post-op time comes around; I'm thinking maybe it might be worthwhile to have one person continuing to man the "we still don't know much about Dean" questions in that period while someone else mans the volunteer coordination table.
How do other MeetUps do it?
last night's tarrant county (ft worth & arlington TX) meetup was the best so far! i'm pleased to report that we finally have a hard core group of supporters who keep returning and are willing to work. =)
we have also outgrown our coffee house venue and are working on arranging for a lecture hall at our local university (we have two students who can hook that up). i'm proud with the progress we're making.
we also finally had some precinct chairs show up, including one who's a former school board member in the conservative suburb of southlake. both were very enthusiastic.
what we are focusing on now are the upcoming texas bush-whack house parties, taking place on june 27th. we are trying to raise money for dean before the end of this quarter. between now and then, we'll also be attending some local pride events (razzle dazzle dallas is this weekend - we'll have flyers and will be gathering signatures to put him on the ballot). we're also working on doing some meetups OUTSIDE of the meetup structure.
The Philadelphia Meetup was already described in an earlier post and that poster's description was dead on. So, I will not repeat the things he already said.
The one thing that we have done quite successfully I think here in Philly is create an independent group we call Philly 4 Dean. We have our own steering committee and website. Basically, we now use Meetup as a sort of recruiting tool and then educate the new people and direct them to the website where they can take action. As our Meetups are getting so big it is hard to do much work there. Thus, they are more presentation based with plenty of info for what folks can do next. We also have an email listserve so that we can communicate to everyone outside of Meetup.
As for the growth problem that lots of cities are having... this is a great problem to have!! Just remind folks that this is grassroots. People are figuring things out as they go. Things will get solved. Be patient and stay positive!
Baltimore had another fantastic Meetup! We had about 75 people, half of which were new to Meetup! We have found a really great place to meet, the Baltimore Brewing Company, where our last Meetup was held and I hope to continue meeting there.
We promoted our House Party this Saturday, signed people up for several flyering and tabling events, raised money,and encouraged people to visit our own state website Maryland.fordean.org
Most of our local organizing, communication, and planning is done through our website and suggest other cities do do the same. Next month we hope to have a new State Campaign Director attend our event! Dean will be in Baltimore the 24th of June and we hope to call out the Troops to show Maryland is Dean Country!!!
Light Traveller -
As a former Bloomingtonian, I was truly heartened (but not surprised!) to hear about the meet-up there. Out of curiosity, where was it held?
If any of you good men and women out there would like to start an Independents for Dean website, or if you are a registered Independent who wants to make your interest in or support for Dean known, click on my email link below and send me a short message. I would like to gauge how much interest there is in such a website or subcampaign within Dean for America. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Scott
"For the price of the tax cut, we could have had universal health care". These words drove me to my first political meeting in my life in Austin, Texas on June 4, 2003. Arriving 30 minutes early, no one else was there yet, which rapidly changed until the entire space that was booked on the upper terrace of Opal Divine's was crowded. People introduced themselves to strangers, and we sat around dining and drinking local brew, and discussed when we first heard of Gov. Dean and what his appeal to us was.
Promptly at 7 o'clock we were brought up to date with local issues by our state chairman. We were fortunate in having a visit by Gov. Dean the following Monday already planned. Those inclined were invited to paint and put up signs for the event over signs already up for a supportive local candidate for a run-off election this Saturday. Plans were made, people signed up for rosters and duties and yes, t-shirts were sold. We were, again, fresh out of bumper stickers....
This was the third Austin Dean Meet-up, but as I said my first political meeting of any kind, and I have already begun spreading the word to others about what an opportunity we have with this man.
A good time was certainly had by all.
Those who stuck around for food, drinks and conversation, got into informal discussions on more ogrganizational issues, such as house parties, yard-signing, info-tech, etc. On the way home, I came up with the idea of calling this after-meeting the "POST-OP", to fit with the "Doctor is In" theme.
... Then, all those who already involved or interested in getting involved, are invited to stick around for "POST-OP", which would be an organizational meeting. Obviously we would have other organizational and committee meetings on nights other than Meetup, but many will be fired up and ready to get practical right then. This would give them a chance to get to know the local campaign committee, and what activities they may want to sign on for. Thoughts?
I think that is a great idea! Great name -- good hook to it. You're right too, people are all fired up and it's great to get people plugged into projects while their adrenalin is flowing. ... I want to see if SF can try that idea out.
Thanks for the great suggestion.
