I see you guys like the 2AM name. Though the domain name has already been chosen and bought before those suggestions were made, we still have no official movement name. Now, 2AM does sound pretty cool. It does have a kind of catchy sound about it, like a Matchbox 20 song, minus one number.

I'll see what I can come up with on that front. FWIW, we do have a basic logo design already that we have been dabbling with that will readily be adaptable to that name. How does a Betsy Ross American flag with a big 2AM printed in the blue section inside the circle of stars sound?

Hang on a second, let us add that to the design and I'll share an image to see what you folks think. Being this is your movement, we will always try to listen to what you folks want.

I am interested, though I don't know how active I can be right now.
After spending nearly 2 hours reading this thread, I'm just going to brain dump here, and hopefully my babblings will be coherent enough for you guys to understand. I tried to separate different thoughts into individual paragraphs, in no planned out order, to help with clarity.

We need to be 100% non-partisan. It shouldn't matter if the people are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, Green, or "Insects have rights too!" so long as they agree on the Second Amendment and gun rights. It will be hard, but that will be a good step in not alienating fellow 2A supporters. This means keeping everything respectful and ignoring issues not related to guns.

I agree with what was posted a couple pages back in that this organization needs to be a coalition of firearm communities, industry partners, constitutional freedom watchdogs, in addition to individuals. However, I don't believe it would be prudent to charge for what we will do, but this does bring up the issue of funding.

What need to incorporate as a political non-profit. The leadership needs to be selected, and a corporate constitution and mission statement needs to be drafted. You also need to know how the organization is going to be controlled, and who picks the people who run it.

What kind of chain of command is going to be implemented for grassroots organization? Will each Congressional district have an organizer, who then reports to his/her state HQ who then report to Regional, etc? What would be the most efficient and effective way to keep people involved and informed at local, state, and federal levels?

IMHO, I think the HQ/main office should be located in Northern VA, due  to Virginia's pro-2A laws, and its proximity to DC. Field offices should be located in CA for sure, and maybe one or two more in central states.

Someone more active than I needs to see about getting VCDL involved. They have been highly successful in protecting and advancing 2A rights at a local and state level.

If you know me, you'd know how much I hate saying this, but we need to find people who aren't typical white gun owners and put them up as the face of our organization. Image is everything; we can't have all/too many Caucasian/white people in leadership positions because (a) the media will make them all seem like bubba-in-a-suit, no matter how civilized they actually are, (see how they destroyed Sarah Palin's reputation after just a couple gaffes by making people think she was a stupid female,) and (b) it will alienate the "center," the people who haven't decided one way or the other, (Many of these may be gun owners themselves, who might have a handed down heirloom, or they are a LEO. Never assume that anyone who owns guns understands the 2A.)

Also, it can't seem like any minorities/women are involved just to make it look like we are all-inclusive. (I personally think that's what many people believe the NRA has done.) We need to find a way to get minorities actually involved at all levels of the organization, in a way that the media can't twist it into something it isn't.

And for the record, I also think 2AM is a good choice for a name.

I hope all this made sense!

ETA: I forgot Podcasting. We should try and do professional-quality podcast, maybe once a month to start out.

BTW, while we are waiting on the logo to be re-designed with the 2AM theme, I want to share a bit of other news with you all.

One, the forum has been been put up tonight. It is a phpBB type board. But we have yet to get it organized with all of the individual sections. And though registration is turned off for now due to that, I may still be able to give y'all a sneak peak of the background and general layout a little later, once we figure out which one is the keeper. We have been going back and forth between several options. But we think we have found the winner. Unless something  totally unexpected happens to set us back, it should however be ready for use by tomorrow night. If so, it will be posted here the minute it opens, and the emails will go out making the announcement.

Also, and perhaps the biggest news of the night thus far, we are going to be having an extremely exciting contest coming up soon as our first fund raiser. And it will all be owed to one very generous arfcommer who stepped forward on his own to make the donation. We'll be raffling off chances on winning an all expenses paid trip to Thunder Ranch to take an Urban Rifle course under Clint Smith. That includes the course fees, the ammo, and transportation, even airfare if that is needed to get the winner there. Folks, you don't get that kind of prize on the TV game shows! So I am sure you will all have fun with that. I can't say for sure when that will begin, as we need to get some things taken care of as far as selecting a treasurer, getting a post office box, getting our bank account opened up get a PayPal account going and finalizing our status as a non-profit corporation. But it will be just around the corner. I'll also be letting everyone know exactly who the very generous forum member here is as soon as he lets me know that doing so is ok. Some people don't like to do these things openly. So I will get his permission first before sharing his screen name. But again, this contest is just around the corner. So stay tuned! This is about to turn interesting!

PayPal? Aren't they likely to freeze funds when they find out what's going on? [>:/]

Have you thought about upgrading to phpBB3?

I think a board is a good stand-in until a more permanent solution is developed. I think a simple, yet functionals site with a CMS, like Drupal, MediaWiki, or WordPress, behind the scenes would be ideal. I'm just an amateur with this stuff and don't have too much free time. Otherwise I'd love to work with your tech branch!

