The organizer's starter kit.

Read this first

You picked up a hard, worthy job. Your state has the right to govern itself. Most of your neighbors have never been asked the real question. When they are, the numbers move fast. Ask Texans the way a ballot would, peaceful and forced choice, and support runs about 66%. Ask Californians and it is 58%. The quiet support is already there. Your job is to find it, organize it, and give it somewhere to stand.

This library is five pieces. Read them in order once, then keep them on your desk. They are a starting kit, not a rulebook for your group. What you build is yours.

We don't run your group. We don't take your money. We bring the playbook, the standard, and the connections. What you build is yours.

One issue holds this together: self-determination. The right of the people of your state to decide their own future. That is it. People in your state lean every direction on every other question, and that is fine. The movement works because it leaves those fights at the door.

The first 90 days

A one-page plan for a brand-new state organizer. You start alone. By day 90 you don't.

Before you start. Get clear on one sentence: "The people of my state have the right to decide their own future, and I'm helping them get organized to do it." Say it out loud until it is natural. You will say it a thousand times.

Days 1 to 30: get ready and find the first few

• Write your one sentence. Memorize it.
• Read all five pieces in this library.
• Set up one public way to be reached: an email address and one social account under a project name, not your personal name.
• Make a list of 25 people you already know who might say yes, or might know someone who would. Don't filter hard. List them.
• Have ten real conversations. Ask, don't pitch. "Do you think our state should decide its own future?" Listen more than you talk.
• Goal by day 30: five people who have said "I'm in" and given you a way to reach them.

Days 31 to 60: hold the first meeting and form a team

• Run your first meeting (see The First Meeting). Five people in a room beats fifty on a list.
• From that room, fill three roles: an outward-facing lead, an operations lead, and an events lead. It is fine if you hold one yourself for now. It is not fine to hold all three forever.
• Set a standing meeting. Same day, same time, monthly at least.
• Start a simple, private contact list. Names and how to reach them. Nothing fancy. Keep it safe.
• Goal by day 60: a three-role team and a date for meeting number two.

Days 61 to 90: build a rhythm and widen the circle

• Run meeting number two. Each role reports what they did. Short.
• Each member brings one new person. Five becomes ten.
• Do one small public thing: a table at a market, a meetup, a coffee. Visible, lawful, calm.
• Pick the one metric you will track from here forward: number of people who have said yes and can be reached. Write the number down every month. Watch it climb.
• Goal by day 90: ten or more committed people, three roles filled, a meeting rhythm, and a number you are growing.

What "done" looks like at 90 days. You are not a lone voice anymore. You are a small team with a calendar and a list. That is the whole game at this stage. Everything bigger is built from this.

Do start with conversations, keep the issue to self-determination, build a team, and track one honest number. Don't start with a manifesto, drift into every other fight, try to be the team yourself, or inflate the number to feel good.

The three-role starter team

The smallest team that actually works has three roles. One person can wear two hats early. Nobody should wear all three for long. Fill these and you have an organization, not a hobby.

The Outward-Facing Lead is the face and the voice. Speaks for the group in public and online and keeps the message on self-determination. Builds relationships with allies and local groups. Welcomes new people and makes the first impression a good one. Keeps the tone calm, confident, and lawful, and never takes the bait in an argument. They own the message and the relationships.

The Operations Lead is the engine room. Holds the contact list and keeps it accurate and private. Tracks the one metric: committed people who can be reached. Sends the reminders, books the room, keeps the schedule. Makes sure decisions from meetings actually get done. They own the list, the calendar, and follow-through.

The Events Lead is the room and the moment. Plans the meetings and any public gathering: tables, meetups, coffees. Handles logistics: place, time, setup, what people see when they walk up. Makes events feel welcoming so a first-timer comes back. Captures contact info from new faces and hands it to Operations. They own the gatherings and the first-time experience.

How they work together. Outward-Facing brings people in. Events gives them a room to walk into. Operations makes sure nobody falls through the cracks and the work continues. Three roles, one loop.

Do name a person for each role out loud, and let one person hold two roles early. Don't leave roles "shared by everyone" (which means nobody), and don't let one person hold all three past the first few months.

The first meeting

Five to ten people. Ninety minutes. Somewhere quiet you can hear each other: a back room, a library room, someone's living room. Your job as facilitator is to make it warm, useful, and short enough that people want to come back.

Before the meeting. Confirm the room and time the day before. Bring a sign-in sheet (name, email or phone, "what brought you here"), this agenda, and these five pieces. Get there early and arrange chairs in a circle, not rows.

