Among many others, this one had some practical tips:

http://www.msu.edu/~corcora5/org/grouporgtips.html

     and then click on the various <group tips> in the menu at top of page

There are many many more...

Of the 56% Americans that think Bush is incompetent (my asumption), I guess only a small number are experienced activists. The majority don't know how to get started. Perhaps if they realised how relatively easy it is to get moving at a local level, they would be more keen to get involved. So the question is: how can we make people aware of how to do it?

Of course, at the local level, it is a slow process of attrition. But I have noticed in Finland that more people are getting off their butts. I super-salesman friend - the last person I thought of as a potential activist - asked me yesterday how to go about dunning his MP about the safety of a road near his home that his kids have to cross. (The MP lady had promised this as a priority in 7 years of election speeches)

Nationwide campaigns are important, and it is always nice to make the headlines - you feel that something is happening. But the smaller local campaigns are just as important in the long run.

You can't be me, I'm taken