Get in on the ground floor! Many JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Groups are now being formed throughout our nation. Let's get serious about preserving our freedom under the Constitution by stopping the North American Union in 2008. Become an organizer or member of a JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup group in your area now. Both members and non-members of the John Birch Society are welcome as organizers and members.

All Americans concerned about preserving our unique life of freedom and prosperity as secured by the U.S. Constitution are invited to organize JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetups in their own local areas. These Meetup groups provide Americans of all political affiliations with the networking and educational tools needed to work with other Meetups across the nation to preserve our personal freedoms and national sovereignty by stopping the merger of the United States with Mexico and Canada, also known as the North American Union. Click here (4 MB PDF) for a terrific new resource for understanding the North American Union (Special NAU Issue of The New American magazine, Oct. 15, 2007).

Major goals of this Meetup are blocking the North American Union (NAU), repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), improving border security, stopping illegal immigration, and rejecting amnesty. Organizational guidance and campaign tools are provided for this national alliance of Meetup, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and MySpace groups by the John Birch Society through its webpage www.JBS.org/freedom.

Here are some important hints for starting your own JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup group. To organize a JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup for your local area, go to the Fox Valley JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup and use it as a model for naming your Meetup group and for describing its purpose. The Fox Valley JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup is currently categorized under the Meetup topic of "U.S. Constitution." However, Meetup.com has recently assigned our campaign with its own topic (JBS) and URL, which is http://jbs.meetup.com. So when you are ready to organize your own JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Group, go to http://jbs.meetup.com and click on the button "Start a Meetup Group." You'll then need to fill in the blanks for your new Meetup group name and purpose. You'll need to blank out the proposed name and purpose and copy and paste "(your area name) JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Group" and the purpose statement "The purpose of the JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Topic is to.... through its webpage www.JBS.org/freedom." Doing this will help maintain the identity and purpose of this new network of Meetups, which will ensure a much higher degree of effectiveness.

To help you decide on a name and area for your Meetup, take a look at other successful Meetups in your area, such as the Ron Paul Meetups. In general you'll probably want to make your Meetup cover an entire metro area, so that you'll have the critical mass of interested parties to have a successful Meetup. Meetups generally meet monthly; however, the heart of Meetup activity occurs 24/7 via the Meetup email system. Organizing, carrying out, and reporting back on activities occurs via email. So, if you're doing Meetup right, your email inbox will be your most important communications tool.

The email system is the key to success of the Meetup approach. Whereas most organizations have traditionally operated on a monthly meeting schedule and consequently moved at a snail's pace, successful Meetups are alive with activity every day. This is what we need to block the NAU, shorter cycles of activity. This leads to more enthusiasm, quicker course corrections, quicker help from networked resources, more participation, quicker results, and bigger results. Try it.

Oh, one more thing about Meetup. It does cost a reasonable amount to use the service. The organizer for each Meetup pays $19/month when paying on a month-to-month basis. The cost goes down to $12/month if you pay for six months at a time. Members are not charged anything by Meetup.com for their participation in a Meetup; however, some individual Meetups do have monthly charges for their members.

We will be publishing suggested activities and resources for the JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetups here at www.JBS.org/freedom under "Campaign News." Here's a quick preview of what's to be done: (1) widespread distribution (the goal is millions) of both the print and PDF versions of the Special NAU Issue of The New American magazine; (2) getting anti-NAU and anti-NAFTA resolutions introduced and passed in the state legislatures which haven't done so yet (In 2007 anti-NAU resolutions were introduced in 18 states. Both houses of three states passed their resolution and one house in two states passed the resolution.); and (3) getting Congress to block the NAU by defunding and dismantling the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) and repealing NAFTA.

Finally, if you are ready to organize your own local area JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup after reading this article, please go ahead and do so. Then also join the JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Alliance, which requires that you are already an Organizer of a local JBS.org Meetup group or another group (Yahoo, Google, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) which has a similar purpose to the JBS.org Freedom Campaign. This JBS.org Meetup Alliance provides leadership for the local Meetups, as well as providing a clearinghouse for reports on campaign progress, successes, techniques, etc.

If you're not ready to organize your own local JBS.org Meetup, but want to learn more about what they are and how they operate in preparation for possibly organizing your own Meetup, please join our model Meetup, the National JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup.

If you have questions about forming a JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup, or feedback on how we can be more effective with our campaign, contact us at JBS.orgFreedom@gmail.com.

Posted October 5, 2007. Updated January 29, 2008.