Chapter 06 - Blast Off!
A few days later Jeffrey could be found repeatedly saying that he should have taken screen shots of the YouTube site for their first release, every half hour for the first twelve hours. The trajectory of hits and comments was amazing to everyone on the staff, but nobody remembered the specifics. The reality is that for the first ninety minutes or so there was only a trickle of hits and no comments whatsoever. That changed abruptly. Hits began to go gangbusters. Correlating this with Nicole’s Tweets, it appears there was some lag before the famous lawyers responded. After they had read Nicole’s Tweet, they watched the video and read the white paper. They also read the part two white paper and they intended to read all the other white papers that had been posted on The Minute Women’s Website. But they took timeout to make a Tweet that recommended both the video and the white paper. Those Tweets were where it started.
Many others replied and a good fraction of those made their own Tweets. Interestingly, a lot of those only recommended the video. They didn’t say anything about the white paper. This process was self-sustaining. Every time a person with a very large group of followers made a recommendation, it became an injection for additional growth of those who watched the video. The comments also encouraged this. Typical were “Great Job!” and “More Please.” At this early stage, all the comments were positive.
There were also comments coming into the Website at a high rate. Weeks earlier Caroline had made it part of Nicole’s job to respond to those comments as they came in. Until the video release, the comment flow was only a trickle and it didn’t take much of Nicole’s time at all to write responses. But on this day when the video was released, Nicole couldn’t keep up with the comment flow. She asked for help and Caroline began to assist her. Yet even with both of them working together, they couldn’t keep up. After a half hour of this Caroline decided they needed a different approach.
She told Nicole to read through the remaining comments, make note of those that were exceptional in some way, but not write responses. They would put a message on the Website, where the comment form was, that expressed their gratitude for this overwhelming response, and then note that The Minute Women was a small organization and couldn’t keep up with the volume of comments they were receiving. They hoped to be in touch with more personalized messages in response in the not too distant future, but for now they were unable to do so. Instead, they asked viewers to keep monitoring this space as they will be writing a general response to the messages here. Then Caroline told Nicole, our next step is to get the video out for part two of the white paper as soon as possible.
Caroline went to Michael and asked if he could rig up some automated response message to the comments, with that message possibly changing after subsequent videos were released. Michael said he could and would get right on it. He asked Caroline what the message should say and she told him she’d write it out in a few minutes. Michael was okay with that but then said he would need to hire an assistant if this was to be the new normal for the organization. Carolyn nodded and indicated she understood the need. She encouraged Michael to come discuss this when things calmed down a little.
After those first twelve hours the video had more than two million hits and almost a thousand comments. The white paper also had many more hits, then almost one hundred thousand. This was extraordinary growth in reading the white paper, but it was entirely dwarfed by those who watched the video. The bulk of them didn’t seem to feel a need to read the white paper or told themselves they’d do it later. Donations also picked up markedly. Over twenty thousand dollars came in during those first twelve hours. Caroline told herself that if this keeps up they could afford hiring Michael’s assistant.
Caroline convened the writing group online for a quick meeting on how to adjust to the spectacular success of the first video. She had a rough sketch of a plan about releasing future videos. The part one videos would be released a week apart. The part twos and part threes, if there were one, would be released two days after the previous part video. The idea was to let the social media chatter happen without cutting it too short, but then feed the chatter with the follow up content in the video for the next part. The group embraced this idea.
The video released was on the first white paper that had been written, about Senator McConnell blocking the Merrick Garland nomination from being taken up by the Senate. Carolyn wanted to know if with subsequent videos they should stick with the order that the white papers were written or if they should deviate from the chronological approach and try to be strategic about the sequencing. They argued about this for a while. They finally concluded that they should make an appeal to Republican voters early on, but not bring up the white paper on restoring Roe and getting the Justices to step down just yet. That was too much to push so early in the game. They agreed that next should be: The President and Congress - A Comparison of the Reagan Years to the Obama and Trump Years. The writing group was almost done working on part one of this white paper and promised they’d have that and part two done in the required timeframe. Caroline said it would be easier on them after that as she would make videos of other white papers that had already been published and could record those well in advance of when they were posted, so she wouldn’t feel so under the gun as well.
One day after the video had been posted the numbers on hits, comments, and donations had essentially doubled since the twelve hour mark. But the hits on the white paper went up by less than ten percent. Caroline knew that they’d have to do something about this, but not just yet.
