From the Desk of Howard Dean
2004 Presidential Candidate for the United States of America

January 28, 2003

I want to thank Meetup.com for creating a platform for people to organize
around the issues we all care about.

I hope to attend Meetups of my supporters as I travel the nation, and my
campaign will provide suggested issues that need to be discussed, as well as
ask for organizational help to build our campaign at future Meetups.

One issue that I think is appropriate for the February 5th Meetup is the
pending war with Iraq. I hope that those who attend will look at positions
of all the Democratic candidates for President on the war, and square it
with the vote they cast on the Iraqi Resolution that gave President Bush a
blank check to prosecute the war when he decides to do so. I opposed the
Iraqi Resolution and believe the President must make his case to the
American people before sending our armed forces in harms way.

Please visit my website at www.deanforamerica.com and I hope to see you at a
future Meetup!

Thank You
Howard Dean

January 24, 2003 Update:

I. Meetup Totals
II. Top 25 Meetup Cities
III. Top 25 Meetup Topics
IV. Fastest Growing Meetup Topics
V. Fastest Growing Meetup Locales
VI. New Meetup Cities
VII. Meetups of Note
VIII. Meetup Buzz
IX. Meetup Links

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I. Meetup Totals

Total members worldwide 142,327
Total Meetup Topics 738
Total Meetups to date 3,542
# People who've met up 20,525
# Cities, worldwide 535
# Countries 34

Launch Date June 14, 2002
Consumer Advertising $0
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II. Top 25 Meetup Cities

New York, NY
London, England
Toronto, ON
Washington, DC
Chicago, IL
Boston, MA
Atlanta, GA
Seattle, WA
LA-Santa Monica, CA
San Diego, CA
Houston, TX
Philadelphia, PA
Vancouver, BC
Dallas-Plano, TX
San Francisco, CA
Orange County, CA
Portland, OR
Austin, TX
Sacramento, CA
Detroit, MI
Phoenix, AZ
Minneapolis, MN
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
San Jose, CA

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III. Top 25 Meetup Topics (past 7 days)

Dashboard Confessional
BookCrossing
Witches
Crochet
Pagan
TechTV
LiveJournal
Linux
Scrapbooking
Insane Clown Posse
Vampire
Goth
Atkins Diet
Atheists
No War With Iraq
Knitting
Spanish Language
Slashdot
Emo
Dean in 2004
Web Design
French Language
Buffy
Screenwriters
Newly Single

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IV. Fastest Growing Meetup Topics

Dashboard Confessional +1227%
PT Cruiser +920%
Atkins Diet +529%
Crochet +201%
Screenwriters +117%
Dean in 2004 +73%
Filmmakers +54%
Avril Lavigne +36%
TechTV +35%
Ken Wilber +35%
Edwards in 2004 +32%
Emo +31%
Stay At Home Moms +31%
Tool +30%
Body Modification +30%
Event Planning +29%
Mystery Science Theater 3000 +28%
No War With Iraq +27%
Expat American +25%
Burning Man +24%
Angel +24%
Hip Hop +24%
Graphic Design +23%
System of a Down +23%
Chinese Language +22%

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V. Fastest Growing Meetup Locales

Waterloo, ON +96%
São Paulo, Brasil +34%
Houma, LA +33%
Bristol, England +30%
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil +25%
Yuma, AZ +24%
Pottsville-Sunbury, PA +22%
Edinburgh, Scotland +21%
Mexico City, Mexico +20%
Keene, NH +19%
Camden-Cherry Hill, NJ +19%
Fort Collins, CO +19%
Panama City, FL +18%
Decatur-Effingham, IL +18%
Greenville, SC +18%
Rapid City, SD +18%
Altoona, PA +18%
Lake Charles, LA +18%
Lebanon-Claremont, NH +17%
New Haven-Waterbury, CT +16%
Ardmore, OK +16%
Tuscaloosa, AL +16%
Lafayette, LA +16%
Toledo, OH +15%
Canton, OH +15%

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VI. Newest Meetup Cities

Lisbon, Portugal
Oulu, Finland
Beirut, Lebanon
Pretoria, South Africa
Athens, Greece
Islamabad, Pakistan
Bogotá, Columbia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Bristol, England
Tartu, Estonia
Bucharest, Romania
Fredericton, Canada
Waterloo, Canada

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VII. Meetups of Note

http://journo.meetup.com
http://diabetes.meetup.com
http://bookcrossing.meetup.com/hq/
http://www.meetup.com/browse/polact/cand
http://chihuahua.meetup.com/photos?id=101617:120509:0

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VIII. Meetup Buzz

"Meetup is the perfect sort of service for our fans... Now THIS is grass-roots ... at its best." - Dashboard Confessional

"It was great! Thanks so much for providing this service, Meetup is AWESOME! " -- Gelsomina, Knitters Meetup, San Diego, CA.

"The meetup was wonderful. Everyone was sooooo friendly and excited. Can't wait until next month's meetup. " -- sherri66, Prince Fan Meetup, Atlanta, GA.

"Enjoyed meeting people with similar concerns and views, but with more experience with dissent. Agreed to take steps to enlarge group, share info and plan action. Very Encouraging! Thanks for an excellent service. The Internet rules! " -- user, No War With Iraq Meetup, Orange County, CA.

"The Meetup was great! I can hardly wait until next month!" -- Mary, Atheist Meetup, Philadelphia, PA.

