Dear Federal Reserve Bureaucrat,

By Davi Barker

If you’re reading this you were probably recently hired as part of the Federal Reserve’s new social media monitoring program. Chances are you’re part of some make-work federal job placement program. You probably don’t completely understand who it is that you’re working for, and what it is that you’re doing. So, I can’t really hold it against you. I’d like to welcome you to our little corner of the Internet, and offer you some sincere advice.

You’re a bureaucrat now, so it’s important that you learn ways to avoid doing work. Otherwise you’re going to raise the bar for all your new bureaucrat friends, and they won’t like you anymore. I mean let’s face it, you’ve got a pretty sweet gig. Wouldn’t want to mess that up. So, let’s take a look at this recent “request for proposal” your bosses sent out for the creation of a “social listening platform” and see if we can’t find some corners you can cut.

You're looking for a social media monitoring company to design a program for you that can, “gather data from various social media outlets and news sources” to “guide the organization’s public relations group.”

Fall Recruiting for Western State University College of Law

Below is a picture from our Constitution Week event.  We had a "Pin the Amendment on the Bill of Rights" board game, which was a modification of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey."  Students were given a portion of one of the first 10 amendments and asked if they could pin it on the correct amendment in the Bill of Rights.  If they were successful, after as many tries as they wanted, they were given a pocket Constitution as a reward.  This was probably one of our more successful recruiting ideas.

Below is a picture of our recruiting table for the "Back to School BBQ."  The event was very successful and ended with several new interested students!

For more pictures from these events, click here.

The Fed is Hiring!

I can guarantee the keyword searches of "Federal Reserve," "Fiat money," "printing press," and "scumbags" will deliver the new Fed social media monitors straight to Silver Circle's website and blog. No worries though, we've seen the traces of the Boston Federal Reserve IT department in our analytic logs long before this news was released.

I won't sit here and act disgusted, because that reactionary emotion is comprised of surprise and...I'm not surprised. After the humiliating efforts to gather tips on negative language towards President Obama with AttackWatch.com, starting in December it looks like the Fed will devise a more direct and less public plan. (In case you were wondering, you can still submit suspicious claims and attacks on the President at the Attack Watch site.)

Much like any other company or campaign, the Federal Reserve has an open proposal to hire a social media monitoring company to track the conversation about itself online. They don't seem to be discriminating either...mainstream media sources, personal blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebooks can appear on the radar according to the monitoring applications they are exploring.

UC-Irvine Welcome Week Recruiting

On Monday, September 19th, Young Americans for Liberty at UC-Irvine attended the Anteater Involvement Fair. From approximately 11 AM to 3 PM, over 80 sign-ups were attained for the UCI YAL chapter (including their name, email, phone, etc).

Here is how we did it:  Stand in front of your table with a smile on your face, ready to approach people. If someone even glances your way, walk next to them and ask them a simple question. Try to get them to smile, laugh, or just stop walking. I would usually ask something like, "You look like someone who likes freedom! Am I right!?" When he/she says yes, respond with "Then our club is perfect for you!"