Woke up in Bennington at the Knotty Pine. I slept well at the motel. I forget when we got up, but I paid for the room, and we picked up some breakfast at McDonalds. Then it was back to Route 7 and north up to Middlebury again.

We had a bit more time to recruit at Middlebury than yesterday, but it wasn’t as nice out. Plus we were a bit early for the lunch rush and there wasn’t the great concentration of folks from last time. Dave and I fanned out through the campus. I got directions to the main cafeteria, but it was still early and people weren’t really going there yet.

My first stop were these two guys who fastened a flat, elastic rope between two trees. They were barefoot and trying to tightrope walk it. I got them to sign, and commented that it looked pretty cool. One guy said I should give it a try. I took off my shoes and sized it up, but didn’t even know how to begin. The rope was a foot and a half off the ground, so its not like I was gonna kill myself, but I figured I’d hit the ground real quick if I tried jumping on it like they were.

I put a foot on it, and tried putting more weight on it, but as soon as it did, my leg and the whole rope started shaking greatly from side to side. (btw, the rope wasn’t tight, it had some significant give in it). The guy suggested I hold onto my calf to steady my right leg, then lift myself up and try walking. I tried 2 or 3 times, and I did end up making a step or two. It was fun and challenging. Too bad I didn’t have enough time to just do that all day.

Dave and I did pretty good. Even though it wasn’t a mad rush like other times. We were able to hunt down enough people to fill up all the rest of our cards. Luckily enough just before it started to rain. We were there for like an hour & a half to two hours.

We got back to the car and continued north to Hardy’s house. We were both quite tired on the drive up, so once we got back we both got into our beds and took a bit of a nap. We had a bit of time before we needed to get to UVM for more signature gathering. Bonnie had some friends or cousins or someone come over. I think I rose long enough to say hello, but I don’t quite remember who they were or what their deal was. Shrug.

I couldn’t lay down too long, I’m usually not terribly good at afternoon naps. I called my mom. I hadn’t talked with my folks since I got to Vermont, so it was good I called. I told her things were going great with the campaign. She had been reading the blog, so she knew what was going on. Plus she saw mention of Cathy, I hadn’t yet told her about Cathy. Oops. I was gonna, I swear.

I took care of some more stuff online, then Dave and I went down to the University of Vermont for more tabling. A photographer taking pictures for the New York Times was scheduled to meet us there so we made sure to pick up Jay. It sucks when the forward unit of NYRA are aged 23 and 37. Gives us a bad image. Plus bad that the two main recruiters for the campaign are non-Vermonters. So it was essential to bring Jay along to have some young Vermont blood along.

It was cold and rainy and fairly icky out. We carried all our crap inside and set up shop outside the cafeteria like last time. Except this time we didn’t have university permission. We just claimed an empty table. Guerilla tabling rulz, yo.

We had picked up a few more of the post cards at Hardy’s place before we left, but we still were running short. Ever aware of the importance of a good New York Times picture, I set about trying to orchestrate a good picture. Since the postcards were the center of our activity and campaign these two weeks, and since they make a better picture than our backup petition forms I told Dave and Jay to save the cards for when the photographer was around and otherwise use the petition forms.

We made the switch over seamlessly. I dunno if the photographer noticed, but he wanted the better picture anyways and probably is used to his subjects trying to play it up for the camera. Sometimes he’d come and go and wander around, so when he wandered off I’d signal Jay & Dave to switch to petitions, and when he came back I signaled them to revert to the cards. I made sure to put the large graph we printed up of Vermont drunk driving deaths in the last 20 years that clearly shows the spike caused by raising the drinking age. I was hoping we could get a good picture with that in the background.

The photographer was nice, apparently he was a professor or councilor or something over at St. Mikes and did some freelance photography on the side. He didn’t actually work for the NY Times, but they contacted him for the shoot. He asked me a few questions while we were there. Some of the students were weirded out by him, but most were natural.

He started with a few pictures of Dave at the table, so I whispered over to Dave and Jay to put Jay there instead so he can get in the pictures instead. Not in the anti-youth attitude many groups have of using youth as props almost, putting their smiling faces up front while giving them no real power in the organization. Clearly not the case in this instance. Jay was hugely important to this whole effort and has been responsible for a huge amount of the planning and execution of this campaign. Nothing would have gone as well as it did without him, its about time he get some recognition from it. Plus it would help dispel the idea of carpet bagging, and give NYRA-Vermont some good momentum. Jay in all likelihood will be the next president of NYRA-Vermont, so if he started out with some good quotes and pictures in the media now, it’ll only help support him and the chapter in the future. So for all these reasons I did my best to get Jay in as many pictures as possible.

I did my best to keep focused on my work getting signatures as naturally as possible. It was easier than I thought. I was always aware of the photographer, but getting these cards filled out is so second nature to me now that I just went and did it. I did, in subtle ways, try to create a better picture for him. When explaining things to the students I’d talk with my hands more to try and give a more expressive picture for him. I’d turn my body to face the photographer while at the same time always making eye contact with the student I was talking with (very important all you wanna be recruiters out there).

I noticed he would take particular attention to when I actually handed out the cards. So when he was around and I was giving the card out to people I’d be sure to thrust it out there longer, and hold onto it longer to give him more of a shot. Usually I practically throw the darn things at the people, once they agree to fill it out, I just pass it off to them quickly and then move on. This time I’d hand it to them, they’d grasp it, and then I’d hold onto it a few seconds more and keep talking.

