Our site officially launched on March 5.

There was a core group of political activists following the 2000 presidential campaigns - most of us had previously worked together on the mid-term elections here in Travis County (Austin), Texas. I was the communications director for the Travis County Democratic Party during the last election cycle and managed its web site (www.traviscountydemocrats.org).

I have been involved in politics since February, 2001. Although my parents were somewhat politically active, I was not interested in politics until the 2000 election, in which I saw a very real threat to our democracy unfold.

One person in particular, retired state representative Glen Maxey, has been supporting Dean since he announced he was running. The rest of us supported other candidates (I supported Gore until he announced he was not running), until we were excited by Dean's positions and message early this year.  When we found that people interested in Dean were "self-organizing" on the dean2004.meetup.com web site, we made a conscious decision to help turn the first MeetUp event into something more useful for everyone interested in helping the campaign.

Our first MeetUp event had over 50 attendees. Since that date, we have canvassed at events in Austin and have gained over 200 volunteers for the campaign and over 800 petition signatures (5,000 needed) to put Dean on the ballot in Texas. We have also assisted in fundraising for the campaign.

I have not met Dean before, nor have any of the others involved other than Rep. Maxey.

Our emphasis on the site was basically that we knew people coming there would already be sold on Dean... what they needed were immediate lists of things they could do to help, from minor involvement to major leadership, and the resources, information, and tools to get them going immediately.

We hope that within ten minutes of going to the site, an interested person has signed up in the capacity they wish to participate, and started to either read or download materials to distribute, i.e. petitions, fliers, etc.

The organizational structure is VERY open - each individual person is encouraged to take on as much responsibility as they desire. The opportunity is given for contributions of materials and ideas back to the site - anyone who puts together an information resource or other item can have it posted on the site for others to take advantage of.

The site is augmented by a Yahoo! message group with entirely open discussion, and a more general listserv that announces important notices and other tidbits of information.