Way to go FairTax Supporters!!!

I would like to thank everyone involved with the FairTax Rally at the Gwinnett Airport on Saturday. I heard estimates of between 1200 and 1500 people who attended the rally with literally a one day notice. This is a testament of the support and dedication of the FairTax nation.

To provide a little background, we had been considering this for the last couple of weeks with the objective to heighten the FairTax
profile prior to the primary. Without going into detail, certain
elements need to be in place for a rally to be possible and this
literally happened late Thursday. The options were Saturday with one day to make it happen, Sunday which is Super Bowl Sunday, or Monday which is a workday, or not have it at all which would have been the easiest decision. We felt that Saturday was our best option and, in true grassroots fashion, our most dedicated Georgia leadership jumped in and made this happen. We received immediate help, support, and expertise from supporters that I did not know existed. AFFT jumped in and helped with contacts, routed the FairTax bus to us and helped with the notification.

On Friday, Neal Boortz agreed to make an appearance and helped with publicity on his radio program. Several people traveled long distances to provide support for our sound system and to provide the hot air balloon. But more importantly, people turned out in mass to show their support and this is what it will take to pass this legislation.

I apologize to those that couldn't make it because of the short
notice, and we could have drawn a larger crowd with more
notification. Everyone was amazed at the size of the crowd that could make it, and I believe that we made a statement that would have been lost had we not decided to undertake the event.

Congressman Linder and his staff were very involved with this
process. He was extremely pleased with the results.

Again, thanks to everyone that attended and helped to make this a
very successful event.

Gene Key
AFFT Volunteer
Georgia State Director

Impressions

Many thanks to Steve Arnold for setting up our FairTax tent for this event. The tee shirt, ball caps and yard signs flew off the table with very generous donations from all our supporters!

These donations are used to put on these big events as well as purchasing booth space at community carnivals, art shows, festivals, etc. all over the country. Our FairTax volunteers working these events educate thousands of new supporters every year!

These donations also cover the printing costs of the materials that are used at these events.These materials are also given out at dozens of speaking events each month at meetings of community organizations such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Chambers of Commerce, political party groups and many more. Our very experienced members of our Georgia Speaker's Bureau reach 12-200 people at each meeting.

Many thanks to the volunteers who did such a great job manning our donations/give aways table.

Angela Bean
District Director
GaFairTax.org Webmaster
Georgia Speaker's Bureau Coordinator

Impressions

Wow!
The Gwinnett Airport Rally fueled my fire. I would like to thank Gene Key for all the time and effort he put into making a last minute event happen. I also like to thank all the volunteers that helped with everything from help with the FairTax balloon, the tent, FairTax T-shirts, sound & stage, and most of all crowd control.

We Fair-Taxers are like Marines, we Adapt, Improvise,
and Overcome. I know we can do better in some areas
next event, but for the time we had, not bad at all.

I believe we have a great state FairTax teem, and I love working with each and everyone of them.

Great job team Georgia.

Mike Warlick
FairTax 9th DD Volunteer.
The FairTax Mountaineers.

What it takes to make a FairTax Rally Happen!

Sunday, January 27
While attending the Jacksonville Fair Tax rally, Georgia District Director, Don Williamson, spoke with Steve Leroy and John Epperson. Steve is the producer and events coordinator for the Fair Tax Bus and John is the bus driver. He found out that the bus would available for the
weekend before the primaries. Don immediately contacted Gene Key with this information. Gene then began to coordinate the bus to come to Georgia.

Thursday afternoon, January 31
Gene and Don were able to confirm that there were no events scheduled involving AFFT before the primaries. Congressman John Linder had expressed his desire to hold a Fair Tax rally before the primaries, so Gene and Don disscussed how to make this happen. With such short notice they had concerns about turnout, but decided to shoot for Saturday afternoon and concentrated on using a facility at the Gwinnet Airport.

Thursday evening, January 31
While Gene was contacting Houston to varify that a blast could get out and
the bus could get to the rally, Don was contacting John Linder's office to confirm that
he could attend. Once that was confirmed they both went to work tracking down who to speak with in order to get approval to hold the event at the airport. Don finally talked to Howard Hatcher and Hokie Hoge, the owner of the Flying Machine restaurant at the airport. Howard started running down his contacts at the airport. Don was also able to get John Linders office staff to assist Howard in securing a facilty. Meanwhile, just in case the airport venue didn't work out, Devara Trotter and Don Simmons started working on a back-up location.

Lyn Williamson was assigned to contact the district directors and community coordinators to let them know that a rally was being planned and that their assistance would be needed. In the event that the blast email from Houston might get delayed, she emailed the supporter lists of 3rd,6th,7th, 10th and 11th districts to the district directors so they could start contacting supporters in their areas.

Approximately 9 o'clock that evening, after several phone calls and with the facility 95%
secure, Gene and Don decided to go for it. Lyn went to work contacting, the district directors, community coordinators, and everyone on her volunteer lists.

Friday, February 1
Gene worked on getting the stage and sound system in place as well as finalizing arrangements with Howard and Hokie at the airport. Derek Corbett, from John Linder's office arranged to have John on the Bootz show at 9:20, to anounce the event. About this time we learned that the plans to use the hanger for the event fell through, but Howard arranged to get a portion of the tarmac for our use and he arranged for the Civil Air cadets to help with the parking. Lyn was assigned to work on getting volunteer workers for the event. Angela Bean was assigned to contact all the news media. Steve Arnold was contacted to request he bring his tent to the event.

Saturday, February 2
Early Saturday morning Don received a call from Lew Lobe advising Don that he
could provide the Fair Tax balloon for the event. Hokie volunteered to provide water, tea and coffee at no charge.

At 1 o'clock the volunteers to set up the event arrived at the airport. Gene wasalready working with Howard and Hokie finalizing the plans. After finding out exactly what area
we would be allowed to set up, Don assisted Lew Lobe to get the balloon inflated and secured and Lyn organized the volunteers with work duties. Angela Bean arrived with several boxes of tees, hats, signs, etc for the supporters and began setting up a distribution area with the help of several other volunteers. Steve Arnold arrived with his tent for the distribution area. The sound system was set up and tested. The FairTax bus was moved into place in front of the stage. By 3:30 all was ready for the special guest speakers and the crowds.