In retrospect I should have realized that was the shot he was looking for and had Jay get out from behind the table and do more of what I was doing with passing out the cards to people. Because that’s the shot they used in the paper. I heard from Jay though that he checked the NY Times article the day it came out online and the picture they used of us had he, Dave and me all in it. Then some kids at school came to him with the print copy, and he wasn’t in that. Then he checked the online version again later and they cropped the picture down a bit to exclude he and Dave and just show me handing out the card to someone. Doh. All our hard machinations didn’t pay off. Alas.

After a bit it was time to go. The Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) chapter at UVM was hosting a speech by me about the drinking age and our campaign. The photographer was going to come to that too, but he said he probably got all the pics he needed at our tabling. Plus Channel 17, a public access station would be filming the whole thing.

We got all the stuff back in THABOAT and then drove across campus to the building the meeting thing was at. We met Hardy, Ken, Heavenly, Jeremy, and Kevin there. Larry and a few SSDP members were there too. Dave set up some buttons and literature outside the room, and I set up the big graph inside on an easel. It would be a great backdrop for both the cameras and the photographer. Plus no matter where it is, that graph is awesome and makes our case for us.

Then I got started. Half of the people there were NYRA members already, so I felt like I was preaching to the choir for the most part, but I made the best of it. It was being filmed, so a taped speech is never a wasted speech. It was about the same size as the Bennington workshop, but it was a lot more formal. I pretty much just introduced the issue, went over some key points and reasons behind lowering it, discussed what we were doing up in Vermont and how the campaign was going, and then opened it up to questions. As usual I preferred answering the questions over just talking.

It went well, but it was just a general defense of the issue. People would ask questions about why we should lower the age and I would tell them why, and present the stats and logic and everything else behind it. I can do it in my sleep, so it went well. But I think it was fairly dry. Dave said it was my best presentation of the campaign, but personally I definitely preferred the Bennington one. Just because Bennington was so relaxed I was able to relate to people as people and sit back and chat and bond with them more. I bet Dave just thought I was wasting time when I was doing that and not talking directly about the issues so rated it lower, but I think that helped everything greatly.

The SSDP folks, especially their President, were really interested in NYRA and lowering the drinking age. It does tie in nicely with SSDP and other drug policy reform organizations. Alcohol IS a drug, and our current alcohol policy has a dismal track record and is in desperate need of reform. One point when I had spoken with Scarlett Swerdlow, SSDP Executive Director and NYRA Board Member, she mentioned the possibility of having SSDP/NYRA chapters that could count for both of us and work with both organizations. I suggested that at the meeting and they seemed interested in the idea. I hope everyone goes through with it. It would give us another organized chapter in the state and thus more activists, and it would give SSDP a popular issue to draw more people in and then turn onto other drug reform issues outside of NYRA. I’m definitely open to all the partnerships possible.

After I finished, the SSDP chapter discussed some chapter business, like putting on their annual 4-20 event. Plus they mentioned some problems they were having with the school administration trying to get events going with SSDP. Apparently the school is singling out their chapter and putting roadblocks in their way. So that’s definitely a student rights issue that NYRA could get involved in. Some of the NYRA members had some good ideas and offered help with some stuff. It was good. More partnerships and people coming together.

During my presentation I got a few calls on my cell. I always have it set to vibrate, because I just hate the sound of cell phones, they are annoying as hell. So no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I set the phone to vibrate. I don’t give a damn about ringtones or anything else. But good it was on vibrate cause I got a few calls from Matthew Mallone during the meeting.

Matthew lives around Boston and got involved in RALLY (Realistic Alcohol Laws for Legal Youth) towards the end of that group’s life, and then when it fell apart came over to NYRA to work on the drinking age. He tried a year ago to get an advisory measure on lowering the drinking age on the ballot in a legislative district in Massachusetts. It didn’t require that many signatures because the district was pretty small, that’s what led him to give it a shot. Unfortunately he fell short. He wasn’t getting much, if any help, and since the districts are so small he ended up talking to more people from other districts than the one he was petitioning for.

He is still interested in lowering the drinking age so when he heard about the Vermont campaign he volunteered. Unfortunately he couldn’t come up very long, but he was interested in coming up for the weekend. I talked to him back after the meeting let out. He wanted to come up Friday and needed directions. Perfect. I hadn’t talked to him in a while, so it was good he got in touch with me. I passed the phone off to Hardy and he directed him.

Everyone went their separate ways. Hardy had spent some time speaking to this girl who was putting on a concert later that night. He worked on getting her support for the campaign, and she worked on getting him to come to the show. Good politician that he is, he went to the show after the meeting got out. As Nancy said, participating in other people’s projects is a great way to get them participating in yours. Dave and I dropped Jay off, grabbed some food at Al’s French Fries and then went back to HQ.

I talked with Cathy (as I am apt to do). She at long last joined the NYRA forums (yay!). She had been reading the forums occasionally for a few weeks now, but after Katrina said something vulgar and disrespectful about us, and our relationship so Cathy felt compelled to respond. Katrina sure backpedaled fast once she realized Cathy was around. Good thing too.

Talked some more. Did some online stuff some more. Went to bed.

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