Your First Meeting

How to get your new county party off to a good start

First I'll tell you a bit about my county. Steuben County has 30,000 people with 7,727 voters in November 1998. Of these, 49 voted straight-ticket Libertarian while 1,517 cast straight-ticket Republican and 1,006 straight-ticket Democrat ballots. The Libertarian Party statewide candidates matched the statewide averages of 2%-4% here. There has never been a Steuben County meeting of Libertarians before. The first non-Bisson Steuben County resident joined the LP after I did an OPH [Operation Politically Homeless] booth here July 1997. As of February 1999, there are seven LP members here (four of them Bisson family members!).

In advance of the meeting, I mailed inviting letters to the three LP members (not in my family), nine folks whose names I had collected at the '97 OPH booth and six other friends or prospects on my list. I had the meeting listed in the "Community Calendar" area of the local daily and local weekly newspapers. A reporter from each paper called back and did a story, which they also printed this week.

Last night I phoned nine of the above invitees. I was told eight would be attending and I expected six. I arrived at the meeting site (Pizza Hut) 10 minutes early and found two people already there. One of the LP members had brought a friend! Within the next eight minutes there were 11 of us there. Everyone was actually early! Of the seven Steuben LP members, five attended. (Only my two teenagers were missing.) The six non-members were a diverse group. That was perfect for the meeting I had planned.

I used the Advocates "Seminar 1" technique of starting with a few passes around the table with each person answering easy, getting-to-know-you type questions. Everyone gets involved and gets to share a bit about their interests. I then explained the growth of the Libertarian Party, and shared that as more and more people joined us, they should find an active group they could "connect" with. The group at the meeting represented the type of folks that would be joining in the next few years -- politically interested people with a respect for individual responsibility.

I told them that by learning what type of group they would like to join, I could develop a type which new members would enjoy. Our purpose at the meeting would be to explore the opportunities. I then asked Ellen (my wife and fellow Libertarian) to lead 20 minutes of "brainstorming" to collect ideas about successful local groups they had joined in the past and suggestions of what they would enjoy in a Steuben County Libertarian group.

We then selected five of their ideas for more discussion. They included concepts like the timing of meetings, subject matter, goak, and locations. Everyone felt comfortable sharing their ideas and contributed. After a brief Q & A opportunity, I closed with a final "roundtable" asking each attendee to share a "highlight" of the evening. This is another valuable Advocates technique. It gives the meeting a clear ending and everyone leaves with a focus on something they enjoyed as a result of their attendance.

On the way to the car, I had three people offer to help man a future OPH booth and two other general offers to help in the future. Most importantly, Ellen and I had FUN. We are eager to move on from here and build a Libertarian group in our community! I think we're off to a great start.