''Meetup sadly quiet in Seattle''

"Seattle isn't quite doing its part to create a "20 Million Loud Meetup Group" of young adult voters. So far, the local arm of the online gathering spot for 18-to 29-year-old voters lists only 155 people. Worse, not one of them has stepped up to be the nonpartisan group's official Organizer. And if that doesn't happen by the end of today, there will be no Seattle Meetup to get people to vote up or shut up.

According to Meetup rules, any group that hasn't had an organizer for at least 30 days will be disbanded.

(The Everett, Bellevue, Bremerton, South King County and Tacoma young-voter Meetups don't have organizers either, but they still have time.) This would be funny, if it wasn't so pathetic: Young adult voters sign up to become politically active (Yay!) yet no one wants to lead (Oh).
So another great idea sits there, like a hulking phonebook full of names, and no one willing to make the first call. You remember the day after the November election: the final exit polls that said 18- to 29-year-olds made up only 17 percent of the vote. The Drudge Report headline: "Vote or Die or Whatever." Remember this, too: They were wrong. A University of Maryland study showed that at least 20.9 million of those in the 18- to 29-year-old bracket voted, compared with only about 16 million in 2000.

So the interest is there. Why not the leadership to go with it? Chris Olson, 35, belonged to the Howard Dean Meetup during the last presidential election. He went on to co-found No Vote Left Behind, which raised funds for the Democratic National Committee. The Dean Meetup grew so quickly, it broke into five groups that met simultaneously — each with its own leader.

"People were so excited, they drove the organization," Olson said.

So what gives here? For starters, people are focused on the 9-to-5 of their lives. "They'll join up, they'll go to a meeting," Olson said, "but often they don't feel empowered to step up to the plate." And despite the fact that there are races for King County Council, sheriff and Seattle mayor, people may not consider this a strong election year. "Unless it's front and center in their lives," Olson said, "they don't tend to register or get involved. Just as they wouldn't be thinking race or poverty or class issues unless [Hurricane Katrina] just happened."

If someone came up with the idea for a Young Voters Meetup, you'd think they would see it through. Serving as organizer is actually a pretty minimal time commitment, Olson said. E-mails, reserving space, moderating the Web site at www.20millionloud.meetup.com. "Beyond that," Olson said, "the group dynamic should drive it forward."

And yet, a great idea doesn't make a great life. Olson gave up paying jobs to run No Vote.
"When it became a bigger component, we had to decide whether to take it on. And we felt compelled to do so. "To not step up," he said, "would have been a shame."-from Nicole Brodeur's column in today's Seattle Times.