Tell me about your Unite for Change meeting.

[John Q. Citizen]

Mine was very cool.

The schedule was that for the first hour we would socialize meet and greet etc. People brought finger food and hor d' oeuvres. The second hour was the meeting about organizing Missoula for the GE

I passed around my petition asking Obama to reconsider his stance on FISA. During the evening I got 22 signatures from the 30 attendees

It was great to see a lot of the people who I'd been working so hard with in the primaries. (just a few short weeks ago) Some of us were at camp Obama together. Here in Montana, last in the nation, we put Obama over the top!

The new regional field director was there. He knew the staff that had come down to Ravalli county in the final ten days of the campaign. Me and a few other people had opened our own donated completely volunteer office (we had no paid staff, just us locals) and had been phone banking and canvassing for about a month prior to the staff arrival. We were doing 700 calls a night twice a week out of our office ourselves and when the staff arrived we were able to increase that by a lot.

The Hostess and I had met at camp Obama and she was hired to run the Missoula County Office. I live about 1/4 of a mile into Missoula County but geographically I'm closer to Ravalli county, so more of my campaigning went on there.

I had a great and long talk with the Regional field manager about an idea I have for Obama to visit the Town of Troy, in NW Montana, and specifically a disc golf course there that a local activist working with at risk youths had built with a city/private partnership. The city gave 20 acres of land right in down town Troy, MT, and an area that had been used for drinking and drugging (it used to be called "Hobo Jungle" for years) was turned into a community asset. It's used almost constantly and the city uses it for economic development. They put on some large tournaments each year and draw over a hundred contestants for 3 days from all over Montana as well as from Idaho and Washington. Disc Golfers are natural Obama supporters, and they are also kind of viral trend setters. They encompass pre high school up into their 60's in age. I spoke with the Obama's campaign Chief Operations Officer Betsy Myers last month when she was here about the same idea ( I think disc golf would make an exceptional micro targeting opportunity for Obama)and I wanted to pitch my idea with him and also ask him to bring it up with Betsy again. He knew all about disc golf,(folf) Betsy had never heard of it before I spoke to her.

After an hour of chatting, getting signatures, and munching we settled down for our meeting. The Missoula office will be opening next week. We talked about attracting former Hill supporters as well as independents, and about some of the goals for Missoula. People talked about their experiences in the primary and their expectations for the general.

After that hour I helped the hostess and her kids clean up the event and then I got some interesting info. You know how Obama went to the Crow Reservation and was "adopted " by a Crow family? Well apparently, while athe numbers show that the other reservations had voted for Obama, there were some hard feelings that need to be mended. Some of the interactions with other native American groups didn't go as well as hoped, and a women who was knowledgeable about it was saying that some real political work and outreach was needed. So I'm going to call some contacts and see if i can find a native American liaison for the campaign. I think I have a couple of good prospects. I found that interesting, because a DUer who now lives away from MT had posted at the time Obama went to the res that Obama had been adopted into the tribe of his "natural enemies." He was being facetious, but there was more to it that that.

Anyway, how did your meeting go? How many folks did you have? Share your stories.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Mine was in Bayonne, NJ at the Network Cafe.

I listened to at least a dozen people express why they're supporting Obama and that his election is more than feasible. With enough work with people like us, on the street, we can make this happen. And Obama can't do it alone. We need to work with him from hereonin.

For the first time in years, I felt my cynicism melt away. It's more than wanting to believe this. I actually feel this is a much different election than 2000 and 2004.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. How many people did you have? What was the best story?

[no_hypocrisy]

4. A woman who does custodial work at St. Peter's was near tears

talking about shaking Obama's hand in February of this year -- TWICE! She knows she can trust him because he came up from the streets like her, believes he understands her life and her hopes and dreams. That he can bring us all together. We can be a family as well as a country. I get shivers thinking about what she said and her passion.

About 15 people showed up.

