Some drove as far as four hours but all for the same reason. It's a small sacrifice to make to build an engaged grassroots army of patriots willing to protect against tyranny in Arkansas and the United States.
Twenty five strong, the Convention of States meeting opened with prayer by one of five pastors in attendance. Legislative Liaison Randy Alexander then led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Introductions ensued of new volunteers, including Lt. Col. David Ormsby, USAF, Ret., who is our new State Veterans Coalition Director. He already has a plan of action!
Regional Director Rodney Huckleberry joined us via satellite in this former church, now a private events center. He gave us direction from COS national and reminded us to look at our SMART goals from last year to track our progress.
There is plenty to do for states that have already passed the COS resolution. Rodney spoke to those details with vigor and inspiration.
At Rodney's conclusion, he announced his retirement. He will be greatly missed, but we look forward to working with our new RD-- Jonathan Viaud.
State Director Jacque Martin facilitated the next segment of training. She showed us tools we can use to recruit District Captains and volunteers, calling on TelePatriot Administrator Randy Tyson to explain the ease of that technology.
Jacque passed out detailed instructions for the COSAction app that we can download on our phones. Since we had several new volunteers in attendance, this was vital to their success. She also explained the benefits of using FreeConferenceCall, texting, and other means of technology for reaching out to others.
Our morning session ended with Legislative Liaison Randy Alexander informing us that we can expect an uprising of resistance in the legislative session of 2021. He shared detailed information of various legislators and target districts, discussing our strategy for success.
With representatives terming out and others being voted into office, the new legislators will need educated on Article V. Randy has a new volunteer who is working closely with him to meet that goal to promote the COS mission.
When 34 states passed the COS resolution and the convention is called, commissioners will be sent to cast our state vote. Although numerous people may attend, each state has just one vote.
Randy shared a detailed chart of other states’ processes for choosing delegates.
We had the opportunity to discuss and suggest our preferred method so a conclusion can be finalized for approval. Lots of hard work went into all he shared with us.
After a delicious catered lunch, we moved into the afternoon session, opening with "Responding to Opposition" role-playing game. Jacque had prepared unique situations on slips of paper which were drawn by teams of two.
Each team had to have an opposing and a supporting member, and discuss or debate the issue they drew from the basket.
It was a great activity, and made it clear that most of us had done our homework assignment from last month, which was to watch the "Responding to Opposition" course in COS University.
The fun didn't stop here!
We discussed letter writing campaigns and how Arkansans had inspired the rest of the COS movement, because of our success in passing our resolution with the help of many handwritten letters to legislators.
Discussion and question time included the importance of becoming involved in local politics, such as your political party committee, city council, school board, or county quorum court. Jacque highlighted the importance and gave examples.
She had several boxes of materials to give us, including COS note cards and literature that can be used at events. We were like kids in a candy store!
We all went home with stuffed tummies, satchels, and brains. Building the grassroots army with dedicated patriots does not always seem like a sacrifice.
It is both fulfilling and glorious to honor God, each other, and country.
