Anybody else go to a Dean meetup?

I'm just back from mine, in Johnson County, Kansas, and we split off this month from the Kansas City, Missouri meetup. We talked about taking over the Democratic party in our county, and are going to again subdivide for next month. About 30 people were there altogether.

The energy level and enthusiasm for Dean is fabulous. Plus, we were happy to have someone there who said he wasn't sure if he preferred Dean or Kerry, was going to both meetups, and we all said, yes, that's the way to do it, glad to have you here tonight.

at Blueberry Hill in the Loop. This was one of five in St. Louis and the first at this location. We had over seventy people attend. People continue to be excited. I am starting to see some of the same people from prior Meetups, but there are always lots of new faces too.

We wrote politicos and asked for their endorsement of Dean. I wrote a very heartfelt letter to Al and Tipper. I think almost everyone else in our group wrote to them as well. I have a feeling the Gores will be getting lots and lots of mail over the next few days.

I hope evryone had a good Meetup. It is very encouraging to see these things continue to grow.

it manana! :)

round trip and am happy I made it and happy to be home again!

Another DUer is co-host for our Meetups so it's really great to see him there! "Why" is the DUer who put together a neat collage of Dean's videos and has created a local website for Mohawk Valley Dean Supporters! http://www.mvdeanforpresident.com that is awesome!

There was a retired New York State retired Supreme Court Justice there and there was also a sweet little old Italiano judge who is running on the Dem ticket for Mayor against a local incumbant republican who has nazi tendencies.


It's exhilerating to be around Dean People in person! :D

Almost everyone there is up to date on current events and aware of the BFEE. I had no idea there were so many of us out there.

The Madison, Wi meetups are now so huge that we have three locations and one of them happens to be in my (thankfully) very progressive neighborhood. We also wrote letters to prominent people about why we support Dean and urging them to take a look at backing Dean. I wrote on a local level to our wonderful County Executive, Kathleen Falk and on a national level to Jesse Jackson (the other alternatives were Al and Tipper Gore and Bill Bradley), I think Jesse could do more right now to help Dean than even Al Gore. If Jesse Jackson endorsed Dean it would be a powerful statement about Dean's committment to civil and human rights and just imagine having Jesse campaigning with Dean in South Carolina.

So another good meetup.

It went quite well, for the first Dean meetup in an area that is supposedly turning Republican before our eyes. (Ha! We'll see about that!)

I figured we'd do well to get 6 or 8 people to show up at the first meetup, but ultimately, about 18 or 20 had rolled in. Most of them were college kids, but I understand they are often in the majority at Dean gatherings.

Our local mailing list already has over 100 names on it, thanks largely to recently getting to share a table at the County Fair with the local Democratic Club. The high point of that event was when our congressman, Steny Hoyer (Dem House Whip) stopped by the table to thank us for our work for Democrats. He seemed a quite surprised to see the table displaying mass quantities of Dean materials but almost nothing for any other candidate. No doubt he would have preferred to see Gephardt literature there!

There was one guy that drove in from Devil's Lake (an hour and a half!)

they asked me how I found out about HD, and I told them it was through a link on DemocraticUnderground.com. It was supposed to air on the 11 o'clock news, but since I am at work, I don't know if they used it or not.

I'm locking this thread. Please refer to this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=52192

Punkingal, DU moderator