[peace13]

3. Thanks for posting this! My meeting was a huge success...

We had 17 people. I was the host and I only knew half of the guests, at the beginning that is! Now I have more Obama friends and that is fantastic. We did the mixer thing as well and my husband who is too funny loaded the coolers with beer, pop, tea and water. I would not have thought to add the beer and let me tell you, politics on a Friday night are a whole lot more palatable with a beer or glass of wine and some good food. We really have a good group going and it will only grow. To anyone contemplating having a house party I highly suggest doing it. Good hearted people, good fun and good direction for this country of ours!

Let's keep this kicked and see how many parties DU offered up this weekend. Peace, Kim

[John Q. Citizen]

5. Yes! Beer is a great organizing tool when applied judiciously.

Very cool!

[peace13]

6. Do you think that you and I are the only DU'ers that had a party this weekend?

Good job on you for getting people in your world together. I think we need more action and less *issing and moaning around here. Peace, Kim

[John Q. Citizen]

7. I bet there are others. One thing I have noticed is that there are activists for Barack and

there are groupies for Barack.

The groupies (maybe fortunately)don't tend to show up as much when there is work to be done or even when there is enjoyable organizing to be done.

Instead they see their job as defining Barack and defending that definition of Barack. And they enjoy their self appointed roles as the arbiters of Barackism. I think it is this group who most led to the charges of "cultism" during the primary.

We see some of them here on this board. Let someone say, "I think Barack is really blowing it with this FISA thing" and they all scramble out of their keyboards to defend their idealized notion of perfection.

It's ironic in light of Barack's speech about patriotism. They love the speech, but they still don't get it

Obama quotes Twain: “Patriotism is supporting your country all
the time, and your government {candidate} when it {he} deserves it.” We may hope that our leaders and
our government stand up for our ideals, and there are many times in our history when
that’s occurred. But when our laws, our leaders or our government are out of alignment
with our ideals, then the dissent of ordinary Americans may prove to be one of the truest
expression of patriotism.

And it's funny. That's how I feel when one of the groupies attacks. I feel as if my patriotism is being questioned.

[peace13]

10. Thanks for that explanation.

I feel frustrated at times too. I've decided that it is full steam ahead to get Obama in office. Cash in the cow and get those bumper stickers out there for all to see. Last week I was lamenting about Obama not getting stickers and buttons to the county headquarters but hey, if I don't do everything that I can now I will be sorry come November or December or what ever month this thing may be decided in. This is our last chance. Peace, Kim

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Well, the good thing is that signs/buttons/ don't vote. If they did, Ron Paul would be president!

The data shows the one most single effective thing a person can do to have an impact on an election is to knock on doors and talk to your neighbors face to face about why you support a candidate.

It's 1000's of times more effective than signs, bumper stickers, buttons, banners. We all love those things, and we like to wear ours or put them on our cars, but in terms of the hard data they are amazingly ineffective, especially considering the cost to produce them. I know it's hard to believe, it's somehow counter intuitive, but it's the truth.

Registering voters accomplishes both the face to face contact, puts the new voter into the computer system so they can be contacted later closer to the election, and you can never do enough of it.

Phoning voters isn't any where near as effective as canvassing in person in terms of getting people to decide to support your candidate, yet it's very useful to identify which voters do support or don't support your candidate. When you know that then you can make sure you get your voters voted, preferably by absentee/early voting if possible.

I'll see if I can find the data that the DNC guy gave me in terms of how many contacts it takes through what methods to increase your voter turnout. It's fascinating stuff.

[peace13]

12. Disagree with you but hey it doesn't matter.

I am working for Obama every day when I wear the button. I see people on the street, at the store, in the library, at the bank. No way in hell would I talk to any of those people about politics unless....unless, Unless I had the button on. I don't stand in a line and ask, 'Hey how's it hanging. Who ya voting for?' No, people see my button and comment, we share remarks and I pass two buttons along one for my new Obama friend and one for a new friend of my Obama friend. You see this is face to face!!!!!!!!!!!

You could register 1000 new voters all the while you have 600,000 REGISTERED voters who have not decided to vote for your guy. People who will be voting , I might add! I agree we need new registrations. We need people canvasing. But fortunately some people still have jobs and can't be out on the street 24/7. These tools that are held in such little regard by you and yours do capture votes in Middle America. But hey I am sick of having this discussion. It obviously, really, truly, does not matter.

