Second Meeting - Already?

Here we are and it is our second meeting already! To say that we are nervous would be a tremendous understatement. The Organizing Committee have been working hard, the emails have flown by, sometimes numbering more than several each day. It is not unusual for one member of the team to be sending them out at 3:00 AM! Most of us read those first thing in the morning and the day starts from there. There is always much to do. We have a whole plate full of organizational tasks plus getting ready for the meeting. This is not a complaint, we knew what this was going to entail when we started the project and we gladly do it. This is certainly one of those cases where the end justifies the means. In fact, the work is very satisfying. But, I digress, so back to getting ready to have a meeting. We had to have an emergency meeting on Sunday to make sure we were ready for this upcoming meeting on Monday. We needed to flush out the final agenda and frankly, the events of the week had to be taken into consideration. The Cap and Trade Bill has taken a back seat for now. Health Care is the big issue and we are making headway. The August deadline set by the administration to pass the bill is not going to be achieved. This is great news and we need to keep up the heat! So we took a hard look at our agenda and made sure that we were addressing all the issues we needed to address. We had to make sure that we informed those new members what we are all about, we need to reinforce that we are about action not just talk, we need to explain our relationship to the Cincinnati Tea Party and our legal status as a 527 organization. We then move on to the important topics of the day, which at the moment is Health Care, but we also had to review the topics that we had collected at the previous meeting and report what we had done with those and what are intentions are going forward. We then would allow time for the group to speak and interact. We feel strongly that we do this at each meeting. It is not about us, we need to cede the floor and let the greater group have their voice. This interaction is extremely important. From this point we then move to forming our Neighborhood Groups and asking for volunteers to step forward. We need to have people work on membership and technology at the moment and a host of other things. Finally we summarize some of the events that are happening locally and close the meeting. All through this we have to try to keep to our one hour time schedule so that we can respect peoples time. In addition to this there are email meeting announcements to send and flyer's to pass out. That is a lot for four people to do! Well, the truth is we have had some help. One of our team members has enlisted the aid of his wife and two daughters and that should not go unnoticed. They have been a remarkable help. They walk the neighborhoods passing out flyer's, they were at the meeting (more about this in a minute) running the sign in tables, and our official photographer is one of our team members wife. So a big Thank You is in order to them!

Now it is time for me to get to the meeting, Holy Cow! We had over 150 people in attendance! This is well over what we had at the first meeting. There were many new faces and many from the first meeting. We had heard from several people that they would be out of town, vacations and other commitments and would not be able to attend this meeting so we were not sure what to expect. So when the room filled up we were very pleased! We were also pleased with the degree of enthusiasm the group always brings with them and the level of respect the group always has as the meeting is conducted. Each meeting has been a pleasure to attend and conduct. I always hear from people, both before and after the event, a thank you for organizing the group and the event and I am sure my team members hear the same and I am always somewhat bewildered when I here it. Please don't get me wrong, I appreciate the thank you and I understand it, but I consider this work my duty rather than something I should be thanked for. This country and its freedom is dear to me and we have to save it because it is in danger. Something has to be done. That is why we have these meetings. The meetings are important. People are watching us. They are counting the numbers. They saw 94 last time, they saw over 150 this time. That is not the outcome they were looking for. Let's show them a bigger number next time, because surely they want us to fail. I don't see failure in the cards. I want to extend my great big thank you to all of you that take the time to come to the Liberty Township Tea Party meetings you presence means something. And for those of you that have not yet attended a meeting, consider this an invitation to come see what we are about.