When she next had a private session with Nicole, Caroline instructed her that for the part two video she should make an official Tweet on The Minute Women page, but wait to make those clever Tweets to the famous lawyers for at least four hours after release. The idea was to see if their referrals were still critical for getting the word out, or if now there was a ready audience waiting for the next video.
Nicole did as instructed. Hits and comments on the part two video began almost immediately as posted. Ultimately it overtook the first video in both categories. And donations also surpassed what had been received after the first video was released. Nicole did eventually send a Tweet to the legal scholars and some other famous people, but did this more out of a sense of obligation than to promote the second video. It didn’t need such promotion. Hits on part two of the white paper followed the same path as part one. There was a dramatic increase as compared to before the video had been released, but it was miniscule relative to the hits on the video itself.
* * * * *
The weekly meeting of the writing group was just underway. It was the evening of the day after the third video had been released. Caroline had already recorded the fourth video and Michael had it set to be released the next morning. The group was in good spirits, as the time pressure was off for producing the next white paper. With that and the success of the videos, everything seemed to be going very well.
Caroline said, “Instead of our regular meeting, why don’t we celebrate. There’ a pretty good restaurant right around the corner. Why don’t we go there for dinner?”
Caroline was a little surprised by the lack of response. It was quiet. Then she figured it out and said, “I’ll buy.” The group became boisterous and as a whole said, “let’s do it.”
When they reached the restaurant there was a line for getting a table and Elena mumbled that they should have made a reservation. Caroline went to the front of the line to put the group on the waiting list. As she said party of six, the maître d’ looked her in the eye, then smiled broadly. Then he said, “Just a moment Ms. Mackay.” She hadn’t yet had a chance to give him her name. Once he stepped away she waved for the rest of the group to join her at the front of the line.
They were standing next to Caroline when the maître d’ came back with the restaurant owner. She said, “Ms. Mackay, we are honored that you and your friends are visiting our restaurant. We have a special table for you. Dinner is on the house. Please allow me to escort you to your table.”
As they proceeded to the table, the other patrons already seated in the restaurant spotted Caroline. They stood and applauded as she and the rest of the group walked by. Caroline smiled and bowed her head a little in recognition. When they reached the table and were seated the other patrons went back to their dinners. Jackie, who was sitting next to Caroline was feeling impish. She did her imitation of the restaurant owner. “Ms. Mackay, we are honored that you are visiting our restaurant.” Caroline elbowed Jackie in the ribs. Jackie grunted. Then both she and Caroline started to laugh. The entire atmosphere was so strange that they needed some laughs to keep things real.
A few moments later the waiter approached. He asked everyone at the table whether they’d like to start with some Champagne, specially selected by the owner. Caroline asked the group what they thought about it. Everyone nodded their heads and looked quite happy doing so. When the Champagne had been poured and everyone had a sip, Nicole gave a snort and then started to giggle.
“I never had Champagne before and some of it went up my nose.”
Alice advised, “Take it slow, Nicole.” Then she said, “It’s really very good.” They all agreed.
Another minute or two later, the owner returned to the table and asked, “Ms. Mackay. Would you be so kind as to take a picture with me? We put up pictures of celebrities who have eaten at the restaurant on the wall in the front room.”
Caroline, beginning to understand that nothing is free and there are always some strings attached, but also intuiting that she should be graceful under the circumstances said, “Of course I would.”
They went to the bar, to use it as background, and had a few photos taken. When they were done Caroline went back to the table and saw a couple of children standing nearby. As she sat down they approached and asked her for her autograph. The children were prepared. Each had a pen and a paper napkin with the restaurant’s logo. Caroline dutifully signed the napkins. After the children left she told the others, “I can’t believe this, but now I am a celebrity.” They all nodded. There was no doubt about it.
Jeffrey raised his Champagne glass and said, “I’d like to make a toast. To the best-est boss ever. Cheers!” Everyone else raised their glasses and said cheers.
For the rest of the evening Caroline let the group blow off some steam, which they desperately needed to do. She was mostly quiet, listening to them have fun while wondering how much her life would be changing now without her planning for that to happen.
The following day, for the first time, Nicole was late to work, and by more than an hour. Michael had released the fourth video and it was doing fine, so there really was no need for Nicole to be there to monitor that. But the office phone, which previously had gotten little traffic, was on this day ringing off the hook. Caroline preferred for Nicole to answer calls, rather than have them go to voicemail. On this day, there were twenty messages to go through. As it turned out, several of these were from very wealthy people, who were offering to make large donations to The Minute Women, if only they could have a personal audience with Caroline.
