Militia Organizing: Advance Teams

Copyright © 1995 Constitution Society. Permission is granted to copy with attribution for noncommercial purposes.

Breadth of Organization

One of the most important missions of activated militia units is to organize units in other counties throughout the state, and even in other states. While it is important to involve as many people as possible in each county, down to the neighborhood level, it is also important to achieve geographic spread, so that no county of any state is without at least one unit. A certain number of active members of each unit should be designated to this mission, which involves the following suggested elements.

Elements of Advance Organization

[] Form 2-3 person teams. It is possible to work with more or less, but for various reasons, this seems to be an optimal number. One of them provides the vehicle.

[] Prepare target list of counties. Start with a list of all counties that do not yet have a known activated militia unit. Arrange the list in descending order of priority, based on factors such as population size, proximity to major highways, location in districts of important legislators, or proximity to important sites of other kinds. More populous counties will have more potential recruits living closer together, which will make it easier for them to meet and work together. Proximity to major highways is to try to get unbroken chains of units connecting major population centers, which may be important for communications and logistics. In Texas an important county would be McLennan, because it contains Waco and the site of the Davidian Massacre, where the populace needs to be activated to get a grand jury to bring indictments of the persons responsible for that atrocity.

[] Divide the target list among the advance teams.

Some consideration should be given to familiarity of the team members with the counties and their inhabitants.

[] Get lists of patriots and persons inquiring about militia involvement. Such lists can be acquired from various sources, such as some of the more publicized militias of other states, subscription lists for various patriotic publications, and participants in various patriotic activities.

[] Mail literature to any prospects in the target counties. Such literature should contain two things: a message which arouses the reader to take action, and information on what actions he or she can take. The first might consist of tales of official corruption and abuse. The second of how to activate a local militia and contact those already activated. Ask them to respond in some certain number of days, such as seven.

[] Send more literature to those who respond. This may be enough to get them to activate a militia unit in their county.

[] Follow up on mailing targets, both those who don't respond and those who do, with phone calls. Qualify them for their level of interest, their concerns, their resources, and their intentions.

[] Schedule visits to each targeted county by its designated team. Let any prospects know you are coming, and try to arrange to meet with them. If there are no prospects, then go in cold and scout for some.

[] The team should visit likely places and persons who might refer them to prospective recruits. Gun shops, American Legion and VFW halls, civic organizations, sheriff and fire departments. Ask for the names and phone numbers of persons who have expressed concern about the threats to our rights under the Constitution.

[] Follow up on the leads. If the person seems interested in getting involved, leave him some literature and a phone number for the team. Compile a list of prospects, discuss the members of the list with each other to identify prospective leaders and potential conflicts. Suggest that those interested get together, and try to get them to commit to a place and time, then inform all the others.

[] Publicize the organizing meeting. Put a notice in the local newspaper, if there is time, and call in to any talk radio station that serves the area to announce the date, time, and place of the organizing meeting, and a contact phone number for details. This should be an easily remembered name in an easily remembered city, so that the person can call information if they don't take down the phone number.

[] Send literature packages to prospective attendees. To the extent possible, try to have them all come with a common foundation of understanding of the basic ideas, and with such things as proposed by- laws, so that they will not have to waste time at the meeting reading new materials.

[] Have the team present at the organizing meeting. Provide a speech which motivates and explains the key ideas. Have the attendees introduce themselves to each other, and perhaps explain their experiences and concerns. Hand out literature to any who did not previously receive such.

[] If the attendees are ready to do so, have them adopt the by-laws, elect a commander, and agree on the date, time, and place for the next meeting. Appoint persons to seek more permanent meeting places, handle publicity, reach out for more participants, and establish training and study groups on various topics. Make sure everyone who needs to contact one another gets each others' names and phone numbers.

[] Have the team present at the second meeting. If by-laws were not adopted and a commander and other officers elected at the first meeting, get them to do so at the second meeting. Also get them to form task groups on various subjects: military training, disaster control, legal issues, logistics, communications, public information, recruitment, site arrangements, and security.

[] Leave them alone for a couple of months. Let them work out their own problems for a while, without guidance from outsiders, other than newsletters, reports, and other communications from correspondence committees.

[] Do a follow up visit. See how they are doing. Try to help them overcome any problems that may have developed, but don't help too much. The best approach is to ask them questions and let them find their own answers.

[] Try to get them to organize their own advance teams. Have them coordinate with other active units to divide the target counties among them and do the same thing that was done with them.

[] Try to get all the counties to work toward synchronized events. Militia Day April 19. Independence Day July 4. Election day. Visits by elected officials. Special fiestas and holidays, parades, and political events.

[] Assemble multiple teams to organize the last remaining counties. Get teams from several neighboring counties to converge on those that remain to be activated, until every one has at least one active militia unit.

[] Engage law-enforcement supporters to recruit their colleagues in targeted counties. If you have the support of a sheriff or constable in one county, get him to visit, or at least call, his counterpart in the targeted county, and ask him to attend militia meetings and learn about the movement.

[] Likewise, engage media people, public officials, and civic leaders. Often such people are more influenced by their counterparts from other counties than by their own neighbors. Take advantage of these chains of influence.

[] Keep the free media flowing. Issue a steady stream of press releases, notices of meetings, statements on constitutional issues, and important events, including legislation and official acts that may impact on the militia movement. Get people interviewed on talk radio stations, and call in to them regularly with succinct messages on some point that needs to be more widely understood and discussed.

[] Organize letter-writing parties. Get everyone together and have them write letters to legislators, the governor, congressmen, the president, editors, or whoever needs attention. Use models of well-written letters that got responses or that got published. Make sure they don't all read alike. Offer recognition to the best ones. Make sure they are signed, stamped, and sealed before everyone leaves, and make sure they get mailed.

[] Organize state-wide alert system. Make sure there are at least three persons in each county who can serve as points of contact for alerts, to verify rumors, and to check on the condition of activists.

[] Extend this effort into other states. But be careful not to offend existing militia leaders in those states. Send literature, but avoid going in without conferring with any established state leaders, and without an invitation from the people in the target county.

[] Extend the alert system to other states. Make sure every active militiaman in any county of any state can find and contact someone in any given county of any other state.

[] Establish wireless communications links. Make sure there is an unbroken series of reliable repeaters for ham packet links between any two militia units in the country. Test it frequently.

For more information contact:

Constitution Society

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