Over 60 students and community members gathered last night at the Newcomb Hall Theater as part of National Dean in 2004 Meetup Day.
Over the past few months, meetups -- community gatherings that are arranged online -- have joined 'blogs,' or Web logs, and e-mail lists as popular methods of grassroots organization.
"Meetups have really been the firepower behind the Dean surge," said David Wassermann, chair of Hoos for Howard Dean, which sponsored the event.
Last night's meeting provided an opportunity both to educate those who didn't know much about Howard Dean and mobilize those who already support the former Vermont governor, Wasserman said.
"We're hoping to get converts from these meetings," he said.
In an effort to recruit supporters, Hoos for Howard Dean set up a table on the Lawn this week. Wasserman said over 60 people signed up for the group's e-mail list as a result of the effort.
Wasserman, who also serves as campaign party coordinator for the University Democrats, said Hoos for Howard Dean was granted CIO status earlier this week and is not officially affiliated with University Democrats, although many students are involved in both groups.
Dean "struck me as being by far the most impressive candidate," second-year Arts and Sciences graduate student Jared Elosta said. "I think meetups are a sign of one of the things Dean's success is based on."
Meetups, a product of the Web site Meetup.com, have become a nationwide phenomenon. Spokesperson Myles Weissleder said that since its introduction in July 2002, the site has attracted nearly a million members who participate in monthly gatherings on over 2,000 topics. Some of the most popular include Elvis, knitting and Harry Potter.
Earlier this year, Dean signed a contract with Meetup.com in order to solicit nationwide bottom-up support, Weissleder said.
"Meetup has helped put Dean on the map and achieve his frontrunner status," he said.
In a video message on his Howard Dean TV Web site, the presidential candidate encouraged meetup participants to write their Democratic representatives in order to "get more people in the process" and beat Bush in next year's election.
As of last night, there were 38 people who had signed up participate in local Dean meetups at two other venues in Charlottesville.
Other candidates have been slower to adopt meetups as a campaign technique. Although today is National Kucinich in 2004 Meetup Day, the meetup in Charlottesville has been canceled due to lack of support.
Dennis Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, has just over 14,000 supporters who have registered for meetups. With his nomination bid still in its infancy, retired general Wesley Clark has a little over 32,000 supporters. Dean is currently the most popular topic on the site with over 119,000 worldwide members, 40,000 of whom signed on in the last month.
Although he describes the site as nonpartisan, Weissleder noted that there are many more liberal groups that utilize meetups.
"The left has gravitated toward our service a little more quickly than the right," he said.
Weissleder said the main purpose of meetups is to expand social networks.
"It's an online tool to get people offline," he said.
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