If you have any suggestions or ideas on how we can use this meetup group and this opportunity that we have here to accomplish these goals:

• Restoring our liberties, our Constitution, and our cherished republic.
  
• Following the example and leadership of Ron Paul and spreading his freedom message.
  
• Equipping and helping every member of this group to become a freedom activist.
  

Please email your suggestions and Ideas to ronpaulpgh@gmail.com

If you also have any suggestions, ideas, or tips (the tax free kind) for me I'd love to hear them as well!

Letter writing to all the representatives in the senate in house that ask them what they think about Ron Paul and explain to them that we support his ideas. If people from all different states wrote their representatives and asked them what they think of Ron Paul I think it would be good. One because it would put some pressure on these representatives and make them think about their integrity and that being like Paul might not be such a bad thing (if people keep writing them about him), and also if they took the time to write anyone back we could see what the average person's opinion in congress is when it comes to Dr. Paul...I'm still curious as to why he doesn't get much backing from most people in congress, startling really.

I've been thinking a lot about what one person can do, and how we can leverage our combined strength. Education is of course a vital step, and I'm big on giving people something concrete to do once they see the light. So suggestions like Sara's are perfect - specific and timely. Even for myself, I've been wondering how best to stay updated on proposed legislation so I know when to write or call, and for that matter when is it better to write vs. call? So here's some initial ideas:

• Create a card w/ our meetup link and a few steps to get started as a freedom activist (know your legislators, find out about proposed bills, etc)
  
• Create a welcome page that directs them to files or messages with more details about how to write a compelling note to legisators, how to research issues, how to get involved in political parties to change the rules, etc.
  
• Keeping up-to-date on all the issues that impact freedom is very time consuming. The advantage of a group is that each of us can choose an area to focus on (real id, gun control, health mandates, etc) and maintain a file or message on that issue.
  
• With all the info and links we could potentially be managing, we might want to determine if meetup.com is the best forum, or do we create a website for info mgmt and just use the meetup for events and messaging.
  
• There are a lot of freedom-minded groups already in existence; let's start sharing URLs and summaries so we can tap into info that already exists. Should that be a separate message?
  

If you have any suggestions or ideas...

Any chance events could be published in a publicly-accessible Google calendar?

Scratch that. Apparently Meetup calendars can be imported into Google calendars. FYI: just copy the Outlook calendar URL and feed it to "Add by URL" in Google Calendar.

"If you have any suggestions or ideas on how we can use this meetup group..."

Here are some ideas I have, in no particular order:

• Advertise our group and important liberty-related info via an easily navigated webpage.
  
• Advertise our group and important liberty-related info via coffee cup jackets and other unconventional media.
  
• Republish Pittsburgh City Council meeting minutes on a searchable website.
  
• Link to and publish Allegheny County government news.
  
• Link to and publish Pennsylvania government news.
  
• Link to and publish federal government news.
  
• Coordinate with ACLU, PA Clean Sweep, and other liberty-loving organizations.
  
• keep the group non-partisan
  
• Endorse candidates and never parties.
  
• Establish group principles and develop a questionnaire for politicians.
  
• Focus on protecting civil liberties and restoring constitutional rule of law, and downplay fringe issues like 9/11 truth and income tax evasion. In other words, avoid mission creep.
  
• Avoid becoming a cult of personality centered around Ron Paul, Alex Jones, or anyone else.
  
• Treat opponents with courtesy and respect, even if they don't deserve it. That is, follow Ron Paul's advice to follow the Golden Rule.
  
• Be tolerant of different opinions. Give people benefit of the doubt that though their heads are up their asses, their hearts are in the right place. Assume they have some positive intention, even if you see their positives as negatives.
  
• Stay on topic when attending hearings, protests, etc. Real ID proponents don't need to know why the Fed should be abolished.
  
• Cultivate good PR skills to avoid being labeled nuts, crackpots, tin-foil hat wearers, etc.
  
• Come up with a new name for the group that is representative of our ethos and long term goals. Something with a memorable acronym would be best (like PULP: Pittsburghers Upholding Liberty Principles, only less lame).
  

Addendum: I almost forgot to suggest liberal use of social media, like Facebook, Ning, Twitter, etc.

Great suggestions Eric! Keep up the good work! I'm sure that we will implement many of these over time. Continue to bring them up at meetings.

Are there any savvy coders in this group that could whip up a Digg-like system we could use to promote liberty-related articles?

Great list of action items to be discussed at future meetings!

This is an excerpt from emails I sent Nick on March 15 & 16. I would have posted these ideas here, but he'd specifically asked ideas to be sent to him:

On the message board you asked for ideas and suggestions on how we can use this meetup group to accomplish the stated goals. Here are mine, though some are probably obvious:

1) Continue to attend and make our views known at events like the REAL ID hearing at Pitt. Make available to the public/attendees info that includes our views on as well as actions to take in response to the specific issue(s) addressed by such events. Possibly compose and send press releases to the major and minor media outlets announcing such events that might not get much publicity due to the lack of promotion by the sponsoring group/gov't entity like the REAL ID hearings.

2) Track and publicize pending national, state, county and municipal legislation affecting issues with which we are concerned, and communicate info about and actions to take in response to such legislation to our membership and allied groups/individuals. Possibly host one night/day letter writing and/or phone calling events as Amnesty International does and like the Mail Blizzards we had for the campaign.

3) Forge coalitions and organize joint events/actions with other like-minded groups/organizations/individuals. (like RTR, etc.)


4) As we had discussed at our inaugural meetup, host public educational events. These could be issue-specific or about general freedom principles. I think it would be great if we could recruit nationally and regionally prominant speakers for such events. That's it for now. I'll probably have more later. What are your thoughts on these?

Hey Nick,

I forgot to list:

5) Identify, recruit, support and promote candidates for public office as well as identify, support and promote current elected officials, at all governmental levels, who share our principles and goals. This again is something we've already done in the RP campaign (esp. as regards convention delegates) and which I believe we discussed a bit at the inaugural freedom activists meetup.