Another Fantastic Saturday
And a (concept of a) plan for growth.
Attendance
Turnout increased by 100 people this Saturday. We had 347 patriots, two patriotic dogs (named Nova and Eli), a six-year-old girl named Jojo who brought a protest sign she made on her own. Our youngest patriot was three.
Our average attendance, excluding No Kings day, is 252.
Counter-Protester
We had one counter-protester who stood across the street and was holding a sign that read “Vets for Trmp.”
Yes, he forgot the U. We all make mistakes.
Please refrain from engaging with counter-protesters. The world is pretty crazy right now, so to be safe, let’s just let any counter-protesters voice their opinion without engaging.
Honestly, we were worried for his safety, too, as he was standing pretty close to the traffic.
Pro-Democracy Supporters vs. Well, What Else Can You Call Them But Anti-Democracy Supporters?
We were clicking away yesterday.
I saw one guy in a white F150 pull to the side of the road so he could get his camera out then merge back into traffic while recording our demonstration! Click.
The response from passers-by was overwhelmingly positive.
We counted 808 neutral cars (thanks, Mike!), 278 cars that honked, waved, gave us a thumbs-up, or were recording compared to 15 that gave us a thumbs-down or the bird.
That’s 25% pro and only 1% against. It’s our job to move that 73% neutral into the pro-democracy pie slice.
Preparing For Winter
As Fall settles in, I’ve been increasingly thinking about how we sustain our presence during the Winter months.
It is inevitable that fewer people will want to come out as the weather gets colder, so to perpare for that we need to increase our ranks.
Maintaining a strong presence throughout the Winter sends an unmistakable signal to the larger community about our resolve and commitment, and encourages others to do the same.
Let’s Grow Our Community
We need to start building our list. The larger our community, the more likely we will have people willing to come out during the Winter months.
I haven’t been able to find much actual research on the topic but common sense dictates the decrease is likely steep.
I used to play outdoor touch football year round and the decrease in people coming out to play during the Winter verses the warm weather months was in the 75-80% range. I think that’s a reasonable expectation for us.
A (Concept Of A) Growth Plan
As of now, we have 1,600 subscribers to Southwest Crier. At our current rate of attendance, about 16% of our subscribers attend the rallies. In order to maintain our current presence, we’d need to increase the number of subscribers by 75%.
That’s a goal of 2,800 new subscribers in the next two months. Or, if you’d like more palatable numbers, that’s 1,400 a month, 350 a week, or 46 a day.
Twenty-eight hundred new subscribers in the next two months sounds really ambitious, but we are really ambitious people, aren’t we?
Think of it this way: If each of us recruits just two new subscribers in the next two months, we will have far exceeded our goal. Easy!
I know many of you have already been sharing Southwest Crier far and wide. Thank you!
I will be sharing ideas for how we can increase our reach in subsequent posts but please share your ideas in the comments below.
Labor Day
These are the Labor Day rallies that will be held tomorrow, should you want to attend:
May Day Strong is the organizational force for this national protest effort. The theme is “Workers Over Billionaires.” (Share your sign ideas in the comments!) If also want to also protest on Monday, there are opportunities in:
Website Updates
I added several more posts on attending protests and sign-making for people who are new to this and added a link to the Welcome email new subscribers get to help them get acclimated quickly.
There are a series of posts written by myself and Mike. The posts are informed by Mike’s direct experience organizing these rallies and some in-depth research I did from experts in pro-democracy demonstrations and protest sign-making best practices.
You can get the research PDF on this page (there’s even a podcast about it, if you don’t want to read through the whole thing) as well as links to the series of articles.
I leave you with this fitting song for all you shiny, happy people:
Love the tallying of the haters! Was always curious if my estimation was accurate.
Thank you, for all your efforts, we need people like you to create the energy.