When she did arrive Nicole went right in to see Caroline and apologize. She reported being a little hung over. She said she sometimes would go out drinking with friends when se was in college friends and overdo it a little, but that would always be on a Friday or Saturday night, with no school the next day. This was her first experience going out with work friends in the middle of the week and everybody else seemed to be enjoying themselves. She was following their lead. Caroline told Nicole not to worry about it. For her part, Caroline had not followed the lead of the others. After the Champagne she nursed a glass of Chardonnay for the rest of the evening. The celebrity thing had actually freaked her out a little and she thought she should keep her wits about her for the time being.
* * * * *
During much of the rest of the time before the next writing group meeting, Caroline was contemplative, alone in her office. She was trying to make sense of the enormous popularity that she and The Minute Women were sharing, while at the same time the bulk of the people who were supporting them hadn’t read the white papers. What should be done about this?
Eventually, she came up with the sketch of an idea. Publishing the white papers and distributing the videos would eventually come to a conclusion. She wasn’t sure when that would happen but would make it a discussion point at the next writing group meeting so everyone was in accord on this point. The Minute Women should be thought of as messengers and catalysts of the real work that was still to come. That real work would be done by their supporters, who would engage other people like themselves to form a powerful force.
It was critical that Republicans, especially Republican women, Caroline visualized this as suburban women even if that was a bit of a stereotype, be a big part of this. They would have to mobilize and then convince their elective representatives, especially when their representatives were Republican, that they needed to come clean about the shenanigans that happened in getting Trump to be President and while Trump was President. One part of coming clean would be to support the idea that the Justices needed to step down, for the good of the order. If they won’t do this, the next time they are up for reelection they will face an opponent who adheres to this line and who will beat them, because the vast majority of voters will support the opponent.
Caroline was stuck on how this message would be communicated to the elected officials in a way where they would actually listen to it. Some of it would have to be done face to face. She envisioned something like town hall meetings, but coordinated by these Minute Women affiliates, not by the elected officials. Yet she wondered how to avoid the inevitable blowback and that getting out of hand. More than that, she wondered whether the affiliates would make a strong argument at these meetings and what would prepare them to do so. Somehow that connected with the relatively low hits on the white papers themselves. There was a need to overcome that.
It was clear to Caroline that the elected officials must start to openly distance themselves from Trump. Achieving this would be no mean feat. If it could happen, they could make more rapid progress. If not, it would a very long grind. They would then need a plan on how to stay the course.
During that week of otherwise quiet reflection, Nicole let Caroline know that there were multiple messages from a very wealthy woman who wanted to make a large donation to The Minute Women, if only Caroline would spend some time with her in private conversation. In fact there were other calls of this sort, but coming from organizations rather than individuals. Caroline asked Nicole to hold them off. Let them know that she was extremely busy and would get back to them when things calmed down some. But the wealthy woman was extremely persistent. Eventually Caroline relented and asked Nicole to set up a meeting for her to meet this potential donor.
At the next meeting of the writing group, they estimated about two months more of writing white papers that fit with their original thinking. Would they keep producing white papers on other topics, change the nature of the work they were doing, or call it quits? That was discussed but the matter was not resolved. Caroline did have some ideas on this but as it was a sensitive topic she thought it premature to discuss those preliminary ideas with the group. Caroline did ask them their views about how to interact with high rollers, who would offer them a lot of money but with strings attached, yet where those strings weren’t made overt up front. The group was quite happy to delegate this entirely to Caroline, saying that the organization was her baby and she should nurture it as she saw fit. Check out the bona fides of the donor, sure. And they would help with that. But that’s where their responsibility ended. Caroline wished they were more proactive on this matter, but understood the position they were taking.
* * * * *
Mary Stanford was a widow in her late seventies who had a pile of money that she really didn’t know what to do with. Her late husband, Rex, had made his fortune in real estate. He sold his business in early 2007. The extent to which subprime loans were fueling the housing bubble scared him. He didn’t know when the bubble would burst, but he had no need to time it well. He had made a huge amount of money during the previous few years, and he was already in his mid seventies at the time he sold the business. He passed away ten years later from a heart attack.
Mary was a dozen years younger than Rex. They had met when she was almost forty. She was a school teacher then. Rex had graduated from the same school and was making a large donation. Mary was assigned to be his chaperone, which included going out to dinner with him after the donation ceremony had concluded. Though they lived in different worlds, they really hit it off at dinner. Rex had previously thought he’d be a lifelong bachelor. At dinner his head was spinning with other ideas. He asked her out again for the following evening. They had a wonderful time. By the end of the week, Rex had proposed to Mary. They were married a week later in a very private ceremony with only a few family members and close friends.
