How to Organize Your Own "Tea Party" Protest

It's Time For A Second Boston Tea Party - The Tea Party Revolution Takes Off

The internet is abuzz with chatter about organizing protests around the country to put an end to this madness on Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Here are 10 simple steps that you can follow to organize a protest in your own community.

1. Pick a location, date and time in your town. Try main street at an intersection with lots of traffic.

2. Tell your friends, family, co-workers and everyone else you know about the protest. Build an rsvp email list that can provide quick updates if something changes. You should also create a facebook group so that the group can communicate with one another. Create a web-site that can be forwarded by email.
Try to develop a working committee composed of all walks of life, i.e. youth, seniors, church members, democrat, republican, libertarian, and independent.

3. A larger rally should schedule speakers. Plan for a PA system and agenda with a pledge and prayer.

4. Call your local talk radio hosts and ask them to announce the location, date and time on the air for a few days leading up to the protest. Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper announcing the protest. Email the bloggers in your area and ask them to post a notice about the protest. Post fliers in local stores announcing the rally.

5. Write a press release and email, mail and fax copies to the local tv stations, radio stations and newspapers. Call the reporters that cover local events or politics and leave messages on their voice mail.

To help you get the word out, below is a sample press release which you should mail to your local paper, radio stations, and television stations. Feel free to adapt the press release. Make sure you are listed on the press release as the contact person and put your phone number where you can be reached at the top of the press release.

Taxed Enough Already A group of citizens in (name of your community) are organizing a TEA Party rally (location and date, i.e.in front of city hall on April 15, the day tax returns are to be mailed). The TEA Party is part of a national movement to protest the spending of trillions of dollars which will leave our great-grandchildren a debt they must pay.

6. Make 5-10 signs with legible slogans that send a clear message to the public and the media. Write in BIG LETTERS. You might want to bring some American flags as well.

7. On the day of your protest, show up with your group, be loud, visible, happy and engage the public. Wave your signs, make lots of noise and move around to get attention. If reporters interview you, give them some good sound bytes for stories. Stay on message and keep your answers short and coherent.

8. Bring sign-in sheets to capture the names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of everyone who attends the protest and/or that they support what you are doing. You will then have a big list of people that can plan the next, much bigger event. Also bring handouts with one page of quick facts about why you are protesting in the first place.

9. Add your pictures, video and an after-action report to your facebook group, and send this information to the bloggers and reporters that you originally contacted. Ask them to post the photos, story and video.

10. Thank everyone who attended via email and phone, and set up a meeting to plan your next event. Now you have people in your community that can help make the next protest huge. Encourage everyone to commit to bring at least one friend to the next protest.

Help spread the movement. Organize a carpool and go find a friend in your neighboring town or county and help them organize a protest. You and your people are now veterans and should be able to keep the momentum going around your area.

Email me if you have any questions or want some ideas for signs, cindyfrich@yahoo.com. Good luck!

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds"Samuel Adams

April 26, 2009