The volunteers of the Convention of States Maryland team gathered together last Saturday, June 8th for the annual strategy session! At the beginning of every summer, these essential meetings are held to brainstorm the path for the coming year. Over a dozen active members of COS Maryland were present this year, as well as many new faces eager to join the Article V cause!
Passing the resolution for the Old-Line state to join with the other passed states is always top of the agenda. Equal attention is given to brainstorming sessions to build engagement, grow the grassroots, strengthen current strategies. Another important part of every strategy session is recognizing achievements of the past year and our teammates.
With the usual venue unavailable, district captain Chuck Thompson stepped up and offered the event room of his local church, Galilee Lutheran Church in Pasadena. Several long-time volunteers showed up early to help set up, and the meeting began in earnest at 1:00 PM with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and an introductory ice-breaker.
COS heavyweight Mark Meckler arrived via Zoom just in time to deliver a patriotic and encouraging speech to the crowd, as well as present a well-deserved award to Challenge Coin Award to COS Maryland warrior Seth Lipko! Seth was instrumental in leading the 2024 legislative strategy known as 34 Ready.
Several other awards were presented as well, including Maryland’s Old Line Award for representing Maryland values of "strong deeds, kind words" to State Director Maria Bedard and Regional Captain Jim McQueen. Patriot Pins were awarded by the State Director to volunteer activists Nancy Dall, Dave Hafer, Dennis Leary, Steve Shapero, Chuck Thompson, Will Zwart and Sam Duerkop, our 2023-2024 National Intern from Arizona.
Veteran Maryland member Steve Patten then led the group in explaining our new strategy - also know as our 3-pronged Wildly Important Goal:
Connect with people
on the issues they care about
& teach them how to make a difference.
The crowd broke off into three smaller groups to hammer out the actions and results to guide the Maryland COS team over the next 12 months! Look for news from us in the coming weeks to learn how we plan to execute our WIG, and then for calls to action in how YOU can make it a reality!
After much discussion and a lot of notes taken, it came time to once again disband to the four corners of Maryland and implement our new initiatives, including content creation, connecting local issues with COS, and advancing the 34 Ready legislation!
Several members gathered afterward for fellowship, and there was an energy and excitement to begin pushing forward in new directions!
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Sessions such as these are essential to maintaining momentum, communication, and structure for grassroots movements such as COS. Without them, and the relationship-building that comes with them, even such things as the American Revolution can’t get off the ground.
Where patriots gather, there is freedom born,
and where COS supporters gather, there freedom will be reborn!
