Friday, August 14, 2015

LaX4Bernie - Fuel the Bern #2


LaX4Bernie = Fueling the BERN Friday, August 14, 2015 

WHAT'S COMING UP!
Trip to Dubuque! William McLoughlin is organizing a car/van pool to see Bernie at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa on Sunday, August 16. Bernie speaks at 6 p.m. BUT the group will be leaving from the southside Walmart parking lot at about 1 p.m. If you are interested, please RSVP for William's event: 

http://bit.ly/1PqRYJ5 AND RSVP to the official Bernie event: http://bit.ly/1DxIyK8

La Crescent for Bernie Organizing Meeting!
Kendra C is hosting a Bernie event on August 24 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.. at the Sports Hub, 25 N Walnut, La Crescent. If you live in the La Crescent area or have friends or relatives or co-workers there, please let them know about this event! Minnesota's caucuses happen early (March 1) so organizing there is very important! RSVP to this event http://bit.ly/1PalbqE

Ongoing Tabling! We are tabling at Cameron Park Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. We hope to add more sites in September, but we need volunteers to staff the table! So, there will be a HOW TO TABLE FOR BERNIE training the first half of September and monthly after that. If you want to sign up to table right now, go to tinyurl.com/LaXTable4Bernie. If you want some training before you sign up, please email Cathy.
 

Create an Event! The berniesanders.com/event/create website lets you create your own Bernie organizing event. A new organizer's toolkit page is available at berniesanders.com/toolkit and/or you can request help from some local volunteers - post on one of our local social media sites. We have some veteran organizers in our area who can help with your planning and implementation (and be sure to let us know about your event!)

IS IT TOO EARLY TO SPREAD THE BERN??!!      For gosh sakes, the Wisconsin presidential primary isn't until next APRIL 5! Isn't it too early to do all this Bernie stuff!?

Friends, are you thinking this very thought at this very moment? Please consider these points that might convince you that it is absolutely NOT too early to start spreading the word about Bernie!

* Bernie's name recognition is very poor at this stage. And you may know that there's a popular twitter tag #BernieMediaBlackout which kind of tells you all you need to know. And, unfortunately, our fellow Americans are not always up on their political knowledge. Please check out this rather depressing report on results of a 2014 Annenberg poll. For example, only about 36 percent of those surveyed could name all three branches of government (and 35 percent could not even name one).

* Bernie's campaign is not supported by billionaires. This is not a slogan. This is a fact. While he is raising money from record numbers of contributors, his overall campaign “war chest” will be exponentially lower than those of his serious rivals. Less campaign cash = fewer campaign commercials. Why is that important?

* If people don't know Bernie, and if we don't tell them who he really is and what he can really do as president, then he will be defined by his rivals and their spokespeople and their campaign commercials. Even though people hate negative commercials, they are effective in negatively defining a poorly known opponent and even sowing seeds of doubt. (Here's a good article about "branding" and how progressives aren't very good at it.)

* Truth or myth? I don't know, but the marketing “rule of seven” says that it takes seven touch points or contacts with a customer before she/he decides to take the next step. Let's make those seven and more contacts positive, affirmative and hopeful.

* More volunteers, more energy, more ideas, more events! The more people we can touch with canvassing, talking to neighbors, holding events, connecting people with Bernie info on social media, the more helpers we get to spread the campaign. 


* Bernie is going to need EVERY SINGLE VOTE he can get in every state to overcome built in biases toward the status quo, establishment, big money candidates. This is not your normal campaign. We may get a field office but don't hold your breath. If we don't, all that stuff that the campaigns usually organize and pay for - identifying Bernie voters, tabling, door knocking, printing literature, stocking office supplies, phone banking, canvassing, get out the vote - we will need to do. If we do get a field office, we'll already be ahead of the game and ready to jump in running.

LAX4BERNIE TEAMS - ARE YOU SIGNED UP?     
Three groups are working on the Bernie campaign right here and right now! Please sign up! We need active volunteers for the OUTREACH team, the MEDIA team and the HOME team. Email Cathy if you want to get connected to one or more.

