pitching yardsigns, bumper stickers volunteer recruitment- MKE/Sat 7/10

[rodmant]

6 hours noon to 6pm at our annual Lake Michigan summer festival doing
standup sidewalk, Kerry-pitching: yardsigns, bumper stickers, volunteer and leader recruitment, talking points, and yard signs

---
come ons:
-

I have some information on Kerry, are you interested..

would you like to talk about kerry..

Kerry will be in town later this summer..

We have Kerry yardsigns, bumper stickers, and volunteer information..

Have you made up your mind on the election (not the best one)

are you registered to vote?

---
non come on
-

just stand there and wait, watch, listen.. they do come to you..

one volunteer slowly panned a bumper sticker from left to right

snowball effect, once you get a conversation going, others are
naturally attracted and join in

---
handouts/props/signs:
-

we had the Kerry trifold 2-sided pdf with a small localized paper insert stuffed inside

we went through about 80 bumper stickers, the easiest thing to pitch

Two of us wore a Kerry T shirt, one guy had a cylindrical/short straw hat w/a
Kerry bumper sticker across the front.

We all had stickers on our shirts, some of us the blue round Kerry stickers

our handicaped volunteer had a large laminated "volunteer for Kerry" sign on the front of her scooter

Spanish and English "Volunteer for Kerry" shirt stickers:
6-up Volunteer for Kerry (shirt sticker)
Spanish: 6-up Volunteer for Kerry (shirt sticker)

--
discipline:
-

one volunteer cautioned us to only represent Kerrie's positions,
not our own, and not to mention any of our differences. Careful
to down play your ABB attitude. I'm still digesting this and not
resolved yet.

we did our homework - the city attorney said we had a right to be in the park. When I got a beer, one of the vendors told me I had to leave the park - nothing personal he said, he said even if he did support Kerry he would have to say the same. We had a congressional candidate show up in the park with his volunteers, I mentioned the incident. I also talked to the police in the park and they had no
problem with u being there.


--
results:
-

We cleaned up!:
signed up about 40-50 people for either yard signs volunteer work
or both

Talked w/about 4 felons (3 under 25, one in his 30s?)
each of which were convinced that they
could not vote - I told them otherwise. I promised to prove this
to one of them - he said the law in WI just chgd for the worse.

no articulate anti Kerry/pro Bush people that talked, save a thoughful
13 yr old girl who said w/r to the Iraq War - "what about 911?.. we
had to do something.." We had a good discussion.

we all developed a selection mechanism that avoided what we guessed
were unchangable Bush supporters- one guy was friendly about it
and said "don't bother with me - I'm polarized".
One volunteer claimed "all men with booth pauches,
and coolers on wheels" had to be Bush supporters- these types were short and dismissive,
1 or two syallable responses as they walked on away, w/no eye contact.
"South Shore Frolics" festival is in a mostly working class neighboorhood, that gets more
gentrified block by block as yu approach Lake Michigan. It attracts people
from a file mile radius, so
is a true mix of a working class, sprinkling of Yatch club elites ("we're real happy
w/the tax cuts"), and about 5-10%
Hispanics many that don't speak english. I passed out two Kerry position papers
in spanish - a wife read them out loud to her husband - the had told me they could not
speak english.

guess/assessment: 55/45 Kerry/Bush. A number of people very happy that Edwards
was now "on board". People liking the new Kerry TV ads. Several families
overly optimistic that "Bush is out/ no problem".

--
followup/Ouch -yard signs will cost me..
-
Now we have to deliver, about 4 yardsigns. Kerry apparently does
not believe in them. I had thought that would be fine, since we had another volunteer donate 250 of them- he bought them on the web.

So I appeal to you guys, please consider buying signs and shipping them to
them to:

Milwaukee Kerry Field Office
633 S Hawley Rd, Suite 110
Milwaukee WI

This is a long standing/frustrating issue w/the Kerry campaign.


--
caveat: pls don't be don't be offended if I don't respond much to
your responses - just not something I'm good at

[billybob537]

1. Welcome tu DU

Excellent report ,keep up the good work. Don't feel you have to respond.

[RoadRunner]

2. Good show, rodmant.

Tnx for report! :hi:

[Nevernose]

3. Wow, sounds like fun!

Say, what organization were you working with/for?

And why do Kerry's people hate yard signs? They go a long way to lift the spirits of people who are "in the closet" about supporting Kerry, especially in swing states (I'm in Nevada, where Kerry people are still a little shy).

Anyway, keep up the good work, and thanks for the postive read.

[rodmant]

8. I'm not w/any particular org..

That's part of the problem, there are some many
separate groups that support Kerry and it's a challenge
to coordinate them. THe paid Kerry people are young and inexperienced
so a strategy for the Milwaukee area is lacking. We're
missing the black and hispanic areas in my definitely *uninformed*
opinion.

Another defivit is the lack of an officil *local* Kerry website -
Kerry's people need to roll out capability IMHO.

[RetroLounge]

4. Welcome to DU and nice job

I'm in Wauwatosa, and I had my Kerry lawn sign stolen.

I guess the Freepers are scared...

THanks for the work.

RL

[JohnnyRingo]

5. Visual support is VERY important

...As I've stated before, A lot of people tend to vote with their peers.

They look around, see Kerry/Edwards signs and stickers, and think to themselves: "Well I don't want to vote for a loser, I'll vote for Kerry".
I think this is the 4-6% "undecided" in the polls.

Sort of a "lemming effect", but it works.

[rodmant]

9. other plusses for signs

o they identify potencial volunteers - just knock on their door

o they fire up your volunteer base - so I'm told - sorta a
terratorial marker thing? It somehow feels like you've done something.

[JohnnyRingo]

6. And welcome to DU

[wyethwire]

7. Grassroots politics is great

be sure to include voter reg and candidate lit, they are much more effective than stright up visibility