Recap of the Summit Street Fair October 11, 2009

We had a FairTax booth at the Summit Street Fair on Sunday, October 11, 2009. Assisting were Ken Collins, Tom Sulcer, Tony Schiavo, Pam Imbimbo, Bill Imbimbo, Ed Vant, Elvira Carrillo, Jim Bennett. Pictured in the close-up are Jim Bennett, Pam Imbimbo, Ed Vant and Ken Collins. The far shot shows the same people and the canopy. We got Pam and Bill in response to a Convio e-mail blast to the Seventh Congressional District calling for help at the Summit Street Fair. Pam and Bill come from Whitehouse Station.

At the table we had the two-page piece, the pocket card and Jim’s business card to hand out. Ken Collins provided the two FairTax books for display. We also had for display the book I.O.U.S.A. from the Peterson Foundation. I misplaced the remaining cards, so I do not have a count of pocket cards, but the number was easily in excess of twenty-five.

We did two things differently this time. First, we re-designed the sign-up sheet to provide more space for writing and to indicate with a number in the far right box whether the person who leaves contact information just wants more information (1), would be interested in attending a seminar (2), or says count me in and put me on an e-mail list (3). Eighteen people left contact information. Among those, there were eight "3's," four "2's," three "1's," (some people indicated more than one number) and eight who left that box blank.

We also printed sheets of four post cards to a sheet, addressed to Rangel, Lautenberg, Menendez, and the local congressman (name to be filled in). The message on each card says simply that we need the FairTax. Fourteen people handed back the sheets, but some of them were incomplete. The idea for the cards came from FairTax Florida. Unfortunately, the form did not call for a printed name and address, so we will have to toss some of the cards if we cannot get that information from the sign-up sheet,. We took the sheets back.

Another innovation with with this street fair will be the handling of the data we receive. Usable post cards and sign-up sheets indicating a "3" will be input to an Excel spreadsheet on the national template and sent to National for input to the Convio database. We may also keep it locally. The effort here will be towards having a unified database to enable us to count and identify our supporters in New Jersey.

Usable postcards will be cut and sent to Larry Walters in Florida for delivery to his friendly Congessman. The cards will go by inter-office mail to the targeted senator or congressman, avoiding postage and anthrax screening.

We found that having four people at any given time at the booth is perhaps the ideal number. It is important to have at least two who can converse about the FairTax so that when one person is tied up with an inquirer, another is available. We followed the strategy of letting people come to us, but maintaining eye contact with the passers-by, interspersed with an occasional hello. We think we get better quality people that way rather than by handing literature to everyone.

The next street fair is in Westfield, Saturday, October 17, 2009. John Burchill, Seventh District DD, is the Captain.