They had no children, nor did they have siblings. Rex had been close to two of his cousins, but they both had passed away before he did. In his will, Rex left the entire estate to Mary. When he was still alive, Rex passed on to Mary some of his values, to help her navigate with the enormous fortune he had made. He was against ostentatious displays of wealth, feeling that was totally unnecessary. But he was quite okay with spending money generously, if it made the living situation easier and more comfortable. During those last ten years, they had hired a driver, a cook, and a butler to handle their personal affairs. They traveled frequently and attended the theater often. But that stopped when Rex had his first heart attack, which debilitated him and served as a warning that the end was near. While Mary continued to spend a lot of time with Rex, he insisted she have the company of other adults as a way to keep busy.
So, Mary became a regular at the club where they were members. Mostly she would play bridge there. Occasionally, she would go for a swim. Politically, Rex was much more conservative than Mary. That didn’t matter at all when they were together. But it made Mary a bit uncomfortable when she was at the club. The other members had the same political views as Rex did, and sometimes they expressed those while socializing with other club members. Mary, with her school teacher background, was far more liberal. She had taken to ignoring these political remarks from club members. She really wanted to engage these members in argument, but feared that might get out of hand and create problems. So she kept quiet about it. Mary remained a club member after Rex had passed. She no longer had contact with those she knew when she was teaching. In spite of the issues around politics, the club gave Mary a modicum of a social life.
When she saw the news about The Minute Women’s videos, she became intrigued. The videos felt uplifting to her. She wanted to support their effort in a big way. And she imagined that if she were able to have a real conversation with Caroline, it would prepare her for taking on the folks at the club who talked about politics. This is what motivated Mary to contact Caroline and invite her for a visit.
Mary sent her driver to pick up Caroline. By this time, Caroline had become wary of the paparazzi, so she was reluctant to wait outside for her ride to come. They arranged that the driver would message her when he arrived in the front of the building. The vehicle was a regular SUV, not a fancy limo, so it didn’t arouse attention. Caroline slipped into the back seat and off they went.
When they reached the estate Mary greeted Caroline, ushered her into the parlor, and asked the butler to bring some light refreshments. Then Mary began the conversation.
“It is so good to see you in person, child. I truly admire what you and your colleagues have been doing.”
“Thank you. I must confess that this is a first to me, visiting a potential donor.”
“I would like to make a very large donation. I’m thinking about ten million dollars for The Minute Women and then one million dollars directly to you, Caroline.”
Caroline paused here. That was a lot of money. She had some apprehension about the strings that might be attached, but she hoped to manage the situation so that wouldn’t be much of a problem and keep the large gift forthcoming. Then Caroline asked, “What did you have in mind in exchange for this generosity?”
Mary explained the situation at the club and said she was hoping for monthly visits from Caroline to prepare her for political conversation at the club. Caroline was somewhat astonished by this and wondered if there was more to it that Mary wasn’t forthcoming about.
Caroline asked, “Mary, have you read the white papers on The Minute Women’s Website? Those should prepare you for the conversations at the club?”
Mary replied, “I haven’t done that yet. What I’m wondering is that even if I do read them, could we discuss what’s in them and possibly related issues that arise from the conversations at the club?”
Caroline responded, “Mary, you seem like a very sweet and generous woman. We could do what you suggest. But please understand that I’m new to this business of schmoozing with potential donors. And I’m somewhat wary that there may be other things which you might want from us but which we’d be quite uncomfortable in providing. I hope that doesn’t happen, but if it does, I would be prone to walk away from the agreement. So might I suggest modifying your donations in some way that accounts for these concerns?”
Mary said, “By all means do.”
Caroline responded, “Instead of one lump payment at the outset, how about monthly payments for a year, after which the agreement can be reconsidered. If either one of us doesn’t fulfill the rest of the bargain, those payments can stop and the agreement will come to an end. I have to say that now I don’t know how obligated I will be in six months. Making a monthly visit might be difficult for me then. I can’t tell that now. How would you feel if I canceled out? So this could go two ways.”
Mary said, “I like that suggestion Caroline. It makes sense. I will write two checks now for the first month of our agreement.”