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IX. Meetup Links

Home : http://www.meetup.com
About : http://www.meetup.com/credits/
Buzz : http://www.meetup.com/buzz
Press : http://www.meetup.com/press
Stats : http://www.meetup.com/stats.jsp


The Poynter Institute reports Meetup "help[s] journalists find real people who deeply care about a range of topics."
See: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=16874

We're happy to be of service. Just holler.

Media Inquiries:

Myles Weissleder
myles@meetup.com
415-332-3205


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October 29, 2002 Update

Preface:
1. Meetup helps organize monthly gatherings on just about any topic (612 topics to date) just about anywhere (532 cities and growing).

2. People use Meetup to connect with each other to talk about common interests.

3. They meet up at local coffee shops, bars, restaurants, stores, bowling alleys and more.

4. Meetup was born 138 days ago on Friday, June 14, 2002


Memebers signed in 67,127
Topics represented 612

Total Meetups to date 1,630
# people who've met up 11,322

Cities, worldwide 532
Countries represented 25

Advertising spending $ 0


Top 20 Cities w/memberships (10/29):
1 New York City 2868
2 London, England 1750
3 Toronto 1519
4 Chicago, IL 1416
5 Washington DC 1380
6 Boston, MA 1116
7 LA-Santa Monica 1089
8 Atlanta, GA 1065
9 Seattle, WA 1053
10 Philadelphia, PA 1051
11 Dallas-Plano, TX 924
12 Vancouver, Canada 910
13 San Diego, CA 904
14 Houston-Galveston,TX 882
15 San Francisco, CA 881
16 Portland, OR 840
17 Austin, TX 821
18 Orange County, CA 791
19 Melbourne 779
20 Minneapolis, MN 722

Top 20 Topics w/memberships (10/29):
1 Slashdot 8193
2 Livejournal 7292
3 Witches 5539
4 Blog 3281
5 Fark 2771
6 Pagan 1588
7 Radiohead 1566
8 Tori Amos 1346
9 Ultima Online 1256
10 Xanga 1186
11 Xena 1159
12 Ex-Jehovah's Witness 1103
13 Counterstrike 1029
14 Vampires 954
15 Bookcrossing 884
16 Star Trek 805
17 PHP 802
18 U2 754
19 Buffy 705
20 Phish 691

Per-city/per-topic data is available for local media outlets seeking trends.

Press inquiries:
Myles Weissleder
415-332-3684

MEDIA ALERT: PEOPLE TO GATHER IN HUNDREDS OF CITIES AND TOWNS WORLDWIDE ON SAME DAY TO DISCUSS IRAQI CONFLICT

WHERE:

Local cafes and coffee shops in up to 532 cities and towns worldwide

HOW:

Depending on stance on the issue, active-minded people can build bonds within their local community by participating in one of the following:


"NO WAR WITH IRAQ" - HTTP://NOWARWITHIRAQ.MEETUP.COM
"PROTECT FREEDOM" - HTTP://PROTECTFREEDOM.MEETUP.COM

WHEN:

FIRST EVER: OCTOBER 28, 2002 - IN 532 CITIES WORLDWIDE; continuing the 4th Monday of every month thereafter.

DETAILS:

CHANGE BEGINS WITH CONVERSATION. Meetup (http://www.meetup.com), an online facilitator of face-to-face meetings for people with similar interests, has partnered with e-thePeople (http://www.e-thePeople.org), an Internet-based forum for deliberative discussion and political action, to help build bonds between individuals within local communities on the subject of the growing conflict in Iraq. The "No War With Iraq" and "Protect Freedom" Meetups were designed to initiate dialogue between community members in local venues. In addition, e-thePeople has created equal-time petitions on their site for both sides of the issues, as well as providing one-click access to elected officials.


With regard to the Iraqi conflict, Meetup is outwardly linking to the following organizations to help raise awareness:


“NO WAR WITH IRAQ”: AntiWar.com, Common Dreams, e-thePeople, Global Exchange, Independent Media Center, Institute for Global Communications, International A.N.S.W.E.R., International Action Center, Iraq Peace Team, Moveon.org, Not In Our Name, Pacifica Radio's Watch on Iraq, Peace Watch, Peace.Protest.Net, Protest.net, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, The Nation, TomPaine.com, UnAmerican.com.


“PROTECT FREEDOM”: American Conservative Union, American Policy Center, Council For Emerging National Security Affairs, Defense Link, e-thePeople, HomeOfHeroes.com, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, In Defense of Freedom, NationalSecurity.Org, RAND, Rightturns.com, Rush Online, American Legion Magazine, Town Hall, U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Young Americans For Freedom, Young Republicans Online.


THE HEART OF DEMOCRACY IS PEOPLE GATHERING IN SUPPORT OF A CAUSE. Meetup is a revolutionary tool that can mobilize people across the globe in 532 distinct locales. Meetup reaches well beyond the major metropolitan areas and into smaller towns and communities allowing membership to grow at a grassroots level by getting people together face-to-face, locally. Meetup was launched in June of 2002 and currently boasts upwards of 60,000 members interested in meeting up on 595 topics.


FEATURE EDITORS ARE ENCOURAGED TO HELP CREATE BONDS WITHIN THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIES BY NOTIFIYING THEM OF THIS TOOL.


Meetup press and testimonials:

http://www.meetup.com/press


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CONTACT:
Myles Weissleder, Meetup
myles@meetup.com
415-332-3684


Scott Reents, e-thePeople
scott@e-thepeople.org
212-651-9256