I was at the Walnut Creek, CA meetup, a new venue spun off from Oakland in the sleepy suburbs to the east. We had a great turnout, with 90 people filling the Caffe La Scala for a well-organized meeting. People were set up well ahead of time to get people to sign in and there were voter registration forms, buttons, bumper stickers, and T-shirts available.
We had a little introductory session but with 90 people there wasn't time for alot of personal exchange. The video was great (using "Doctor My Eyes" at the closing was great - made me wonder if that's the 2004 answer to "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)"), and then we had a brief conversation live with Dean himself. Several people spoke with the crowd, regarding unions, volunteer activities, students, fundraising, and then taking questions from people who wanted to learn more about Dean. There was alot of enthusiasm and plans to do voter registration / Dean tabling at farmers' markets and the county fair (already begun), march in 4th of July parades, etc.
I like Gabriel's idea to get Dean to do lunch time outdoor rallies. It's still really early in the campaign season, but it might help expand Dean's base beyond the "netroots". He's got enough recognition now to draw thousands in major cities, bring in the curious, and get good media coverage.
I was at the Chicago meet-up at the Heartland Cafe. I would estimate 50-60 people, or as many as the bar could hold. We'll need bigger venues for Chicago next month.
This was my first meet-up, and I didn't know what to expect. I've never seen anything like this grass roots movement for Dean. Last night's meet-up has me energized and ready for the fight to take back our government in 2004. I'll be spreading the word about Dean, and bringing more people to next month's meet-up.
all this enthusiasm has literally brought tears to my eyes.
i've longed for the day that people would wake up and realise that we have the power to change this country. everyone who participates in the meetups and this comment board helps validate my thought that this is the real deal. this is that once in a lifetime opportunity that i've been waiting for.
thanks to everyone for their hard work!!!
One other note on Philadelphia... an issue presented at our Meetup was the growing problem of electronic voting machines and the mistrust of having a system with no paper trail, private corporations in complete control and one corporation in particular with direct ties to Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. Rush Holt from NJ has introduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act in Congress last week as HR 2239. Our Meetup members were encouraged to contact their Representative and ask for their support on this issue. We must raise awareness about this issue now so that the country is completely aware by next year.
I would love to hear the campaign say something about this legislation and give it a plug. They can't win the election if the votes aren't counted fairly... but hey, why would any of us have any reason to suspect that votes won't be counted fairly?
Hi Allan,
We were at the Upland Brewing Company, on 11th Street. The staff was fantastic, and held our tables for us even as we went outside for the first hour of the meeting. It was noisy inside, and if we had started presenting in there we would have had to talk over the other customers. In fact, the loudness may very well ace out that venue for further Meetups, although I can see us going there afterwards, either for Post-Op or for "decompression hour" after the whole Meetupo/Post-Op event. We've been offered the use of Democratic Party HQ just down the street for the future, so it would be very convenient to go from there to Upland. They certainly do deserve our patronage.
It does make sense to keep someone "on call" to answer questions even as the Meetup winds down and people either leave or move into Post-Op. Guess it depends on how many info seekers stick around or show up late. At our Meetup, there wasn't any need, since everyone who stayed for dinner was also into talking about organizing. Clay, when you mentioned people "BEGGING for action" you weren't kidding! People were spontaneously suggesting various committees, even a formal Bloomington Dean campaign committee. One of our new volunteers has already been in touch with David Salie at Burlington about setting up a fund-raiser party for Announcement Day on 6/23. Never met such a proactive bunch in my life!
Joe, I do like the idea of using Meetups for voter registration. Do this, absolutely! The thing is, that when I held up the forms last night, only one preson was not registered, and that's because she is still in the process of becoming a US citizen! So, voter reg at the Meetups will probably be largely a case of preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, we need to do that, because you never know!
San Diego highlights:
- We had 100+ take over a downtown sports bar, couple of dozen in North County;
- Dean videos were broadcast on four TV's and two plasma screens at the sports bar;
- By the end of the Sacramento speech video, the whole bar was screaming like it was rock concert;
- Even sports fans who had come from a basketball game and some of the waitstaff ended up turning in sign-in sheets.
Thanks to everyone who packed the back room of Nye's Polonaise in Minneapolis! This was the first Meetup that I had attended in its entirety and it was fantastic. People were busy signing up for tabling at events, discussing where the best downloaded resources were and how best to distribute them.
We also discussed the amazing momentum of Meetups and how Howard Dean is truly flourishing on the internet. The growth of the campaign online is phenomenal, in the truest sense of the word. This can't be denied - Howard Dean is an internet phenomenon. However, we spent some time discussing how best to use the 'wired people' to best reach the 'non-wired people'. This could be a very important side project for any Meetup participant. But how to do it?
