Raising awareness

My coworker and I have been trying to figure out ways we could spread the message more, but we live in an area dominated by a religious strangle hold and we don't have many resources at hand.. We have been slowly raising awareness by word of mouth and giving dvds to people as quickly as we can burn them to very positive reactions, and my coworker has been contacting business in nearby Owensboro, which is another large city in our state. So far he told me that he briefly explained what the movies were about and Gamestop said that they would let us leave a stack of DVDs there if we wanted, though if the owners watch the film I'm not sure they would be very long. We have also discussed pamphlets with site addresses for people to educate themselves.. I was wondering if anyone else had tried these things, and if so if they had some kind of model for the pamphlet.
I know I'm new to this, but I believe the major first step in the KY chapter could be to approach the sociology professors first at the major three universities (UK, U of L, and Western) and ask for their help in raising awareness of the movement and especially the KY chapter.. Maybe not even just them, but literature professors as well.. The waitresses where I work who came in for summer from western were big fans of the Zeitgiest films so I wouldn't think it would be that hard to find new members in the community regardless of support from the colleges.
Also I think we should all brainstorm on ways that this movement can affect our state so when we argue it's relevance in our communities we are more prepared.

Also I was surfing around facebook and I found an ad for an event going on at Berea college.. I know it would be a nice drive for any of us, but just thought I'd let you know about it...

2009 Kentucky Social Forum - Berea, KY - July 31-Aug 2

Continuing to educate & empower Kentuckians on issues that affect us all.
Are you a member of a grass-roots, Kentucky-based organization that would love to reach out on an organization-to- organization level? Then contact us for more information about getting listed and participating in discussions affecting Kentucky.

http://kentuckysocialforum.org/

It looks like you've been doing a lot to spread the message! I think everything that you and your co-worker have been doing so far is great.

Here in Louisville we have also been doing the same things on occassion; pamphlets, dvds, etc. We've organized a few movie nights at a local coffee shop which has been mildly successful. But our biggest thing right now is getting the participation. It seems that people out there are interested in our ideas, but not enough to be proactive about it. I think it might take a little more strain on our government and economy to push people to really think outside the box. People are so conditioned to our government that they've been lead to blind faith. I don't understand why more people aren't outraged by the current system. I see things in small waves, but it seems like media pushes through so quickly that we barely have enough time to think about one thing. That makes sense? Sorta like the flavor of the week, forgotten once the media finds something new to spew all over the TV and Internet.

One of our members, Justin, visited Berea on a trip to Venus FL. I think he was intrigued by the projects that Berea has going on right now, especially Sustainable Berea. We would all like to take a trip down there if we could contact a few folks with Berea and do some planning ahead of time.

Right now, this group has been pretty slow-going. We've also been struggling with new ideas without seeming too radical.
I really like your suggestion to contact the professors at local universities. I think we should seriously consider that.

Thanks for your participation in the forum. Please keep it up and continue to let us know what's going on in your area. Hopefully we can organize some big projects ahead of time so that you and your co-worker can have a chance to participate with us.

Thanks a lot Charlie for your ideas. You have some good ones.

We do have pamphlets made up along with other literature.

I think that contacting the professors would be a great idea, I'm so busy lately though with designing our website and other projects that I probably won't be able to make it. This will have to be a job for super Amanda lol.

Note: Our website is going through another major overhaul so that it can be more integrated with the global website. Also it has much much more functionality than what we have right now. This forum will also be taken down once the new site is finished as it won't be needed anymore. Members will be given ample time to convert over to the new forum though.

If anyone would like to help me move the content from here to the new forum when it's ready, please let me know. That's a lot of copy & pasting!

Let me know when you need help with the copy and paste. Something easy I can do when I have some downtime during the day.