Meetup Report: August in Milwaukee

Well, again, tremendous thanks need to go the the proprietors of the Milwaukee Ale House, who moved a regularly-scheduled event for us, so we could use the downstairs deck there by the river. They deserve all the money you could possibly give them. And I think we gave them a lot last night--the unofficial count is around 120 Meetuppers, very clearly our best total yet.

Bridget and Carin were running the big show last night, and they were awesome. Absolutely amazing. Despite some early troubles with sound systems, Everything went almost totally without a hitch.

Bridget asked two people to speak--Chris, a first-timer, and Brad, who had just moved here from Brooklyn, New Yawk, where he was active in Brooklyn for Dean. Both speakers were brief but eloquent about why they support Howard Dean.

Then, we had some "getting to know you" and brainstorming time. Bridget and Carin asked us at our tables to think about ways to improve outreach to other communities besides the very wired and, admittedly, very white crowd in attendance last night. I'm looking forward to the executive summary of those suggestions--just in the little bit I could overhear at other tables, it sounded like a really good collection of ideas, and I hope we'll be able to put them into practice in the coming months.

I spoke about the impending visit from the Governor on August 23--it's not up in Dean's Sleepless Summer page yet, but we expect him here in town as a part of that tour. Plus there's still time for Wisconsinites to register to host or attend a house party with a conference call from the governor on August 17!

My wife talked about our house concert/ fundraiser on August 25 featuring singer/ songwriter Darryl Purpose. Rochelle talked about all the Dean Community Corps volunteer efforts we're doing this month. To help out on those, you should join Milwaukee for Dean, so you can continue to receive updates about them and other things.

Then the meat of the Meetup: We wrote to the New Hampshirese New Hampshirites New Hampshirans Granite-Staters. We had 110 packets to go through--220 names--and I got back 91 of them. I have to assume that the others disappeared when the rain started and people moved inside or went home. I am hopeful that the letters got written anyway. If anyone did take white sheets home, please, follow the "email me" link on the right and email me the numbers from your packets after you right the letters! The numbers are just below the addresses inside your packets.

All of the take-home names got taken home, too, and I feel good that many of those letters will be written, as well.

The disappointing part of the Meetup this month was that there was no press. Sigh. Fax Mistress Stacie did her best to spread the word, but--nothing. Thanks for trying, Stacie.

Thanks also need to go to Michael, whose work at the literature table is nothing short of amazing, and Tony, who gets everyone to sign in no matter what. I like that. You rock, guys. Hats are also to be tipped to Carrie, who helped a whole lot before the big show began, and Erik, for solving our sound problems. Go Team Dean! I should also mention Meagan and Tony's efforts at African World Fest last weekend, and Jim and Tony's work at State Fair. (Tony sure does a lot, doesn't he? Maybe we should all go to his house party to say thank you!)

I got to meet a lot of great new people and reconnect with old faces, and I hope to see all of them at future Milwaukee for Dean events. I feel more and more positive every day about this campaign and the way it is very quickly moving to the front. Milwaukee is going to be critical to Dean's efforts to win Wisconsin--and win it he will, both in February and in November--and I continue to feel like we're really unstoppable.