Caroline felt like she had dodged a bullet. After Mary wrote out the checks, Caroline and Mary talked through the first white paper. It was a calm and gentle conversation. Caroline started to enjoy seeing how Mary reacted to the ideas in the white paper. Mary compared the situation to her teaching experience, where students would sometimes fib to have an excuse for a minor transgression, so as to avoid punishment. She liked the idea of reviewing what was true and what was a fib years later, when subsequent events clarified the situation. But she also wondered, why lie in the first place. What real difference did that make? Caroline wanted to know that too.
Many others replied and a good fraction of those made their own Tweets. Interestingly, a lot of those only recommended the video. They didn’t say anything about the white paper. This process was self-sustaining. Every time a person with a very large group of followers made a recommendation, it became an injection for additional growth of those who watched the video. The comments also encouraged this. Typical were “Great Job!” and “More Please.” At this early stage, all the comments were positive.
There were also comments coming into the Website at a high rate. Weeks earlier Caroline had made it part of Nicole’s job to respond to those comments as they came in. Until the video release, the comment flow was only a trickle and it didn’t take much of Nicole’s time at all to write responses. But on this day when the video was released, Nicole couldn’t keep up with the comment flow. She asked for help and Caroline began to assist her. Yet even with both of them working together, they couldn’t keep up. After a half hour of this Caroline decided they needed a different approach.
She told Nicole to read through the remaining comments, make note of those that were exceptional in some way, but not write responses. They would put a message on the Website, where the comment form was, that expressed their gratitude for this overwhelming response, and then note that The Minute Women was a small organization and couldn’t keep up with the volume of comments they were receiving. They hoped to be in touch with more personalized messages in response in the not too distant future, but for now they were unable to do so. Instead, they asked viewers to keep monitoring this space as they will be writing a general response to the messages here. Then Caroline told Nicole, our next step is to get the video out for part two of the white paper as soon as possible.
Caroline went to Michael and asked if he could rig up some automated response message to the comments, with that message possibly changing after subsequent videos were released. Michael said he could and would get right on it. He asked Caroline what the message should say and she told him she’d write it out in a few minutes. Michael was okay with that but then said he would need to hire an assistant if this was to be the new normal for the organization. Carolyn nodded and indicated she understood the need. She encouraged Michael to come discuss this when things calmed down a little.
After those first twelve hours the video had more than two million hits and almost a thousand comments. The white paper also had many more hits, then almost one hundred thousand. This was extraordinary growth in reading the white paper, but it was entirely dwarfed by those who watched the video. The bulk of them didn’t seem to feel a need to read the white paper or told themselves they’d do it later. Donations also picked up markedly. Over twenty thousand dollars came in during those first twelve hours. Caroline told herself that if this keeps up they could afford hiring Michael’s assistant.
Caroline convened the writing group online for a quick meeting on how to adjust to the spectacular success of the first video. She had a rough sketch of a plan about releasing future videos. The part one videos would be released a week apart. The part twos and part threes, if there were one, would be released two days after the previous part video. The idea was to let the social media chatter happen without cutting it too short, but then feed the chatter with the follow up content in the video for the next part. The group embraced this idea.
The video released was on the first white paper that had been written, about Senator McConnell blocking the Merrick Garland nomination from being taken up by the Senate. Carolyn wanted to know if with subsequent videos they should stick with the order that the white papers were written or if they should deviate from the chronological approach and try to be strategic about the sequencing. They argued about this for a while. They finally concluded that they should make an appeal to Republican voters early on, but not bring up the white paper on restoring Roe and getting the Justices to step down just yet. That was too much to push so early in the game. They agreed that next should be: The President and Congress - A Comparison of the Reagan Years to the Obama and Trump Years. The writing group was almost done working on part one of this white paper and promised they’d have that and part two done in the required timeframe. Caroline said it would be easier on them after that as she would make videos of other white papers that had already been published and could record those well in advance of when they were posted, so she wouldn’t feel so under the gun as well.
One day after the video had been posted the numbers on hits, comments, and donations had essentially doubled since the twelve hour mark. But the hits on the white paper went up by less than ten percent. Caroline knew that they’d have to do something about this, but not just yet.
When she next had a private session with Nicole, Caroline instructed her that for the part two video she should make an official Tweet on The Minute Women page, but wait to make those clever Tweets to the famous lawyers for at least four hours after release. The idea was to see if their referrals were still critical for getting the word out, or if now there was a ready audience waiting for the next video.
