We Can No Longer Stand By! How to Organize Your Own Community Rally.
“I am tea’d-off! Minutemen, it is time to call national awareness to the attempted seizure of our beloved nation by a few! When our non-representing representatives enact Bills totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, without reading them, hopelessly enslaving the taxpayers, and making it impossible for our children to inherit a debt free nation, we no longer can stand by. Billions of dollars are being poured into unlimited government speeding schemes to benefit Wall Street criminals and illegal alien interests. It is time to start with an April 15th Tea Party, after that, there will be more to come!” Jim Gilchrist, President of the Minuteman Project, Inc.
HERE IS WHAT TO DO!
1. Pick a prime location and time in your town. The best place is near a main street at an intersection with heavy traffic.
2. Tell your friends, family, co-workers and everyone else you know about the rally. Build a strong RSVP email list. Also, build a strong phone tree. Give updates and tip the closer the event comes. Create a facebook and a Tweeter group so the group can communicate with one another, exchange cell phone numbers.
3. Make numbers of signs. No smaller than a top of a cardboard file box, approximately or 18” X 24” Use only legible slogans which sends a clear message to the passersby and the public in general. Write in BIG LETTERS your slogan. Use a simple Word program on your computer to create a easy to read 8 1/2 X 11 flyer, make copies on colored paper. Appoint a spokesperson in the event the media wants an interview. Make your statements clear, short and firm.
4. Call your local talk radio hosts and ask them to announce the location, date and time on the air a few days leading up to the rally. Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper announcing the rally. E-mail the bloggers in your area and ask them to post a notice about the rally. Handout the colored flyers to everyone at grocery stores, Churches, schools and High School athletic games.
5. Write a press release and email, mail and fax copies to the local TV stations, radio stations and newspapers. Call the reporters who cover local events, leave messages on their voice mail.
6. On the day of your rally, show up with your group, be loud, visible, happy and engage the public. Wave your signs, make lots of noise and move about to get attention. If reporters interview you, give them some good sound bytes for their stories. Stay on message and keep your answers short and coherent.
7. Bring sign-in sheets to capture the names, emails and phone numbers of everyone who attends the rally and/or says they support what you are doing. Everyone must be prepared to hand out flyers and have a short statement of who you are and what you are doing. At the end of the rally, you should have a large list of people that will help plan the next, much bigger and louder, event. If you have a mega-phone, use it!
8. Add your pictures, video and an after-action report to your facebook group, and send this stuff to the bloggers and reporters that you originally contacted. Ask them to post the photos, story and video. Everyone should bring a disposable or inexpensive camera to the event. Appoint someone to be the photographer.
9. Thank everyone who attended via email and phone, and set up a meeting to plan your next event. With your new list of people in your community, you will have a base to draw from so the work for the next rally can be shared and not fall on the shoulders of the faithful few. Encourage everyone to commit to bring at least one friend to the next rally. Show the photos you took at the last rally to your friends and have the good ones enlarged so you can use then as an inspiration of what to expect for the next rally.
10. Organize a carpool, find a friend in your neighboring town or county and help them organize a rally there. You and your people are now veterans and should be able to keep the momentum going around your area.
***Remember, obey all laws, don’t put yourself in harms way, don’t use profanity and most of all, MAKE THE RALLY AN ENJOYABLE EVENT!
Good fellow patriots and God Bless America!
Jim Gilchrist, the staff and associates of the Minuteman Project, Inc.
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds. — Samuel Adams
