Twenty Texas leaders - regional captains, state-level volunteers, and current and former state directors - met on Saturday, July 28 at the capitol building in Austin to lay out direction for the COS Texas team for the coming months and years.
First on the agenda was a Skype visit from COS president Mark Meckler. He talked a bit about his "political theology," discussing a couple of biblical passages that shape his thinking on political engagement. He also described how he sees the role of Texas within the country and the COS movement.
We also had a visit from Kristy Wilkinson, a member of Gov. Abbott's reelection campaign staff. She emphasized that face to face, personal relationships are the most effective means of reaching people during a political campaign.
During the group discussion, what began to emerge was three distinct, although overlapping, aspects to what COS Texas needs to be focused on in the next few years and years.
The first is to continue to educate Texans about COS and grow our grassroots. Even though the resolution has passed in Texas, our goals reach far beyond the Article V convention - we need a grassroots army that can bring about ratification of the amendments and actually put structural change into place.
The second goal is to continue to build a significant presence in local- and state-level politics. Without a citizenry trained and activated in on-going self-governance, our constitutional Republic cannot function.
Texas State Director
Shelby Williams presides.
There also are many Texas leaders who are eager to help other states pass the resolution. We hope to accomplish this by means of mentoring as well as technology, such as the Telepatriot phone app developed by Texas leader Brent Dunklau. Telepatriot makes it straightforward to accomplish mass phones at critical times, and a new feature supports video petition that can be easily directed to state legislators.
After Texas passed the COS resolution, many state legislators expected our team to fade into the woodwork. We have no intention of doing that! We are continuing to help raise up an army of engaged citizen activists, and look forward - and working toward - the day when we have one million COS supporters in Texas!
