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!