It is in fact a phpBB3 board. As for the website, that one is going to take a while longer to get going simply due to the massive amount of content that will need to be added. But I know nothing of the technical aspects of such things, and as such, I won't be designing it and setting it up myself. But I feel me and the gang have surrounded ourselves with some good, capable people. I am probably going to defer to them on what to go with when it comes to building the site. But our tech team is still looking for new people. It sounds like you know a little something about message board design. So if you'd be interested in helping us build this sucker, or just advise us, drop me a PM sometime. And if you were to have a link to a site/s you have helped construct, pass me a link so I can show the others on the team what sort of skills you have.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Alrighty, without further yapping by me, here are some examples of the flag logo sporting the 2AM theme designed by WildWilli that he just passed to me a few moments ago for your viewing pleasure:





















As you can see, those are all examples of the same basic theme with a few minor tweaks between them here and there. My personal favorite is the middle one with "2nd Amendment Movement" spelled out across the top and the URL at the bottom.

Which design do you prefer? I wish I could start a poll to answer that question, but that wouldn't work out very well in this thread and I really don't want to start another in GD relating to something that already exists in a tacked thread. So I guess you can just vote by speaking up in the thread and picking between choices 1, 2 or 3 in order from top to bottom, or none of the above if you dislike the design. Unfortunately, pie is not a choice in this poll.

Very nice work!

I'm with you, my vote is for number 2 but with 2am as opposed to 2a

Thanks!
dv

Updated to reflect that change.

I have been debating tonight whether or not I should post this yet, since it isn't totally ready for use, but I think I will go ahead and do so.

http://www.righttokeepandbeararms.com/phpBB3/index.php

There is the movement's new home for discussion. Isn't she pretty?

As of 3:30 AM EST (that reminds me of how I really, really should be in bed by now), the forum still isn't ready for use. But you can go ahead and register if you wish. WildWilli and I are going to resume work on it around mid-morning, having stopped work due to the late hour. But it should be ready for posting by tomorrow night. We just have to get the banner added, put in the individual forums and sub-forums, then start activating the accounts. But remember, the accounts won't get activated until tomorrow evening when all the forums get put in. Right now all we have is a background (and even that is subject to change) and one unnamed section for posting.

But, I did want to give everyone that has patiently been following this thread a sneak peek at what the forum looks like and the opportunity to go ahead and register if you wish. The official invites will go out across the mailing list tomorrow and I'll update page 1 of this thread with the link at that time also.

Next will come the actual website. But that may be a few days in the making, simply because of the large amount of data that will need to be added there, not to mention the greater complexity of the design itself. We may need to enlist the help of another tech savvy person or two before that process begins, so if anyone here happens to be good at website design, my PM box is open for you (hint, hint). LOL.

Talk to you folks again tomorrow.

Charging Handle, I would stay as far away from Pay Pal as possible with regards to this.

No sleeping with the enemy!

Hey Charging_Handle, I'm a computer animator with some web experience. I can build web pages and can definitely design cool graphics. Drop me an IM I'd be more than willing to help. I've already registered on your site as NY_Patriot

Thanks for heading this up
-Jeff

i registered at the new site.

looks very good.


lots of good ideas pouring in still. I'm glad to see this is getting some legs.


Charging_Handle, you are doing an excellent job. keep it up.

OK, PayPal's anti-gun asshattery has been noted. So we may just elect to use more conventional ways of transferring $$$ from donors to the account. Let PayPal stew in their own juices.

And for jbrodsky, thanks for your offer to help. Once we activate the accounts this evening, either me or WildWilli will make contact with you over there and discuss this further. We have a couple guys working on the tech side of things. But again, we could always use more experienced help. The more people you have on the team, the more knowledge that team has.

I just registered. It looks great!

One minor comment..... yeah, your browsers dont care about upper/lower case letters on a URL, but you can use case to help the person reading a URL:  RIGHTtokeepandbeararms.com can start to run together for the human eye.  At first glance, it looked like something to do with panda bears in a place called 'tokee'.    So upper case the first letter of the rest of the words for better readability:
RIGHTtoKeepAndBearArms.com

Great work!

I couldn't find anyone who posted about our 2AM movement over at Uzitalk.com so I did.  Hopefully the site staff will contact you CH.

Thanks for all your hard work and late nights.

BTW, I vote for the 2nd option.

Question: Are you going to be able to use the 2AM in a personalized advanced communications kind of way?

i.e. send out mass email, pm's, cell phone instant messages etc to the far reaching greater online community (forums) and individual user in an attempt to inform and mobilize the greater community for the common goal at hand?

Hello I am from Indiana and belong to http://ingunowners.com/forums/index.php
I am going to take the lead for our site and will be signing up soon on the new forum.

I registered on 2AM.......pretty sure Dvickery knows me from over at MP-Pistol.....

Just an idea here, feel free to modify to your hearts content.

I agree with this.

