The Tuesday, March 9th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group
(RMIUG) will feature a panel discussion called "Electing with
Clicks: The impact of the Internet on Politics today."

As radio did in the 1930s and television did in the 1960's, the Internet is
maturing into a major political medium in the 21st Century. Grassroots
organizations are finding that combining the Internet with a compelling
message, a passionate base, and a visionary leader can yield enormous
results at a fraction of the time and cost. Many analysts believe that we
are on the verge of a new age in political messaging, and organization.

Our panel will cover the use of the Internet in the political arena. What
tools and techniques seem to work? What combinations of factors increase an
organization's chances of effectively reaching its constituency?

The following guest speakers will provide an interesting perspective on the
topic:

Matt Statman (matt@...) serves as both the Co-Founder and Director
of Client Services for Motive Design+Interactive, a Denver
based brand and interactive marketing agency. Matt's company built
DeanForAmerica.org: former Presidential candidate and Vermont Governor
Howard Dean's website. DeanforAmerica.org is considered instrumental in
bringing the obscure politician to front-runner status.
DeanForAmerica.org helped Governor Dean raise over $50 million (a record for
a Democratic Presidential candidate) with an average campaign contribution
of just $75 while exciting hundreds of thousands of passionate followers.
Matt will discuss the experience of bringing Governor Dean online, the tools
and techniques that made it such an integral force, and how the site
influenced other contenders.

Jody Strogoff (jody@...) is editor/publisher of The
Colorado Statesman, a 105-year old weekly non-partisan periodical whose
readership includes all the legislators and members of the congressional
delegation. Two years ago, Jody ran a series of articles analyzing the
websites of the different candidates and campaigns. Jody will use her 30
years of political analysis experience to give our discussion the
perspective on what candidates are doing with their websites and how the
Internet is impacting campaigning in general.


URL's of interest:
-------------------
Motive Design+Interactive, http://www.motivedi.com Dean for America,
http://www.deanforamerica.org

The meeting is Tuesday, March 9th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional 6:30 pm
start for refreshments and informal networking). The meeting will be held at
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive
in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US
93), take Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for approximately 2.5
miles into the foothills. NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door
driving directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on
Driving Directions, enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila!
Park in the NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point you to
meeting, which is held in the main auditorium, right off the lobby. The
meeting is free and open to the public, but we may pass the hat to help
defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough room to
accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how many
people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than
seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into the auditorium after
all seats are filled.

Thanks to our two sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:

---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical Talent
for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG
meetings.

ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company that
provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting
minutes.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html You can also reach the
RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR has
security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use the
facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead read the
minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:
1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing IDif requested. 4. We
are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when dealing
with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please contact me
directly.

Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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