Nicole did as instructed. Hits and comments on the part two video began almost immediately as posted. Ultimately it overtook the first video in both categories. And donations also surpassed what had been received after the first video was released. Nicole did eventually send a Tweet to the legal scholars and some other famous people, but did this more out of a sense of obligation than to promote the second video. It didn’t need such promotion. Hits on part two of the white paper followed the same path as part one. There was a dramatic increase as compared to before the video had been released, but it was miniscule relative to the hits on the video itself.
* * * * *
The weekly meeting of the writing group was just underway. It was the evening of the day after the third video had been released. Caroline had already recorded the fourth video and Michael had it set to be released the next morning. The group was in good spirits, as the time pressure was off for producing the next white paper. With that and the success of the videos, everything seemed to be going very well.
Caroline said, “Instead of our regular meeting, why don’t we celebrate. There’ a pretty good restaurant right around the corner. Why don’t we go there for dinner?”
Caroline was a little surprised by the lack of response. It was quiet. Then she figured it out and said, “I’ll buy.” The group became boisterous and as a whole said, “let’s do it.”
When they reached the restaurant there was a line for getting a table and Elena mumbled that they should have made a reservation. Caroline went to the front of the line to put the group on the waiting list. As she said party of six, the maître d’ looked her in the eye, then smiled broadly. Then he said, “Just a moment Ms. Mackay.” She hadn’t yet had a chance to give him her name. Once he stepped away she waved for the rest of the group to join her at the front of the line.
They were standing next to Caroline when the maître d’ came back with the restaurant owner. She said, “Ms. Mackay, we are honored that you and your friends are visiting our restaurant. We have a special table for you. Dinner is on the house. Please allow me to escort you to your table.”
As they proceeded to the table, the other patrons already seated in the restaurant spotted Caroline. They stood and applauded as she and the rest of the group walked by. Caroline smiled and bowed her head a little in recognition. When they reached the table and were seated the other patrons went back to their dinners. Jackie, who was sitting next to Caroline was feeling impish. She did her imitation of the restaurant owner. “Ms. Mackay, we are honored that you are visiting our restaurant.” Caroline elbowed Jackie in the ribs. Jackie grunted. Then both she and Caroline started to laugh. The entire atmosphere was so strange that they needed some laughs to keep things real.
A few moments later the waiter approached. He asked everyone at the table whether they’d like to start with some Champagne, specially selected by the owner. Caroline asked the group what they thought about it. Everyone nodded their heads and looked quite happy doing so. When the Champagne had been poured and everyone had a sip, Nicole gave a snort and then started to giggle.
“I never had Champagne before and some of it went up my nose.”
Alice advised, “Take it slow, Nicole.” Then she said, “It’s really very good.” They all agreed.
Another minute or two later, the owner returned to the table and asked, “Ms. Mackay. Would you be so kind as to take a picture with me? We put up pictures of celebrities who have eaten at the restaurant on the wall in the front room.”
Caroline, beginning to understand that nothing is free and there are always some strings attached, but also intuiting that she should be graceful under the circumstances said, “Of course I would.”
They went to the bar, to use it as background, and had a few photos taken. When they were done Caroline went back to the table and saw a couple of children standing nearby. As she sat down they approached and asked her for her autograph. The children were prepared. Each had a pen and a paper napkin with the restaurant’s logo. Caroline dutifully signed the napkins. After the children left she told the others, “I can’t believe this, but now I am a celebrity.” They all nodded. There was no doubt about it.
Jeffrey raised his Champagne glass and said, “I’d like to make a toast. To the best-est boss ever. Cheers!” Everyone else raised their glasses and said cheers.
For the rest of the evening Caroline let the group blow off some steam, which they desperately needed to do. She was mostly quiet, listening to them have fun while wondering how much her life would be changing now without her planning for that to happen.
The following day, for the first time, Nicole was late to work, and by more than an hour. Michael had released the fourth video and it was doing fine, so there really was no need for Nicole to be there to monitor that. But the office phone, which previously had gotten little traffic, was on this day ringing off the hook. Caroline preferred for Nicole to answer calls, rather than have them go to voicemail. On this day, there were twenty messages to go through. As it turned out, several of these were from very wealthy people, who were offering to make large donations to The Minute Women, if only they could have a personal audience with Caroline.
When she did arrive Nicole went right in to see Caroline and apologize. She reported being a little hung over. She said she sometimes would go out drinking with friends when se was in college friends and overdo it a little, but that would always be on a Friday or Saturday night, with no school the next day. This was her first experience going out with work friends in the middle of the week and everybody else seemed to be enjoying themselves. She was following their lead. Caroline told Nicole not to worry about it. For her part, Caroline had not followed the lead of the others. After the Champagne she nursed a glass of Chardonnay for the rest of the evening. The celebrity thing had actually freaked her out a little and she thought she should keep her wits about her for the time being.