What you are missing is that we are connecting with the use of these materials. Going nuts here, gotta go.

[John Q. Citizen]

14. Talk to you later, have a good one.

[MadAnne]

8. We had about 100 people in this very

small town. thought There were two guys there in their 20's, maybe two couples 30's or 40's and the rest of us 50 and over. I was looking at the photos and noticed how gray the crowd was. A campaign guy was there also and he said that wasn't what he pictured as Obama supporters. How did you work this with the local Dem party? Did you plan together?

[John Q. Citizen]

9. Our local DNC guy (part of the 50 state stratedgy) went to a ton of both Obama and

Hillary events and meetings during the primary.

Now that the Obama for America campaign has merged with the DNC, there is usually common co-ordination so that all the Dem campaigns are working together.

So for instance there will be both information sharing and cost sharing between Obama and the DNC and the other local and state candidates.

I went to the Missoula meeting. Missoula is critical in terms of turn out to win state wide so we have a local DNC guy. I would imagine that Billings has one too on the other side of the state and Helena would have one as well.

Wow 100 people! That's a very good turn out.

It's funny, we had a lot of older folks as well. Some younger but mostly older.

[onenote]

13. around 100 people -- many of them older than you would've expected

I was pleasantly surprised at the range of ages of the people showing up.

[John Q. Citizen]

15. Where was it? 100 is a good sized crowd.

[onenote]

22. northern virginia

[qwlauren35]

16. I went to one in Silver Spring, MD.

It was mainly a neighborhood meeting - I felt a bit like an interloper because I'd found it on a website. It was meant to be "social" rather than a high pumped political event: cheese, crackers, fruit, beer and wine, small talk. About an hour after the party started, our hostess started the DVD. It was on a laptop that had no speakers, so we missed a lot of it, which was probably a good thing, because it speaks to people who don't need speeches to appreciate a candidate who they support based on his politics and positions. Afterward, we just talked about our campaigning experiences. There was a local delegate there who was talking about our assignment as Montgomery County residents, to support the efforts in Virginia and Pennsylvania. There was also a woman who worked for a news station who talked about how things were being reported. There were two people who had been driving to Pennsylvania to campaign and do voter registration. There was a woman who said how much she loved doing it. And a young man who worked with a lot of conservative Republicans but was talking to co-workers and discoverin others like himself who weren't as conservative as he had expected.

I loved it. I was just sad that my mom was too tired to go.

[tnlefty]

17. I was the first one to arrive and for quite a while I was the speck

of white rice there, lol!

There were events all over the Chattanooga area and I chose to attend the one closest to where I live so that I could meet people to network with (hopefully) in local races, too.

There were about 15 of us there and lots of talk about how the country needs to change course: Iraq, the many Constitutional abuses of the Bush** misadministration, the debt, the continuing outsourcing of jobs, etc.

Our concerns demonstrated what I've known for a long time, our differences are less than our shared concerns relating to what we want for our children, grandchildren, the country....:hi:

[qwlauren35]

18. Gotcha on the Speck thing.

There were two Asian women, and me, and one other black guy, in the first half hour. With about 20 others of "caucasian descent". My family said "welcome to the real world". I don't think I realized that I'm used to being places where we are closer to 30-60%.

14% can be very lonely.

But at the same time, it was very meaningful to be reminded that this is NOT a "black candidate". Obama is so much more than that.

[tnlefty]

21. I didn't intend for that to seem unseemly...

as there have been many times that I've attended events for local candidates and I was the one white person there. I'm fondly referred to as the 'speck', and it's all good.

I've worked for a lot a black candidates, and I don't have 'white liberal guilt' either, we're just working for the best for our community, our families, our schools and trying to fend off the rwing freaks around here who want to return us to the 18th century. :hi:

[LiveLiberally]

19. Thanks so much for the report.... it was very heartening /nt

[goldcanyonaz]

20. I can not believe that this only has 1 recommend, here comes #2

[bklyncowgirl]

23. Very nice with a large, enthusiastic turnout

We had about 50 people at Sickels park in Little Silver, NJ. Nice group of people all very enthusiastic. This was my first direct contact with the Obama campaign and I was impressed.