Well folks.We did it!Over the next few days, I am going to continue to clean up the resource web site (http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/) and also store it all on CD so it can be viewed even "off-line" long after the web site is shut down (which is likely to occur within a few weeks).If you are interested in receiving a copy of the CD, please let me know.I doubt I will be able to reproduce enough copies for all requests at no cost, so I am probably going to set it up on a "CD on demand" service that people can use to order a CD directly for immediate burning and fulfillment.Anyway, even if you do not want a CD, I encourage you to take a tour through the site. You may not realize just how much was really there.I think this group and the web site gave supportive airline pilots a place to call home... a place where they could go and feel welcome and make a meaningful contribution.I want to thank Jan Donatelli and Ed Rafacz for welcoming me - an outsider arriving relatively late - to the party and allowing me to help as I could.Cheers,
Captain Mark Hunnibellhttp://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/mark@airlinepilotsforobama.info
http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/ButtonsPins.htmlWe have produced a limited run of Airline Pilots for Obama buttons and an extremely limited run of Airline Pilots for Obama pins (shown on the page above). We will be mailing these buttons and pins out to known donors to the campaign. The pins will be mailed to the larger donors ($101+), while supplies last (which will probably be exhausted by the time you read this), but we will mail pins to anyone making donations of $25 or more as long as supplies last. Unfortunately, we do not have much time left, so here's the deal. (1) Make a donation using the fundraising thermometer link on site or this link: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/pf?outreach_page_id=32908 (2) Include your NAME and U.S. MAILING ADDRESS in the last block of the donation form (where it says "Send a note to the person whose page you're giving to. They'll receive an email with your text.") (3) After you complete your donation, you will receive an e-mail confirming it from the Obama campaign. As a backup to including your mailing address in the donation comments box as described in (2) above, please forward the donation receipt e-mail to:buttons@airlinepilotsforobama.infoNOTE: We are going to make our best efforts to review and send buttons (and a pin, as applicable) to those who made previous donations. However, we know that many airline pilots made donations to the campaign before joining the group or used the general donations system that did not result in the donations being "credited" to Airline Pilots for Obama. If you're in that category, or just want to make sure we know about your previous donations, and you have your e-mail "receipt" from the campaign regarding prior donations, please forward the receipt to buttons@airlinepilotsforobama.info, along with your name and mailing address.
We will mail the gear as soon as we can... while supplies last... so don't wait do donate!
Folks:This is an update of new features on the resource web site, http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/ 1. The "STAND FOR CHANGE" page now has 567 airline pilots signed on as public supporters of Obama! Please forward this message with the link to every pilot you know and encourage them to sign up! We need to have thousands of us listed on this page: http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/StandForChange.html 2. E-Mail Volume: In response to complaints about the volume of messages sent daily to the AirlinePilotsforObama@groups.barackobama.com group discussion listserv, we changed the configuration so that replies go back to the sender instead of all the group recipients (so if you reply to this e-mail, it will come to me, not hundreds of others). Additionally, all messages (even replies) that are sent to the AirlinePilotsforObama@groups.barackobama.com group are now held for manual approval by either myself or Jan Donatelli or Ed Rafacz. We are trying to cut way back on volume, so our objective is to ensure that the messages distributed to the AirlinePilotsforObama@groups.barackobama.com group are reasonably calculated to be of specific interest to airline pilots. Please be patient as we grow. Also, I have received numerous complaints that even though you believe you have opted out, you're still receiving large amounts of unwanted mail. In most cases, it appears these complaints have been exaggerated and, in any case, the e-mail "flood" has stopped. Still, if any member wants to to ensure their settings are the way they want them, I have prepared a fully-illustrated guide to listserv management here: http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/listserv.html 3. Campaign Event Notices: Until recently, I had been sending individual notices of campaign events featuring the Obamas and Bidens. Going forward, I will compile all such notices into one e-mail citing, in the subject line, the states in which the appearances will occur. While many members pilot of this group may receive such notices because they live in the state or area, the primary reason I am sending them is because we all travel for a living and it is possible that there is an event you can attend while on a layover or while visiting family or friends and you might not otherwise know about it. 4. Next E-Newsletter: We are working on the next newsletter to go out to all 750+ members of the group on Saturday. If you have idea of what should be in the newsletter, please send it to newsletter@airlinepilotsforobama.info. 5. Information Cards: If you're going to a gathering of pilots, or even if you want to have something to give to your peers you encounter at work, we have prepared artwork for a "card" that you can print on standard 8-1/2 x 11 card stock and cut them four to a sheet. The PDF file can be sent to a local union printer and printed in as large a quantity as you like, or you can print it on your own color printer. The card is simple and provides the web address for the group as well as clear instruction about how to sign on to the Stand for Change page. The file can be downloaded here: http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/APFOSFCCards.pdfThat is all for now. Keep the signups for the STAND FOR CHANGE page coming and, of course, help us reach our group donation goal by using this link to make donations:https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/pf?outreach_page_id=32908A reasonable objective for any supporter is to find five more pilots to join the group and then get them to donate $25 or more. See if you can "Find Five to Bring $25."Cheers
Captain Mark Hunnibell
Folks
This is an update of new features on the resource web site, http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/
That is all for now. Keep the signups for the STAND FOR CHANGE page coming and, of course, help us reach our group donation goal by using this link to make donations:
