In 1980 Deanna Lohmann and I collected thousands of signatures to get Ed Clark's name on the ballot in Missouri. We had a meeting, got TV coverage and quite a few people to attend but did not get their names. Major mistake. We were young, about 23. We did our best to let them know what the LP is about but didn't know what we were doing.
In '94 I ran an active campaign for US Congress. I collected names at the district fair held in our community and didn't do anything with them but send them a mailing about the LP and my campaign. In '95 I collected names and didn't do anything with them. Fewer people were stopping by the booth. In '96 still fewer people were stopping by the booth. I switched my approach. I started focusing on young people. About 30 young people left their names.
Shortly before the next year's fair I sent those 30 and about 370 other people, whose names I had collected throughout the years, an invitation to stop by the booth. That year, '97, about 230 young people stopped by the booth to leave their names. Word was out the Libertarian Party is cool.
That was September, 1997. Two months earlier, some long standing local Libertarians and a few new faces showed up for the first meeting since 1980. It wasn't a very good meeting but out of it came a Treasurer and a Computer Literate. The three of us decided to start having regular meetings every two months.
Our first meeting/event was the aforementioned September fair. Then came November and time for another party activity/meeting. What to do. What to do. A check of the local newspaper showed that a group of young people, the Youth Advisory Council, was going to propose to the city council that a law be passed making possession of cigarettes illegal for minors.
A sort of the database provided the names of about 300 people to invite to a meeting to help block the proposed ordinance. About 40 showed up. We took names. We presented the LP statement of principles and an invitation to join the local party for free. We got our first card carrying members. We discussed ways to block the ordinance and planned weekly meetings.
About 15 young people, not always the same ones, started showing up for the rmeetings. We sent out postcards. We provided food or snacks and sodas. The young people were successful in blocking the proposed ordinance and that issue ran its course, but not before we had gained almost 50 card carrying members and had issued our first newsletter.
Now what. It was February. A check of the paper revealed the city council was going to pass an ordinance allowing the police to confiscate car stereos being played too loudly. We did not have time to prepare a successful block of the ordinance, but it was an excuse to go out with a petion to where young people gather, make friends for the LP and add 140 names to the database. It also gave us something to talk about in the next newsletter and it gave a young Libertarian experience addressing the city council.
Hmmm. What else. Well let's start advertising. $1800 bought a 1X2 ad that will have run 21 days a month for 8 months, through the November election. We already had a telephone line, 651-FREE. It's practically useless. (People do not come to us. We have to go to them.) Once, however, our newspaper ad caught the attention of a TV reporter who called for a TV inverview.
The phone was also nice to have when a young person called to see what could be done to improve conditions for skateboarders. That campaign, still going on after three months, has gained about 70 new card carrying members and a TV interview. Meanwhile, Jami Plouffe, one of the young people to first embrace the Party, took it upon herself to sign up still another 30 card carrying members at a local music festival for young bands.
We first met one year ago. We first offered free membership in the local party 9 months ago. We now have about 150 card carrying members who carry their cards and show them.
With my full time involvement, the help of Mike Gardner to keep money records, i.e. the Treasurer, John Hendricks to do membership cards and format a newsletter, i.e. the Computer Literate, James & Mary Nall to write letters to the editor, and Jessica Nall's presence on campus, we've got a fairly active local affiliate.
But I still don't know what I'm doing.
greg
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