About Hunter Wallace 12392 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

9 Comments

  1. Here are a few thoughts, since you asked. I commend the League for the huge paradigm shifts they’ve made in such a short time(it’s astounding, really), and as a past member and activist, perhaps I’m allowed a little street cred here when brainstorming new solutions for the problems we face. That said, here are some things that could use immediate improvement that would be within their power to do.

    1) A New LS Website

    Yes, it’s so important I put this at the top. Dr. Hill is ever a wonderful face for the League, but this is 2014, and a “virtual face” is now even more important than a physical one. The League’s website looks about the same as it did when I was a member back in 2004. Let’s be honest, when folks have their curiosity piqued by all the activism and billboards…..the face they’ll always see first is “Dixienet.org”, not Dr. Hill. Seeing the very old template, instead of a vibrant, fresh, state of the art, streamlined .org site could mean the difference between “ah, well, their ideas are interesting, anyway”….to an actual “close of the deal”.

    You only get one shot to make a great first impression. Their website doesn’t do that….yet. The League has great ideas, but their virtual face doesn’t reflect them and do them justice. What would this cost, to put on the best virtual face possible? $5,000, $10,000? Whatever the cost….any cash spent would be an enormous investment in the future, and would pay instant dividends.

    2)Recruiting goals. Every organization has them. But if the LS had them in the past, I never knew it in my ten years of membership. Furthermore, from the recent articles I’ve read on them, I’ve seen their numbers be quoted from “6,000” all the way to “15,000” and even “30,000”. This enormous spread of perceived strength isn’t doing us any favors.

    The NRA, NAGR, C4L, etc and any other highly successful activism organizations, all have quoted precise membership #’s. They post those numbers, take pride in their accuracy, and most importantly, they inform their membership(and the press) when any new benchmark #s are hit.

    The League should come up with a benchmark for measurement(whether it’s simply the “paying members” aka husband and wife, which are counted in the roster, or whether their 6 kids all as members too). Whatever metric you choose, stick with it. Set goals, realistic ones, but goals nonetheless, and come up with an outreach plan to assure those goals are within reach. Even if you don’t hit them, you must have them. Success feeds on itself, and becomes its own self-fulfilling prophecy. Likewise negative news can do the same, but it can also be a huge wake up call to change tactics, should anything need to be changed.

    3) The payment system for membership should be upgraded with the overhaul of the website. One of the things I’ve noticed, since I’ve been this close to rejoining in recent days, is that a check in the mail, or Paypal are still the only options. Again, this is 2014. Those options are fine for the gray hairs, but if we’re really meaning what we say about this “not being your grandfather’s League of the South”, perhaps our payment system should reflect this. As many options as possible should be given to others to give us their money. It should be painless, and instantaneous.

    4)Lastly, for now, we need to secure colorful brochures to hand out. Back in my membership days, I personally recruited no less than than 6 members to the League(that I know of). Many of these were just friends who resonated with their objectives, and just needed someone they trusted to vouch for them. But a few were complete strangers before my approaching them. I got their attention by leaving one of the old 3rd National flag fliers, with 3 paragraphs of the LS’s message on them….on the hood of their cars. I didn’t do this randomly. I left them for folks who already displayed our peoples’ symbols, and who would at least give the message and the League some thought. It worked fairly well. But….

    We need those to be our “physical/virtual face”. When folks can’t see us, or our website, they should already have a positive impression of us and our message of freedom from DC, based on ISSUES. We should have this down to a science:

    There should be one for economic issues(inflation, joblessness, sound money).
    There should be one for social issues(pro-Christian marriage, pro-life, pro-family).
    There should be one for immigration issues.
    There should be one for foreign policy issues.

    And they should literally hit the the recipient in a powerful, gut-wrenching way. If followed up by their visiting a sleek, state of the art website/template….the one-two punch could be electric every single time.

    These wouldn’t cost alot of $, as much as they’d cost alot of creative energy and dedication. They’d repay far beyond anything put into them. I’d make them the utmost priorities.

  2. The website overhaul is something that is so obvious that we have been discussing it for two months now. It is my understanding that the new website should be up before the national conference.

  4. I agree on the brochures and programming.

    I think we also need a FAQ on the new website that will comprehensively and definitively lay out our worldview and address every conceivable issue and objection.

  5. Cleburne61 – those were excellent suggestions, very practical.

    We can and must do these things.

    I can add a few suggestions of my own.

    We have some very photogenic activists – handsome young men, beautiful young women, adorable children with loving parents. We need to let regular Southern people see these healthy, good looking League of the South people.

    Let’s hire photographers and put together a modeling portfolio putting our best face forward.

    We’ve shown we can generate strong media coverage, even reasonably fair, positive (local) media coverage. Now, let’s come up with a distinct media strategy – what media do we want to target? It’s a mistake to simply go for any national media, get all excited that Sean. Hannity or Alan Colmes wants to put us on a show to insult us.

    Start local realistic political participation – actually become an important political force in elections like state representative, county boards, sheriffs races.

  6. HW already noted the coming website so I’ll touch on the brochure issue. I was recently made the PR officer for the LS and as such I’m working on coming up with brochures and single-page ads we can distribute. I’m also working on re-doing the LS’s sticker selection. In that regards, we have a new sticker that will be in any day which appeals directly to blue collar Southerners which reads ‘Close the border. Save Southern jobs.’ It will be available at the national conference. There is a lot of work to be done in the PR area. I’m ultimately going to need help – lots of help.

  9. Hunter, I’ll be at the CoCC conference. I want to meet Geordie, as well as communing with follow Sn’ers.

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