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/pf?outreach_page_id=32908
Cheers Mark Hunnibell
This is an update of new features on the web site:
http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/
http://AirlinePilotsforObama.info/Tips.html
Finally, I note that we are within $35 of reaching $5,000 in donations from 40 individuals. Surely there are enough readers of this message to make a donation to keep this campaign going and make airline pilots proud. Use this link to make a donation that will be credited to Airline Pilots for Obama:
http://AirlinePilotsforObama.info/WebSite20080919.pdf
http://AirlinePilotsforObama.info/APANewsDigest_20080919.pdf
http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/APFOSTATS.png
I had to fly the last couple of days, but managed to add a few new features on the web site:
http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/
1. Added Captain Prater's September 15, 2008 message to the ALPA Board of Directors (the elected Local officers from all the ALPA carriers) and included his address to the ALPA Executive Board. It's on the "Flyers" page, but I also put a link to it on the main page. The direct link is:
http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/ALPABODUPDATE_20080915.pdf
2. Added a paper on the markets crisis put together by the Florida campaign that compares Obama and McCain in terms of their response and records regarding the current economic crisis. The paper is available in web page version:
http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/Obama-Markets.html
or also in PDF version:
http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/Obama-Markets.pdf
3. Added a link (on our Videos page) to a collection of videos from Union Veterans:
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/unionveterans2008_videos.cfm
4. I updated the group member count chart. We are rapidly approaching 250 members. That may not seem like much, but less than a month ago, there were less than 100. The chart's here:
Finally, I have alluded to this before, but what I'd really like to get is some input for the "tips and techniques" page (yet to be created), so if folks have ideas for such a page... a place where pilots could go to get ideas about how to be most effective... I'd like to hear them. I am thinking mostly about campaigning directed to other pilots, but it could be anything we could suggest (like going to rallies, etc.). I thought it would be best to work on it in the context the different type of methods...
a. Campaigning in the workplace... b. Effective conversation starters...c. E-mailing co-workers... d. Attending local union meetings (proposing endorsement/education legislation)... e. Participating in local events...f. ?
Feel free to e-mail me with any suggestions for such a page, as well as any suggestions for any other web site resources: mark.obama@hunnibell.net
Cheers,
Mark Hunnibell
I just added a few more pages and sections to the web site:
1. A Resources and Articles Page: http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/Resources.html
This page contains links to news stories and other web postings that have been previously distributed to the Airline Pilots for Obama e-mail list. If you know of any others that you feel would be of specific interest and useful to airline pilots, please e-mail them to me at mark@airlinepilotsforobama.info
2. A Speeches Page: http://airlinepilotsforobama.info/Speeches.html
This page has links to two speeches, one today by Senator Biden, and another to a video of Senator Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. If you know of any other important speeches by Obama or Biden, especially ones that would be of interest and useful to airline pilots, please e-mail them to me at mark@airlinepilotsforobama.info
The number of pilots in the group continues to increase, but it would be helpful if you would post the existence of the Airline Pilots for Obama web sites to your electronic bulletin boards and forward this message via e-mail to other pilots whom you know and believe may be receptive to such messages.
I am going to try to work on a "tools and tips" page where we will present a collection of techniques and efforts made by pilots on how to campaign for Obama and Biden. If you have any suggestions in that regard, please send them to me at mark@airlinepilotsforobama.info.
I did some rather substantial work on the http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info web site on Saturday, September 13, 2008. If you have not been to the site, drop by and take a look.
It is difficult to say if this new site is the reason why, but I do note that donations have increased the last few days... more donors and more donated. This is probably due to the prominent link to the group's goal donation page:
I am going to work on a new "Tips" section intended to provide visiting pilots with information (provided by other pilots) about how to be most effective in growing the support for the Obama campaign amongst airline pilots. Additionally, I have been collecting links to news articles that may also be useful. I am trying to organize them into subject areas and provide some excerpts as well.
I will try to send an update tomorrow night.
Jan Donatelli and Ed Rafacz have encouraged me to set up a "resource" web site for airline pilots to help motivate and support their campaign effort: http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/
There have been a number of blogs threads and other documents referenced over the past nine months, but they are often hard to find and if you just joined the group, you'd likely never find them. The intent is to provide a collection of documents and links to act as a resource for airline pilots supporting the campaign. I have a number of areas that are in the queue to be added, but in that I believe time is of the essence, I wanted to get the word out ASAP. The page is here:
Jan sent me two files today that I think would be excellent printouts for conversation pieces with other pilots.
At least for the time being, the papers are available here:
This afternoon, I mailed postcards to 361 airline pilots who the Federal Election Commission reported had donated to the campaign of Barack Obama or one of the other Democratic candidates (though about 80% were to Obama). I invited them to join the Airline Pilots for Obama group:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/AirlinePilotsforObama/
I have uploaded a copy of the postcard here:
http://www.hunnibell.net/AirlinePilotsForObama/Postcard.pdf
Hopefully by the end of the week, we'll have a new wave of new airline pilot participants.
I have also offered to host some files for the group at the above location (unless and until a better one comes along). Here are a couple that Jan sent me for posting:
1. The bumper sticker: http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/BumperStickers.html
2. The t-shirt: http://AirlinePilotsForObama.info/T-Shirts.html