* * * * *
During much of the rest of the time before the next writing group meeting, Caroline was contemplative, alone in her office. She was trying to make sense of the enormous popularity that she and The Minute Women were sharing, while at the same time the bulk of the people who were supporting them hadn’t read the white papers. What should be done about this?
Eventually, she came up with the sketch of an idea. Publishing the white papers and distributing the videos would eventually come to a conclusion. She wasn’t sure when that would happen but would make it a discussion point at the next writing group meeting so everyone was in accord on this point. The Minute Women should be thought of as messengers and catalysts of the real work that was still to come. That real work would be done by their supporters, who would engage other people like themselves to form a powerful force.
It was critical that Republicans, especially Republican women, Caroline visualized this as suburban women even if that was a bit of a stereotype, be a big part of this. They would have to mobilize and then convince their elective representatives, especially when their representatives were Republican, that they needed to come clean about the shenanigans that happened in getting Trump to be President and while Trump was President. One part of coming clean would be to support the idea that the Justices needed to step down, for the good of the order. If they won’t do this, the next time they are up for reelection they will face an opponent who adheres to this line and who will beat them, because the vast majority of voters will support the opponent.
Caroline was stuck on how this message would be communicated to the elected officials in a way where they would actually listen to it. Some of it would have to be done face to face. She envisioned something like town hall meetings, but coordinated by these Minute Women affiliates, not by the elected officials. Yet she wondered how to avoid the inevitable blowback and that getting out of hand. More than that, she wondered whether the affiliates would make a strong argument at these meetings and what would prepare them to do so. Somehow that connected with the relatively low hits on the white papers themselves. There was a need to overcome that.
It was clear to Caroline that the elected officials must start to openly distance themselves from Trump. Achieving this would be no mean feat. If it could happen, they could make more rapid progress. If not, it would a very long grind. They would then need a plan on how to stay the course.
During that week of otherwise quiet reflection, Nicole let Caroline know that there were multiple messages from a very wealthy woman who wanted to make a large donation to The Minute Women, if only Caroline would spend some time with her in private conversation. In fact there were other calls of this sort, but coming from organizations rather than individuals. Caroline asked Nicole to hold them off. Let them know that she was extremely busy and would get back to them when things calmed down some. But the wealthy woman was extremely persistent. Eventually Caroline relented and asked Nicole to set up a meeting for her to meet this potential donor.
At the next meeting of the writing group, they estimated about two months more of writing white papers that fit with their original thinking. Would they keep producing white papers on other topics, change the nature of the work they were doing, or call it quits? That was discussed but the matter was not resolved. Caroline did have some ideas on this but as it was a sensitive topic she thought it premature to discuss those preliminary ideas with the group. Caroline did ask them their views about how to interact with high rollers, who would offer them a lot of money but with strings attached, yet where those strings weren’t made overt up front. The group was quite happy to delegate this entirely to Caroline, saying that the organization was her baby and she should nurture it as she saw fit. Check out the bona fides of the donor, sure. And they would help with that. But that’s where their responsibility ended. Caroline wished they were more proactive on this matter, but understood the position they were taking.
* * * * *
Mary Stanford was a widow in her late seventies who had a pile of money that she really didn’t know what to do with. Her late husband, Rex, had made his fortune in real estate. He sold his business in early 2007. The extent to which subprime loans were fueling the housing bubble scared him. He didn’t know when the bubble would burst, but he had no need to time it well. He had made a huge amount of money during the previous few years, and he was already in his mid seventies at the time he sold the business. He passed away ten years later from a heart attack.
Mary was a dozen years younger than Rex. They had met when she was almost forty. She was a school teacher then. Rex had graduated from the same school and was making a large donation. Mary was assigned to be his chaperone, which included going out to dinner with him after the donation ceremony had concluded. Though they lived in different worlds, they really hit it off at dinner. Rex had previously thought he’d be a lifelong bachelor. At dinner his head was spinning with other ideas. He asked her out again for the following evening. They had a wonderful time. By the end of the week, Rex had proposed to Mary. They were married a week later in a very private ceremony with only a few family members and close friends.