I had an idea about telephones that could be used by people without computers or internet access. I don't know the logistics, but here's how it might work: Establish area-code specific hotlines that would hold a directory of Howard Dean information, such as, "Thank you for calling the Twin Cities Howard Dean in 2004 Hotline. Please listen to the following 5 options. Press 1 to hear Howard Dean's position on 'issue X'. Press 2 to find out how you can help Howard Dean be our 44th President. Press 3 to find out when Howard Dean is coming to Minneapolis. Press 4 to find out how to Meetup with other Dean supporters. Press 5 to make a contribution to Howard Dean's campaign". Et cetera or some variation of that. Some of the audio (especially for policy positions) could even be taken from existing internet video of Howard Dean giving enthusiastic speeches. After all, many Dean supporters would admit that they were converted after hearing him speak.
My roommate and I are already thinking about getting a separate line devoted exclusively to automated, 24-hour Howard Dean voicemail information and distributing the number via tear-off sheets like the website tear-offs. The Dean supporters are not only going to help propel Howard Dean as the first internet President, but the first President to cross the digital divide!
Hi Light Traveller --
I agree that most folks who attend the meetups are registered...but I was thinking that we're all ideal candidates to be out there registering voters in between the meetups -- it's a way for us to bring up the subject of Howard Dean to others who aren't actually registered.
All of these posts are very inspiring...great work!
My daughter and I attended our first meetup Wednesday -- in Columbus, OH --and from comments it was clear that the group had grown considerably since previous meeting (Over 30 when I stopped counting). The Dean video was great and stimulated spontaneous applause at a number of points. Structure was very informal with folks sharing views, signing up for further contacts and networking in general. I've been to a lot of political organizing groups in my day and sometimes have felt uncomfortable in them. This group just felt good.
In Spokane (the heart of conservative country) we had a great meetup! 42 people attended and everyone was very ethusiastic. We have a booth at our Pride Festival this weekend and we've already started planning a local event for June 23rd!
Also, our group has had letters to the editor published in one of our weeklies (The Inlander) and in the Spokesman Review in the last week!
Hi All,
I was one of the coordinators for the Oakland, California Meetup (East of San Francisco). We had our biggest and best meetup so far! I sympathize with the San Franicisco folks because we too were outgrowing our meetup-assigned spaces and it made for logistical nightmares. This month we lucked out (after intensive venue research) when one of our coordinators found a very special space for us to meet. Turns out the Mayor of Oakland rigged up a meeting space in town for (among other things) events that encourage public participation in the political process. The gave us a very reasonable price which we covered ourselves and we were able to host more than 200 people! We worked with Meetup to switch our focus to this location and thanfully the voting went as we'd hoped.
While we did have some technical difficulties (par for the course) we were able to get a phone call from Dean himself (on a conference call with the Walnut Creek group) and showed two videos. There was great enthusium in the crowd, a flurry of tee shirt/bumpersticker/pin/sign buying, folks committed to tabling efforts starting this weekend and asked very intellegent and important questions. One big issue that came up was the "whiteness" of the crowd. People wanted us to do outreach with communities of color and labor, which we agree is essential to the campaign. How to do this is not obvious, suggestions and strategy sharing is appreciated. Thanks.
Good point, Joe, about encouraging MeeterUppers to *do* registration. I missed that part, but should have cought it. I'm doing that already myself (got a stack of forms with me all the time). But I did neglect to encourage others at the Meetup to do likewise. It was one of my "five things to do to help elect Dean" agenda item, but we stuck more to the Campaign agenda than the Meetup agenda. Good plan! Let's do it!
It's really very easy to become a voter registrar, at least in Indiana. Go to the office of the board of elections and ask for a stack of forms. They may ask you what you want them for (like they did with me) -- resist the temptation to say "duh!" Just tell them you want to register friends and family. The only qualification is that you must yourself be registered.
You're right, it would be a GREAT conversation opener to promote Gov. Dean!
Concord, NH:
The turnout (50+) was about double the last Meetup help in Concord in April. We did a straw pole of committed Dean folks and got about 80% of the crowd. After breif intros of staff and attendees, we broke up into regional groups to discuss coordination of volunteer activities.
Unfortunately, we did not have as large a turnout as possible, since many of the folks on meetup are from Southern NH and have to drive more than an hour to get to Concord. We really need to press Meetup to open up more locations in NH.
John