This is the latest in a series of articles published following the end of every calendar quarter. Here, we present the updated status of the 911TAP Petition Project at the end of the 3rd Quarter 2018. We highlight areas of the country that are making the most progress towards generating that "groundswell of civic action" we are all striving for. We explain what the leaders are doing to maintain their leads, and what the up-and-coming regions are doing to overtake them. Background information on the 911TAP Petition Project and its service to the 911TAP Strategic Plan are available in the following two articles: Petition Plan Article, Strategic Plan Article.

Current Standings By State

At the end of the 3rd Quarter, 2018, a total of 3553 people, worldwide, had signed the 911TAP petition. This is an increase of 271 over the previous quarter. Of these, 3301 listed a U.S. address as their residence and 252 a non-U.S. address. A total of 1163 petitions were signed on-line and 2390 were gathered using paper petition forms. The ranking of the top ten states is shown here. The numbers for all 50 states are shown at the end of the article.

During the 3rd Quarter, Oregon added 157 petitions to retain its number 1 position. Massachusetts did well with 23. Washington was respectable with 17, mainly from paper petitions collected in Portland, Oregon.

As described below, the relative out-performance of the states mentioned above, relative to their populations, is due to successful efforts at collecting signers using paper petitions.

The following map shows the location of the U.S.-based petition signers who signed up at the 911TAP website.

Location of U.S.-based petition signers who signed up at the 911TAP website

Petition Collecting Methods

Starting in late August and prior to early December, 2016, all petitions collected by 911TAP were obtained using the paper petition form. The petition became available for signing on the 911TAP website during the first week of December, 2016.

To this point, Facebook posts are responsible for most of the petitions signed at the 911TAP website. These include posts to 9/11 Truth groups, posts to the 911TAP page, and sharing in personal time-lines. Some credit is likely due as well to private Facebook messages, emails, and other forms of word-of-mouth communication.

Paper Petition Numbers

Before the start of the 3rd Quarter, 22 cities had collected one or more paper petitions. In the 3rd Quarter, Pittsfield (MA) became the 23rd city to join the action. All told, 210 paper petitions were collected during the 3rd Quarter, representing 77% of all the petitions added during the quarter. The following list shows the breakdown of the 2390 paper petitions among the 23 cities.

Portland (OR) retained the top spot in the 3rd Quarter, increasing its lead over the rest of the field. Beaverton (OR), Boston (MA), Santa Rosa (CA), and Pittsfield (MA) had solid gains as well.

The 210 paper petitions collected in the 3rd Quarter are a 13% decrease from the 242 collected in the 2nd Quarter. and 20% below the 262 collected a year ago. As seen in these numbers, there has been a drop in the signup rate over the past year.

Website Petition Numbers

In the 3rd Quarter a total of 61 petitions were signed at the 911TAP.org website. This is a decrease of 3% from the 63 in the previous quarter and 55% below the 136 of one year ago. The 20 petitions per month obtained in the 3rd Quarter are 92% below the 240 website petitions obtained during the peak month of December 2016.

Discussion

A total of 271 petitions were collected in the 3rd Quarter of 2018. This is a decrease of 34 (11%) from the 305 petitions collected in the 2nd Quarter. At this pace, 1107 people would sign the 911TAP petition for a new, independent 9/11 investigation in 2018. This is roughly half of the 2102 people who signed the petition in 2017.

These 3rd Quarter results reinforce, yet again, the significant amount of work that needs to be undertaken to build a sustainable ramp in petition sign-up activity that would support 911TAP achieving its Top-Level Goal, as defined in its Strategic Plan. By the end of this year a new petition plan will be put in place to upgrade the overall strategy for collecting petitions and to update the project goals. The initial four-year petition targets, with 32,000 in year one and 160,000 in year two, are out of reach at this point.

 The 911TAP petition count is a proxy for the overall progress of 911TAP in multiple areas, including local action team development, alliance building, and truth-friendly media partnerships. As more teams get to work in the field, petition numbers go up. As website traffic increases because of noteworthy projects and favorable mentions in Truth-friendly media, petition numbers go up. The performance of the petition project will improve as we see improvements in areas such as these.

The early part of the 3rd quarter saw us take some necessary steps in these directions. Outreach materials for use in tabling activities and display booths have been developed and are being made available across the country. This will support activists who prefer to work together as teams rather than on their own. The following picture shows a recently-designed banner, sign, and information display. The article linked here describes their use in two booth events in Portland, Oregon.

911TAP Truth Booth Debuts at Portland Street Fairs

We will continue on-going efforts to create new action teams and complete projects designed to drive new website traffic. As we continue to grow as an organization and increase the scope of our activity, and as we apply lessons learned from experience and improve our methods and tools, we look forward to getting the petition numbers onto an accelerating track as we enter 2019.

Complete 3rd Quarter Statistics