Thursday, April 30, 2009

Saturday, April 25, 2009

State Central Committee Members

State Central Committee Members

Taylor Oldroyd
Mark Cluff
Lisa Shepherd
Steven Diamond
Lowell Nelson
Matt Thompson
Marian Monnahan
Ben Smith
Lynn Taylor
John Valentine
Mike Thompson
Don Larsen
Sharon Storrs
Kip Meacham
Curt Bramble
Karen Valentine
Stan Lockhart
Susan Bramble
Becky Lockhart
Clayton Holbrook
Brian Jenkins
Jackie de Gaston

Let's Stay Connected

One of the things that will strengthen our Leg. District is to stay connected to each other. Social networking was brought up multiple times today during our Leg. 27 meeting, as a way to stay connected, aware and informed.

Here are some small steps we can all take to help out:

1. Join our Facebook Group.

2. Invite all of your Leg. 27 friends to join the Facebook Group, whether they're delegates, precinct leadership, or they just live in Leg. 27. This is an easy way to be connected and share updates and information.

3. If you have a blog, put a Leg. 27 link on it. Let your Leg. 27 neighbors and friends know about the blog.

Please share any other suggestions! We'd love to hear them.

Utah County Organizing Convention 9:30-2:00

Next came a debate on whether to wait for the results of the officer elections before voting on State Central Committee Members so that two votes aren't wasted. (The County Chair and Vice-Chair are SCC members by virtue of their office.) That motion failed.

The Party officer candidates gave their three-minute speeches, we all voted, and then the SCC candidates paraded across the stage, as if you ought to be able to tell who to vote for just by looking at them...and then we voted for them.

Here are the results:

Chair
Taylor Oldroyd 440
Steven Diamond 391

Vice-Chair
Mark Cluff 415
Lowell Nelson 405

Secretary
Lisa Shepherd 484
Matt Thompson 307
Keith Kuder 32

Treasurer
Lynn Taylor 592
Ben Smith 236

Congratulations to those who won, and to all of the candidates for taking the time to run for office!

Results for SCC will be posted once I have them.

Utah County Organizing Convention-6:30-9:15

Many of our fellow Leg. 27 delegates got up before the sun in order to attend the Organizing Convention today.

We mingled with candidates for County Party offices, were handed myriad flyers, and chatted with each other for a while until the Senate District meeting with Senator Howard Stephenson. Unfortunately, Senator Stephenson was not there and did not send anyone in his place. He is apparently in Taiwan. I missed the majority of that meeting, but I hear it was very spirited...

Our Leg. 27 meeting went a lot more smoothly. Rep. Dougall actually WAS there, and instead of giving a rundown of the bills that passed in the last legislative session, he chose instead to pose a question to the delegates: "How can we effect positive change, inform our neighbors and involve our friends within our communities?"

Here are my notes on the ideas that you all provided. I'm honored to work with such amazing delegates! Together we really can make a difference!

1. Ask friends and neighbors to just do a little, not a lot.
2. Talk to each other! Especially those who weren't at the convention.
3. People pull together when they have a motivating factor, ex. the Democrats were sick of the Republicans so they pulled together for "change".
4. We should stick to principles, not just issues.
5. We need facilitated communication-a steady stream of e-mail updates, blog, Facebook, Twitter, social networking etc, not just one or two Legislative Updates.
6. Precinct meetings used to have 5-10 people at them and now there are 75-100.
7. We need to be careful with barriers-the issues are complex and we should reach out to those who don't understand, to educate others.
8. Many neighbors see WHAT happens in politics, but not the WHY. They get frustrated and don't want to have anything to do with it.
9. Utah County Republican Party Web page is lame. So is the State Party page. (Hopefully that will change with new leadership!)
10. Rep. Dougall participates in Pancakes and Politics during the Legislative session, to keep people informed. In addition to that, we should have quarterly town hall type meetings to stay connected as delegates, and to keep on top of the issues.
11. This is preaching to the choir, we need to get out of our comfort zone and talk to people who maybe don't know about what's going on.
12. Obama used technology to reach out to the younger generation, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The Republican Party needs to step it up. Adapt or die.
13. When was the last time you read the Constitution? Rep. Dougall suggested we read it once a year as a refresher.
14. Then we can share small portions at a time with friends/neighbors via e-mail, Facebook etc.
15. It's difficult for some conservatives to come to Republican meetings because there is public school-bashing, police force, etc. There are conservatives without a home. They want to belong to the Republican party but it becomes awkward because of those differences, so the Democrats start looking better and better.
16. It should be okay to disagree on things like education etc. without being judged. We need to get rid of "conservative elitism". Founding fathers didn't agree on everything. Crafting the Constitution was a long, arduous process. They agreed on principles.
17. During the Legislative session, it seems that some legislators beat up on those who aren't "extreme Republicans".
18. If you have a complaint, offer a solution as well. Many times constituents expect legislators to fix everything, when there is a lot we can do ourselves.
19. We shouldn't abandon public schools for charter schools. (Remember that charter schools are public schools too...)
20. Rep. Dougall referenced an article by Professor David Wiley of BYU, who said that institutions of higher learning could become obsolete.
21. The key is education, we need to help educate people on the issues.
21. Family is the key. We need to help neighbors and friends be parents to support kids and teens whose parents may not be able to or care.
22. Many of us belong to other organizations where we can talk to friends about issues. We can share both sides of the story and have civil dialogue.
23. We can try to bring people together.
24. The American Revolution was caused b/c people were trying to escape tyranny and taxation. We may be well on our way to that type of common cause.
25. Thomas Paine's Common Sense made a case for what needed to be done, be engaged, be involved. There's nobody to blame but ourselves.
26. People tend to think globally, not locally, but "we the people" means individual responsibility. We need to spread this to our friends.
27. We can go door to door, but social networking is more efficient.
28. Rep. Dougall: We have a history of self-reliance, but have been building a culture of dependence. The economic downturn wouldn't have been so bad if we were all self-reliant.
29. Many are in favor of self-reliance in a general way, but don't want anyone to touch their personal entitlement.
30. Don't tax me, don't tax me. Tax the man behind the tree.
31. Self-reliance begins with me!
32. Equality takes away freedoms and grants entitlements.
33. Nobody is guaranteed to have bread on the table, but we can be charitable. We shouldn't be forced to be charitable. Without free-market principles it won't work.
34. How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time. We agree on general principles, but let's bring it back to WHAT CAN I DO: start with your precinct, make sure you get enough people to the meeting to have good precinct leadership elected, then they can nominate good candidates. Don't divide the party. Once the candidate is voted on, support the party candidate. United we stand, divided we fall.
35. We have a perfect opportunity to reach out to our precincts right now to give them a post-convention report. We can start making a difference today by informing and educating our neighbors.

Then came the fun...time for a new post!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Replacement Delegates and Filing to Run for County Office

Precinct Chairs,

The deadline to submit replacement delegate names for the upcoming Utah County Republican Party Convention is today, April 10th. If any of the delegates in your precinct have moved or are no longer interested in serving as a delegate, please find a replacement for them. Please give them a reminder call about the County Convention on April 25th, and make sure they will be able to attend. Thanks for your hard work!

Today at 5:00pm is also the deadline to file to run for County Office. Contact jrmonna@broadweave.net to apply for Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, or Treasurer.

Thanks!

Utah County Convention April 25, 2009

The Utah County Convention is coming up soon, on Saturday, April 25, 2009.