The agenda, ninety minutes

• Welcome and why we're here (10 min). You speak. Keep it short. Use your one sentence. Then: "Tonight isn't about having all the answers. It's about finding out who else here believes the people of this state should decide their own future, and deciding to work together."
• Go around the room (20 min). Each person: name, where they're from, and one reason they came. You go last. This is the most important part. People commit to rooms where they have spoken. Listen. Don't debate. Thank each person.
• What this is, and what it isn't (10 min). Read the boundary aloud, then: "One issue holds us together: the right of this state to decide its own future. People in this room will disagree on plenty of other things. We leave those at the door. That is what makes this work."
• The next 90 days (20 min). Walk through the first-90-days plan at a high level. Then ask the room two questions and write the answers where everyone can see: "Who is willing to take one of three roles to keep this going?" and "When do we meet next?" Pick a real date before anyone leaves.
• Find the others (15 min). "Each of us knows people who'd say yes if asked. Before we go, write down one name you'll talk to this month." Go around. Each person says their one name out loud. Saying it out loud makes it real.
• Close (15 min). Confirm the three roles and the next meeting date. Make sure everyone is on the sign-in sheet. Thank them. End on time or early. Always end on time.

Facilitation. Talk less than you think you should. If someone steers into a partisan fight, gently bring it back: "That's a real debate, and it's not the one that unites this room. Self-determination is." Don't let one person dominate. Keep energy up by keeping it moving.

Do end with a date and three names for roles, and get everyone on the sign-in sheet. Don't end with "we'll figure it out," trust your memory, or let ninety minutes sprawl into three hours and burn people out.

Find the others

You are not creating support. You are locating support that already exists and giving it a place to stand. This takes you from one person to five, then five to fifty.

Mindset. The quiet support is real. Most people who agree with you have never been asked and don't know anyone else who agrees. You are the connector. Every conversation is "do you agree, and do you want company," not "let me convince you."

Your first 5

1. List the people you already know. Fifteen names of people who might agree, or who know someone who would. Family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, people from church, people from the gym, old classmates. Don't overthink it.
2. The opener. Memorize one line: "Do you think the people of this state should decide our own future?" Open-ended. No pitch.
3. The follow-up, if they say yes. "So do I. I'm getting a few people together who feel the same way. Can I keep you in the loop?" Get a name and a way to reach them, and write it down before you leave the conversation.
4. The goal. Five people who said yes and gave you contact info. You don't need a hundred conversations. You need five yeses.

Your first 50

• Mine the circles you already have. Your five people each have their own fifteen names. Ask each of them to do the first-5 step. Five times fifteen is seventy-five conversations you didn't have to start cold.
• Go where people already gather. Local civic meetups. County fairs and farmers markets. Community events with a public table. You are not crashing anything. You are showing up, being visible, and being easy to talk to.
• Be findable. One public email, one public social account under the project name, a simple way for someone who hears about you to raise their hand. Most of your fifty will come from people who found you, not people you found.
• Make every new person a connector. The moment someone says yes, ask the same question you were asked: "Who else do you know who'd agree?"
• Capture everything. Every name, every contact, into Operations' private list. A name you don't write down is a name you lose.

The funnel, simply. Talk to people you know, find 5. Those 5 talk to people they know, find 50. Those 50 do the same, and the math takes over.

Rules of the road

How we conduct ourselves. This is not fine print. It is the foundation. The movement's strength is that it is peaceful, lawful, and disciplined, and that everyone can see it. One person breaking these rules can cost everyone months of trust.

1. Peaceful, always. We win by persuasion and organization, never by force, threats, or intimidation. There is no version of this work that involves violence. None. Anyone who talks that way doesn't belong in the room, and you remove them from it.
2. Lawful, always. Know your local laws and follow them. Permits where they are required. Private property rules. Public space rules. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, find out before you do it, not after.
3. One issue: self-determination. The right of the people of your state to decide their own future. That is the whole banner. The moment you bolt on a partisan agenda, you cut your own coalition in half.
4. Stay out of the partisan fights. Not left, not right. Not for or against any party, candidate, or hot-button policy. "That's a real debate. It's just not ours. Ours is whether the people here get to decide their own future." Then move on.
5. Tell the truth. Use real numbers or none. Never inflate your size, your support, or your wins. Honest and smaller beats impressive and false every time.
6. Be the calmest person in the argument. You will be provoked. People will misrepresent you, mock you, try to bait you. Calm, confident, and factual wins the room and the watchers. Heat loses both.
7. Respect the people who disagree. Your neighbor who thinks you are wrong is still your neighbor, and maybe your future supporter. No contempt, no mockery. You are growing a coalition, not winning an internet fight.
8. Protect your people. Keep your contact list private and secure. Don't expose members who want to stay quiet. Don't post names or photos without permission. Trust is the currency. Guard it.
9. Speak for your group, not for ours. You are not a spokesperson for Texas, for TNM, or for any other state's movement. Speak for your own people and your own state. We brought the playbook. The voice is yours.
10. When in doubt, slow down. A rushed action you regret is worse than a careful one that waits a week. There is no prize for moving fast and breaking trust. Build something that lasts.

The one-line version. Peaceful. Lawful. Honest. One issue. Calm under fire. Build trust and never spend it cheap.

USexit is an educational and peer-support project of the Texas Nationalist Movement. We help people in your state find each other and get started. We don't run, fund, or speak for your organization.