Just registered.  The Sight looks great!  I really like the parchment look.
Also voting for #2 for logo.

Keep up the great work!

Another one...

Now I like this second one. Got some flash but yet clean.

DING, DING, DING... that's a winner for me.

I like this one too!

I was going to say, on that "high priority" target list would be those that are newly elected, semi-moderate democrats that would be subjected to the political machine of Pelosi and Reid.

If you tag them before they even take office (or shortly thereafter), they'll get the message real quick (especially the Congressman), that if they want to keep their jobs, no matter what the 'Rat leadership tells them, they are going to have to do what we want.  

Don't be fooled.  Letters, phones, and email do make a difference as is evidenced by the Immigration bill over the summer, and the oil drilling issue, as well as the bailout bill, before the Senate gave them cover in the house to pass it.  

Problem is, it's going to be hard to fight the things that are snuck into bills, especially things like the Terrihart (spelling?) Ammendment.

Thanks guys.

One more:

JB66 I like the 2nd one better. Need for CH to see it and pass it around the circle.

Amendment only has one "M" after the "A"

and if we stay with 3 colors (R/W/B) instead of 4, printing and embroidery costs would be lower.

+1 ....Only spell check it.  

CH

I checked out the website and like what I see. I registered and am waiting patiently for approval. This is going along quickly. Firearm enthusiasts (gunnuts) have needed something like this for a long time. It brings our guns to bear (pun intended) on a focal point for effectiveness. Kudos to you and all the rest involved with making this happen.

Son of a bitch...

I'll be right back...

I like this one too (w/ one 'M' in Amendment).  With regards to keeping the cost down w/ 3 colors, maybe the url could be written in blue on the red stripe..??

tx
dv

I registered this morning.  
The designs look good.  Vote #2 on CH image and #2 on the other image (once spell checked).  

HAL

Right on Necritan; thanks for coming over and supporting the movement!  With enough support, this thing could be huge, and with national recognition.  

You know, if we can raise enough money we could send reps to set up booths at some of the larger gun shows across America to spread the word.  Hand out free buttons and sell hats at cost, free fliers with internet address etc..  

When we get strong enough, we can sponsor our own candidates for gov. offices around America.  

Got Freedom?

dv

That is a great idea.  I had a little simpler idea of a local group getting together and have a couple of people buy a box of fliers each to hand out at the gun shows to spread the word of the 2AM movement.  It would be a simple and cheap start anyway until we can get organized enough for booths, clothes and such.

OK, lets try this again.  I was just making sure you guys were paying attention, you know...

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1002/82410693sh4.jpg

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/2773/18655095tq3.jpg

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7027/67388040rh8.jpg

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/821/47529295az6.jpg

Feel free to suggest improvements, font size and position are easy to change.

nice 1st though would be to put the blue text on the bottom white stripe and have it fit within the stripe... looks great.

personally I love the style of graphics they have on this site

I like CH's offering #2 and JB66's 2nd go around offerings #2 and 3 but we need to ask ourselves what does it say to the typical person off the street having a symbol of a flag with 13 stars?

Just a thought

JB66,

Give me one of the second one down with the url in white and text centered please.

That might be it.

The flag with the circle of 13 stars is the original Betsy Ross (back around the time the 2nd was written).

Good idea.

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/8702/2ambluesmallqi9.jpg

I'm going to hold off on any more until CH weighs in. I don't want to be stepping on any toes here.

ETA- There are some great designs on that site, but I don't have those kind of skills.

I like it..  Let's see what CH and everybody else thinks.  

dv

JB66,

That one looks good. I will put it up on the site and see how it looks there.

Thanks!

~WW~

Very cool.
Tag for inclusion.

Thank you, and your welcome! I'm glad I could contribute.

I didn't realize you had the "power" on the site. Here's the edit you asked for:

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/157/2amwhitesmalloz9.jpg

I still think it could be improved, as the text around the 2am starts to get pretty hard to read as you reduce the size of the logo. Something like the arfcom logo might be good so the small detail isn't as important. I've got some other ideas that would take me a little time. If you want I'll run with them and update you as I go.

I really like that last one JB66.  I like the whole concept of the flag and the stars.
But I would also like to see something a little edgier.  Perhaps more urban.  I found this font... http://www.dafont.com/stampete.font that I like but I'm not allowed to download it @ work.  I'm thinking a large block numeral 2 that is sort of roughed up ala the Magpul logo.  Kind of like its been trampled (no symbolism there, huh?)

Got Freedom?     (from dvickery)
It's 2am
rtkba.com

or just circled 2am.  I'm thinking like a 6" dia decal for vehicles.



Thoughts?

Can we change it to 2am.com maybe?

JB66,

I ran into the same problem when shrinking it down. It can not be too busy or it gets lost. Also, it would be extremely difficult to embroider on a patch or jacket. Simple is definitely better. I think I like the URL on the bottom stripe though. The top and bottom red stripes symbolize that when this country was founded, there was blood and when it ends, there will also be blood.

Which font are you using for the URL?