Upgrade Activism - Don't get Arrested or Elected

[alecmuller]

Do you think trying to reform the State is a waste of time?  Do you also have your doubts about civil disobedience or maybe it's just not your thing?  Would you rather work on cures for the State?

Then check out the projects below that real people are already working on to find out voluntary ways to help.

Education Projects: Build Viable Alternatives to Government Schools
http://alekese.com Alec Muller, Daniel Royer; Self-directed learning website that shares & collects the best of the web; contact alec@alekese.com to help
http://schoolsucksproject.com Brett Vienotte; Podcast series that discusses and promotes the end of public education; contact brett@schoolsucksproject.com to help
http://scholarsacademynh.org Kate Richards, Jenn Hewson, Kate & Alec Muller, others; private elementary school opened 9/2009 for gifted children ages 5-12; contact kateisrosie@gmail.com to help
http://lsfund.org Lloyd Danforth, others; fund awards $500 scholarships to help students get out of government schools; contact info@lsfund.org
http://www.nhhomeschooling.org Dawn Lincoln; join homeschooling families in helping to promote independent learning; contact lincoln.dawn@gmail.com

Protection Projects: Help Strengthen the Culture of Self-Protection by Learning & Teaching
http://www.appleseedinfo.org Alicia Lekas, John Barnes, others; learn back-stories from the American Revolution while learning how to accurately shoot a rifle at the equivalent of a 22" target at 500 yards; contact NH@appleseedinfo.org
http://wilsonhillpistol.org Tony Lekas, others; join this affordable indoor pistol range in Manchester, NH, take classes for basic pistol, personal protection inside & outside the home, and learn to be an instructor; contact tony@lekas.org

Self-Reliance Projects: Learn to decrease your reliance on long-distance trade (not because it isn't a good thing, but in case it's not always available)
http://www.bardoproject.com; contact person?; self-sufficient farming in Croydon, NH; contact info@bardoproject.com
Various interesting things going on in Grafton, NH; contact person?; meet porcupines in Grafton and get to know them - they're good people, and don't necessarily post all of their cool projects online; contact email address?

FSP Recruiting: Help recruit more voluntaryist activists to NH
http://freestateproject.org/volunteer Help put on Liberty Forum (March 2011?); Contact volunteer@freestateproject.org
http://freestateproject.org/volunteer Help put on Porcfest (June 2011?); Contact volunteer@freestateproject.org
http://freestateproject.org/volunteer Help year-round with FSP recruiting efforts; Contact volunteer@freestateproject.org

Alternative Currency: A growing number of Porcupines already use gold & silver in trade on a regular basis - Learn more
http://delvalleysilver.com/ Del Valley Silver shows up to Liberty Forum and Porcfest to trade their own silver rounds at reasonable markups (& recruit merchants); contact karen@delvalleysilver.com
http://shiresilver.com Ron Helwig; small-denomination custom gold and silver designed to fit in a wallet like a credit card; contact ron@ronhelwig.com
http://www.murrayslist.org Contact person?; named in honor of Murray Rothbard, this is something like Craigslist but for real (gold & silver) money; contact ???

Liberty Media: Help Spread the Word about Freedom
http://freetalklive.com Mark Edge & Ian Bernard; Talk Radio YOU Control
http://www.freedomainradio.com Stefan Molyneux; The world's most popular philosophical conversation, ANARCHY! (not in NH, but very relevant to the movement)
http://newhampshirefreepress.com Kat Kanning; News from the New Hampshire Underground; contact editor@newhampshirefreepress.com
http://www.nhlibertyradio.com Rich Angel, Bob Constantine; freedom-oriented internet radio station
http://www.youtube.com/user/LCLREPORT Tarrin Lupo; News reports for liberty minded folk!

Other
Breed 'em for Freedom - this semi-serious phrase refers to efforts that responsible porcupine adults are making to raise their own children to appreciate freedom & personal responsibility.  By passing values (which were often-difficult-to-come-by) down to another generation, they're increasing the market for liberty.

The projects above are all potential "upgrades" that - if they succeed - will lead to cures for state programs.  To help them take off, please consider finding one that fits your goals, and helping out!

p.s. General Tips:
Other people will be more likely to help you with your pet projects after you've demonstrated a willingness to help them with theirs.  Take on projects you can see through and complete.  Never be afraid to ask for help or to learn from others.  Meet other people in your community; New Hampshire has a lot of small-town culture, and people are more likely to support you in your projects if they already know you (and you're not a jerk).  In the course of your activism, be professional and reliable because others are watching, and you'll have a much easier time getting them to help you if you've proven you keep your promises and if you don't go out of your way to alienate people.  Think of your activism as a working resume.

Finally, you can learn a lot from existing organizations that aren't specifically liberty-oriented.  You'll get much further much faster if you don't reinvent the wheel, so learn what you can from these groups and put it to use:
http://www.toastmastersnh.org/ Toastmasters is a lot more than just making speeches - it's a cheap and highly effective way to learn and practice communication skills (to promote your message), recruiting skills, volunteer-organizing skills, marketing skills, and much more
http://www.directorynh.com/NHAssociations-Organizations/NHAdultServiceOrganizations.html Joining the Lions Club, Rotary, Kiwanis, and other service clubs are great ways to get involved in volunteer work and learn project organizing skills to use on your own projects; they're also good places to recruit other activists who may not even be porcupines.

Alec & Kate Muller

[Lloyd Danforth]

www.nhlibertyradio.com

[Tom Sawyer]

Advocacy, a pro-active choice.   

[Scott Roth]

Thank you, Alec and Kate.  That has to be the most complete list I've seen to date.  I'm looking at several options on there...so should everyone else.  Thanks again.

[alecmuller]

Thank you guys!

Please let me know of any other projects that meet the criteria (building voluntaryist communities, not civ dis or electoral politics) and would like a plug; I'd be happy to edit the original post to include it.

Alec

[jaqeboy]

The Alternatives Organizations (AltOrgs) tour takes freedom activists (and others) around to other groups' events who have already chosen alternatives to the corrupted mainstream practices and utilizes a strategy that gets them together to build networks and new alliances on our common issues and provides the opportunity to build the dialog on issues we see differently on. It's a voyage of discovery and gives new Porcs a way to jump in and practice communications skills with others in the area, while learning how to enterprise and earn their way through the tour and have a great time on the way.

The homepage is a blog of the tour: http://AltOrgs.com,
and the tour dates are here: http://altorgs.com/2010-altorgs-tour/

We make it easy to get to any of these events by offering transportation and lodging and any other arrangements: just hop on board the bus!