They had no children, nor did they have siblings. Rex had been close to two of his cousins, but they both had passed away before he did. In his will, Rex left the entire estate to Mary. When he was still alive, Rex passed on to Mary some of his values, to help her navigate with the enormous fortune he had made. He was against ostentatious displays of wealth, feeling that was totally unnecessary. But he was quite okay with spending money generously, if it made the living situation easier and more comfortable. During those last ten years, they had hired a driver, a cook, and a butler to handle their personal affairs. They traveled frequently and attended the theater often. But that stopped when Rex had his first heart attack, which debilitated him and served as a warning that the end was near. While Mary continued to spend a lot of time with Rex, he insisted she have the company of other adults as a way to keep busy.
So, Mary became a regular at the club where they were members. Mostly she would play bridge there. Occasionally, she would go for a swim. Politically, Rex was much more conservative than Mary. That didn’t matter at all when they were together. But it made Mary a bit uncomfortable when she was at the club. The other members had the same political views as Rex did, and sometimes they expressed those while socializing with other club members. Mary, with her school teacher background, was far more liberal. She had taken to ignoring these political remarks from club members. She really wanted to engage these members in argument, but feared that might get out of hand and create problems. So she kept quiet about it. Mary remained a club member after Rex had passed. She no longer had contact with those she knew when she was teaching. In spite of the issues around politics, the club gave Mary a modicum of a social life.
When she saw the news about The Minute Women’s videos, she became intrigued. The videos felt uplifting to her. She wanted to support their effort in a big way. And she imagined that if she were able to have a real conversation with Caroline, it would prepare her for taking on the folks at the club who talked about politics. This is what motivated Mary to contact Caroline and invite her for a visit.
Mary sent her driver to pick up Caroline. By this time, Caroline had become wary of the paparazzi, so she was reluctant to wait outside for her ride to come. They arranged that the driver would message her when he arrived in the front of the building. The vehicle was a regular SUV, not a fancy limo, so it didn’t arouse attention. Caroline slipped into the back seat and off they went.
When they reached the estate Mary greeted Caroline, ushered her into the parlor, and asked the butler to bring some light refreshments. Then Mary began the conversation.
“It is so good to see you in person, child. I truly admire what you and your colleagues have been doing.”
“Thank you. I must confess that this is a first to me, visiting a potential donor.”
“I would like to make a very large donation. I’m thinking about ten million dollars for The Minute Women and then one million dollars directly to you, Caroline.”
Caroline paused here. That was a lot of money. She had some apprehension about the strings that might be attached, but she hoped to manage the situation so that wouldn’t be much of a problem and keep the large gift forthcoming. Then Caroline asked, “What did you have in mind in exchange for this generosity?”
Mary explained the situation at the club and said she was hoping for monthly visits from Caroline to prepare her for political conversation at the club. Caroline was somewhat astonished by this and wondered if there was more to it that Mary wasn’t forthcoming about.
Caroline asked, “Mary, have you read the white papers on The Minute Women’s Website? Those should prepare you for the conversations at the club?”
Mary replied, “I haven’t done that yet. What I’m wondering is that even if I do read them, could we discuss what’s in them and possibly related issues that arise from the conversations at the club?”
Caroline responded, “Mary, you seem like a very sweet and generous woman. We could do what you suggest. But please understand that I’m new to this business of schmoozing with potential donors. And I’m somewhat wary that there may be other things which you might want from us but which we’d be quite uncomfortable in providing. I hope that doesn’t happen, but if it does, I would be prone to walk away from the agreement. So might I suggest modifying your donations in some way that accounts for these concerns?”
Mary said, “By all means do.”
Caroline responded, “Instead of one lump payment at the outset, how about monthly payments for a year, after which the agreement can be reconsidered. If either one of us doesn’t fulfill the rest of the bargain, those payments can stop and the agreement will come to an end. I have to say that now I don’t know how obligated I will be in six months. Making a monthly visit might be difficult for me then. I can’t tell that now. How would you feel if I canceled out? So this could go two ways.”
Mary said, “I like that suggestion Caroline. It makes sense. I will write two checks now for the first month of our agreement.”
Caroline felt like she had dodged a bullet. After Mary wrote out the checks, Caroline and Mary talked through the first white paper. It was a calm and gentle conversation. Caroline started to enjoy seeing how Mary reacted to the ideas in the white paper. Mary compared the situation to her teaching experience, where students would sometimes fib to have an excuse for a minor transgression, so as to avoid punishment. She liked the idea of reviewing what was true and what was a fib years later, when subsequent events clarified the situation. But she also wondered, why lie in the first place. What real difference did that make? Caroline wanted to know that too.
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