What kind of free stuff?  Stuff which will strengthen your committment to liberty and improve your activism. 

For instance, attendees of the Leadership Institute's Youth Leadership School (YLS) have repeated chances throughout the training to win free books from the Read to Lead list.  That list includes a number of great titles:

The right often tends to be more staid in its political activism, less given to loud, exciting protests than the left.  And for most of recent history, it's had less of a serious and effective youth movement as well.

The two phenomena are not unrelated:  Protests are fun and give group members a reason be more actively involved.  They also incite opposition, which can radicalize the supporters of your cause into further action.

In other words, taking action on your campus can result in the members of your conservative or libertarian group becoming more interested in activism!

Despite the great impact which activism can often achieve, conservative and libertarians have tended until recently to avoid it. 

For this reason, your opposition on the left will probably be surprised by your activism.  Indeed, if you take action, you might shock or discourage your opponents on campus.  Whatever happens, your presence will in some way stymie their plans.

So how can you take action?

When you take effective action on your campus, you'll grab attention, raise a commotion, and force people to pay attention to your cause.

Many members of the media may lean left, but they are also drawn to conflict and spectacle.  Exciting stories are what sell newspapers, draw website traffic, and catch the ear of people flipping through television channels and radio stations.  The more spectacular the story, the better.

For this reason, protesting and public activism are the best way to draw attention to your group and your message.  This is especially true for groups which are not popular…yet.

So how can you take action?

I've mentioned CPAC 2010 on this blog before.  But that's just one of many conservative and libertarian conferences and other events which you could attend.  For instance, you could also go to:

• The March for Life, which is tomorrow (January 22)!
• The National Tea Party Convention in early February, an event which will feature former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
• The Institute for Humane Studies' excellent series of free summer seminars for students ("free" including housing and meals!)
• The Federalist Society's Fourth Annual Western Conference, located at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
• The regional conferences regularly held by Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty
• The Tea Party Express, which is...not a stationary event, to say the least

As a college student, you're probably not a big reader of direct mail.  This sort of marketing by sending personalized appeals to individuals is generally targeted at an older crowd for the simple reasons that they are better prepared to give (or buy as the case may be) and that they have more time to peruse the materials they recieve.

But even if you don't at this point read direct mail, the ability to write direct mail is a very useful skill to have.

Why?  Because it's a valuable marketing tool which can be very helpful when raising funds to support your activism and/or raising awareness on campus.

So how can you learn to write direct mail?

Go to CPAC and you'll probably walk past many conservative and libertarian notables on an hourly basis.

Become active in a student group and you'll probably end up rubbing shoulders with people you normally see on the news more often than you'd think.  My own ties to Young Americans for Liberty have led to meeting Ron Paul, Judge Andrew Napolitano, and Dr. Tom Woods. 

Here at Campus Reform, we work regularly with Morton Blackwell, who was recently named one of the top 100 most influential conservatives in the country.

These are just my own, few examples.  Better activists than I could no doubt tell better stories.  But the fact remains that activism can lead to meeting people in politics and the media whom you admire.

What is new media?  It's this -- blogging.  But it's also a lot more.  The term "new media" is "interactive digital media, such as the Internet, as opposed to traditional media such as print and television." 

So what could an effective new media strategy look like for your conservative or libertarian campus group?  Well, it would likely include:

• A customized and active group page here on Campus Reform.  Campus Reform provides a number of valuable resources and activism ideas among its many features to promote and assist your activism.
• A web site or blog.  Your college or university will probably make available free server space on which you can host a custom website for your group.If you do not have a web designer in your group and cannot afford to employ one, create a webpage using a free blog provider like Tumblr.com, Virb.com, Blogger.com, or Wordpress.com.

How much traveling do you do in an average year?  If you're like most busy college students with a summer job and limited vacation during the rest of the year, you probably do most of your traveling from home to school and back again.  Maybe you get in one vacation to somewhere a little more exciting if your parents or your bank account are feeling generous.

Though it may not be immediately obvious, activism can be a great way to travel more often and with more purpose.

For instance, you might travel to Washington, DC for training in techniques of activism at the Leadership Institute. 

Or you might go to national conferences on topics of interest to you.  The largest of these, perhaps, is CPAC, which is now just a little over a month away!

Campus Reform, as you may know, is a project of the Leadership Institute (LI), which is well-known in the conservative and libertarian movement as an excellent source of training for political activists. 

Fortunately for those activists (like you!) LI is supported by thousands of generous donors whose contributions make those trainings available at little or no cost to their students.  Consider these examples:

• Youth Leadership School -- The Leadership Institute’s flagship school, YLS provides you with effective techniques to organize and lead mass-based youth efforts for candidates and causes of your choice.  The Youth Leadership School has launched more successful political careers than any other Leadership Institute training program.