LA CROSSE STUDENTS FOR BERNIE?      We have several institutions of higher learning in our area - let's help get a LA CROSSE STUDENTS 4 BERNIE group going! Do you have a connection to UW-L, Viterbo, WTC, or Globe University? If yes, can you help set up an or several student events either at your institution or in the community? It would be great if we could have regular Bernie tabling at each school for example or a Bernieversity teach in event or something that will bring young voters into the campaign. Let me know if you're interested and/or spread your ideas on our social media network. If even one student from each school could start meeting together and organizing events, the potential is incredible.

CONNECT WITH LA CROSSE 4 BERNIE ON SOCIAL MEDIA!   by WILLIAM M - We have several options to keep you up to date and provide places online to thoughtfully engage with fellow Bernie Supporters in the La Crosse area and in the state of Wisconsin. Please do not feel overwhelmed by the many options available. They are provided so you can connect in the way that suits your needs. By no means do you have to sign up for anything you do not use or want to use. We encourage you to participate at your own comfort level, and planned events will be updated across all platforms, so no one will feel out of the loop.

LaCrosse4Bernie Email List
lax4berniesubscribe@yahoogroups.com 


LaCrosse4Bernie Local Blog
http://www.couleeprogressives.org

Like Our Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/LaCrosse4Bernie

Join Our Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/groups/LaCrosse4BernieCommunity

Follow LaCrosse4Bernie on Twitter (@LaCrosse4Bernie)
http://www.twitter.com/LaCrosse4Bernie

Follow LaCrosse4Bernie on Instagram
http://www.instagram.com/lacrosse4bernie

Do you use Reddit?
http://www.reddit.com/r/Wisconsin4Sanders

The Official Bernie Sanders Volunteer Signup
www.berniesanders.com/work

Find New Events Here
www.berniesanders.com/events

BERNIE APPEARANCES     Bernie will be at various venues in Iowa from Friday through Sunday (including the Dubuque appearance noted above). For a detailed list of Iowa appearances, see the Des Moines Register's candidate tracker at http://dmreg.co/1dQzO5F

THE NEXT BIG BERNIE THING     The national Bernie team is hoping to make the first official Democratic debate (October 13) the next big nation-wide Bernie event. More details will be available soon, but in the meantime, let's find a space that will hold 100 to 150 people, that has good video (the debate will be televised on CNN but there may be a simultaneous Bernie fact-check feed), that let's us bring treats, and that will be a rip-roaring spot for us Bernie-acs to

VOTER REGISTRATION TRAINING
OFFERED IN CITY OF LA CROSSE. As we know, it's super important to make sure as many eligible voters as possible are registered to vote. Bernie will need as many votes as possible. People who wish to be certified to register voters in the City of La Crosse ay sign up for one of two training sessions offered by Teri Lehrke, the City Clerk. Please note that voter registration must be a NON-PARTISAN activity. Registrars must register anyone who qualifies and may not do any politicking while registering voters. The sessions are: Monday, August 31 at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday, September 2 at 9:00 a.m. Both sessions will be held in the third floor conference room in City Hall, 400 La Crosse Street. Call Ms. Lehrke to register for a session: 608 789-7556. THIS IS JUST FOR CITY OF LA CROSSE! If you live in another community, contact your city clerk to request a training session.

HELP LAX4BERNIE GROW! Do you know people in our area who want to help elect Bernie Sanders? Please have them email couleeprogressive@hotmail.com to be put on the mailing list and get information about local activities and opportunities to help. 



COOLEST BERNIE SITE OF THE WEEK:  http://feelthebern.org

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great job Cathy! I will Live Tweet the Dubuque event, which has been moved because the old venue was too small to accommodate the number of people coming. I am going to take as many pictures as I can along with video. Follow the Live Tweet @LaCrosse4Bernie. Once on the ground, I will find out if anyone will be streaming video for those of you at home.

In addition to the Bernie event in La Crescent, there will be events in Platteville and Wisconsin Rapids. Both Platteville and Rapids are part of WI-3rd, Ron Kind's territory. I will be attending the La Crescent, Platteville, and Rapids events to reach out to them, coordinate with them, and strategize with them. If ANYONE is interested in coming with me to Platteville or Rapids, let me know.