The cold rain produced a lower turnout at this month's meetup for Dean than for the previous two months -- there were only about 27 people there. Of these, however, almost all were new. I had been asked to host the meetup and had prepared some remarks.
Thank you all for coming to the November Meetup for Howard Dean. I understand that there are 137,000 people signed up for meetups all around the country, and indeed around the world.
My name is StevenBrewer -- I'm a member of a local grassroots committee that is trying to support Howard Dean's campaign, but I -- we -- do not have any "official" connection to the campaign. Let me introduce a few of the other people who are on the committee... (introduce steering committee members in attendance)
Our plan for the evening is to tell you very briefly why I support Howard Dean and to show you a few video clips so you can hear and see Howard Dean making his case for himself in his own words.
After the video clips, I will open the floor up to anyone who would like to address the group with ideas or news of upcoming events. Finally, we'll break up into two groups. For people who just want to ask questions to learn more about Howard Dean, we'll have you meet with (a steering committee member). If you're ready to support Howard Dean, the campaign has asked us to give you the chance to write letters to folks in New Hampshire. I have all the stuff up here.
I'd like to tell you very briefly why I support Howard Dean. I have never thought of myself as a particularly patriotic person -- I'm not the sort of person who's heart goes thump, thump, thump when I see the flag. But the president we have now has used this country to do things around the world that I'm ashamed of -- to line the pockets of his campaign contributors. Howard Dean sees America as a leader in the world, not as a loose cannon, rolling over and crushing other countries around the world. Howard Dean says that we need to take back our country and make it stand for the things that we believe in. And that the power to do this lies with us. In electing him president, we can change politics and defeat the special interests that have bought and paid for the system we struggle under now.
I think there are lots of other reasons to support Howard Dean, but let him tell you that himself.
I played two videos: the 
November Meetup message and the closing remarks from the Detroit debate. The videos were well received (and looked better than the previous videos. They've gotten the trick of selecting "talking head" shots that compress better than some of the other shots they've used in the past).
At the conclusion of the videos, I showed a 4 slide presentation I'd created introducing the Dean for America and the blog with an encouragement to check back currently for the decision on whether to accept federal matching funds.
I then opened the floor for questions or comments. Immediately a spirited discussion began regarding the federal matching funds decision. People presented a variety of positions, but, in the end, everyone support the idea of forgoing the matching funds for a variety of reasons.
The discussion shifted to last night's debate and the unfortunate comments about the confederate flag. This generated a lot of sometimes emotional and heated discussion. A young woman helped use to understand how offensive the remarks had been to some people and how Dean's initial response in last night's debate, had been perceived as trying to create a soudbite or brush off the questions. I read Dean's statement and most people felt the words were good, but wished they had come a little sooner. This discussion led to one of the fundamental questions raised: how can our grassroots efforts reach out more effectively to disenfranchised voters. Most of us admitted we were at a loss on how to do this. One attendee told us that he leads antiracism programs in the area and would help the steering committee find contacts with other groups in the area who might help us reach a more larger and more diverse group of voters. Several people wondered if the campaign could do more to provide guidance (ideas, suggestions) to groups like ours (of middle-class white folk) reaching out to black, latino, and working-class voters.
A number of people took letter writing kits and either wrote, or began writing letters. It was late enough that not everyone finished letters before they left.
At the end, the young woman who had led the discussion of the confederate flag brought in the video casette from last night's debate while people wrote letters and trickled out. Perhaps because I had been prepared, the debate flare up didn't seem so bad. Dean didn't hit all of the right notes, but it didn't seem as bad to me as I had feared it might. I thought Carol Mosely Braun really spoke to the issue, supported what Dean was saying, and bridged the two positions. Running mate?
That was it. A good meetup with truly great discussion and debate.