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Guidelines for Organizers and Hosts

Revised October 30, 2024

There are two general types of speaking engagements - individual events and those which are part of an extended speaking tour. Naturally, there are similarities and differences. The main difference for organizers will be in the financial requirements.

Financial Requirements:

Sponsors of individual events will be expected to pay all travel expenses plus a donation to the Patriots. The standard requested donation for individual events was set at $3,000 in 1984 and has not changed. Dr. Bowman's policy, however, is to give substantial discounts to churches, peace groups, and other non-profit organizations unable to meet the standard. While these donations are the main source of support for the work of The Patriots, we try to never let lack of money prevent a community from hearing Dr. Bowman's message.

When Dr. Bowman and his wife Maggie are on an extended speaking tour (like the one from Apr 10 to Aug 15, 2024 , the route is usually planned months in advance. Unless deviations from the route are requested, the expenses of the tour will not be significantly affected by talks in cities along the route. Accordingly, we do not allocate travel expenses to sponsoring groups, but simply ask for a donation. We usually request an up-front donation of $500 to $1,000, plus the opportunity to "pass the basket." This usually covers the expenses of the tour, with enough left over to help fund our work the rest of the year.

None of the money donated to The Patriots goes to pay salaries. All our workers are volunteers. Dr. Bowman has not taken a salary in over 20 years. But our outreach activities do cost money. We ask sponsoring organizations to do their best to meet our needs.

Collecting Cosponsors:

Organizers should collect as many co-sponsoring organizations as possible. We are attempting to bring together the peace and justice movement, the anti-war movement (and there is a difference in some places), the 9/11 Truth movement, the environmental movement, the labor movement, churches, the free speech and civil rights movement, the movement for fiscal responsibility, and various student activist groups. The common goal we propose for all these groups is to demand a government which (1) follows the Constitution, (2) honors the truth, and (3) serves the people. Such a government would make everyone happy, including liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and Greens. We must no longer allow the big money interests to keep us apart. We must join together to "Take Back America" for the people.

Selecting a Venue:

Sponsoring organizations should figure out how many people they can attract to the event and together calculate how large a venue is needed (50 seats, 200 seats, 1,500 seats, ??) and whether or not to sell tickets in advance. (Generally, selling tickets for $10 or $20 results in MUCH larger crowds than making the event free. Often people figure that if an event is free, that's what it's worth, unless they've heard of Dr Bowman before.)

If a student group or faculty group is among the co-sponsors, a college auditorium can usually be obtained at no cost. Other sources of free or almost-free space include churches, libraries, union halls, and book stores. Many Unitarian, United Church of Christ, Methodist, and other churches have provided their facilities without charge to our events. DO NOT spend lots of money renting an expensive auditorium. We'd rather have the money go to our efforts to wake up the American people.

Contacting Us:

Organizers should communicate with Dr. Bowman on the details, and also send the venue, its address, and the time to our webmaster, can be reached at Dr. Bowman's home phone is (321) 752-5955 or email . If necessary, you can reach Dr Bowman directly on his cell phone (321) 258-0582 .

Attracting an Audience:

Organizers and sponsoring organizations are responsible for securing the auditorium or hall, selling tickets, and doing publicity. We will email you a flyer which you can modify by adding the date, time, and place of the event in your town. You may also want to arrange for Dr Bowman to be on radio talk shows in your area several days in advance of the event. DO NOT spend lots of money on publicity. Expensive ads seldom bring in more than a few folks. Use email (which is free). But by far the most effective way to build an audience is by personal contact. Still, 90% of those who tell you they will come . will not! . UNLESS they have put out 10 bucks or so for a ticket. Then they will show up. The only way to get a big audience is to have several sponsoring organizations and have each of them give all their members half a dozen tickets to sell. Follow up early and often. Make sure people are selling their tickets, and collect the money well before the event.

Physical Requirements:

A podium or lectern and a fixed microphone and PA system suitable for the space will generally be needed. If you have a DVD projector, Dr. Bowman will show a three-minute DVD as part of his lecture, but it's not essential. DON "T spend money renting expensive equipment. Dr. Bowman is 6'4" tall, so the podium or lectern needs to be able to hold his papers about 4 feet above the floor. Sometimes it is necessary to elevate the podium with concrete blocks or something.

Accommodations for one-time events:

For most one-time events outside Florida , Dr. Bowman will be flying. He is perfectly happy being put up in a home to save the cost of hotels. Transportation from the airport and back are expected.

Accommodations for extended tour events:

Most events will be evening lectures. The Bowmans will usually arrive in the afternoon and will want to go to wherever they will be parking their motor home for the night so they can clean up and change clothes. They will then usually be available for dinner with folks from the sponsoring organizations before going to the event. A typical schedule will be dinner at 5 PM , return to the motor home around 6:30 PM to feed and medicate Sadie (the German Shepherd) and pick up supplies, and the lecture event at 7 PM . An alternative, especially for church halls, is a pot luck supper followed by the talk.

Since parking for a large vehicle is hard to come by in some locations, transportation should be provided for the Bowmans to and from the event. However, if the location is a church or other venue with a large parking lot, the Bowmans would prefer to park their motor home there, plug in their electricity to a household outlet, and thus have access to the motor home throughout the evening. Churches usually allow them to stay there for the night. Otherwise, they will leave the motor home at an RV park or parked in the driveway of a host. If the latter, keep in mind that the motor home is 32 feet long, 8 ½ feet wide, and 11 ½ feet tall. A parking place should be level, large enough, and accessible without overhanging trees, etc. In the motor home will be their German Shepherd, Sadie. If she is left alone for more than a short time, there should be access to electricity so the air conditioning can be run if necessary (depending on the temperature that time of year in your city). A normal 20 Amp household outlet is sufficient. The motor home has an adaptor and a hundred feet of cord. Even where air conditioning is not required, electricity is used overnight to charge cell phones and operate a laptop computer and other equipment.

The Bowmans will usually leave the next morning after breakfast to drive to the next city on the schedule. If they have a long drive ahead, they may even leave early and have breakfast an hour or two down the road.

Tour details will be updated periodically on the web site: ThePatriots.us . We appreciate very much all the hard work that goes into organizing an event. We hope that these events will be enjoyable for all involved, will benefit the sponsoring organizations, and will help bring your community together in our common effort to educate the public and to "Take Back America." Thank you!

The Patriots 1494 Patriot Dr , Melbourne , FL 32940 (321) 752-5955