No Images? Click here Fellow Republican Delegates & Alternates,
I hope you’re as excited as I am about our State Convention next week! It’s going to be a wonderful week and I cannot wait to be in San Antonio with all of you, celebrating the things we love about our Party and engaging in thoughtful discussion on issues near and dear to our hearts. Here’s some new information that will make your convention experience smoother and more successful! Registration & Parking If you’ve pre-registered, be on the lookout for an email in the coming days from Kyle Whatley and American Tradeshow which will contain a QR code that you will bring with you for fast check-in to receive your credentials at convention. You’ll be able to pick up credentials in San Antonio Wednesday 2-8pm, or Thursday beginning at 7am and continuing each day throughout convention. If you haven't yet pre-registered -- do so quickly to beat the lines! Online pre-registration ends Sunday night. Convention App
Timeline for Convention Business Throughout convention, there are many events to attend, people to see, booths to visit…..but the official function of a convention is to conduct Party business. Here’s the timeline of business items so you can be sure you don’t miss important votes. Monday: Committee Meetings
Tuesday: Committee Meetings
Wednesday: Committee Meetings & SREC
Thursday: General Meeting, Caucus, Committee Meetings
Friday: General Meetings & Caucus
Saturday: General Meetings
Please keep in mind, this schedule is subject to change depending on the order of business approved by the delegates. If you have an interest in how debate happens or what the order of business is, please follow the Rules committee Monday through Wednesday. Please also feel free to testify and share your ideas with the committee.
Platform Committee Details -- Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Room C1 We’re releasing an easily-searchable spreadsheet of the resolution submissions from county / SD conventions along with a note of the subcommittee referrals. This is yet another step toward open governance and transparency. Note that if you prefer to work offline, you may download the Google workbook as an Excel spreadsheet. The leftmost tab is the most complete one--the rest may be filtered by subcommittee. That link ALSO provides a detailed proposed schedule of what they hope to consider Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. See the “Schedule” tab of that same spreadsheet for full information, along with room numbers for those subcommittees Here are their projected timeframes for receiving testimony. The subcommittees may also choose to hear additional testimony at other times - just ask the committee when you get there if you missed the announced time. Monday: Tuesday:
Please note that, while all full committee meetings will be livestreamed (links will be available at texasgop.org/delegates), our conservative budget does not allow for a full streaming setup in each subcommittee room. However, all delegates and alternates have a right to record all committee meetings, and I hope you’ll take advantage of this by setting up your own livestreams. Even if you don’t plan on testifying, I still encourage you to observe so you can track the committees’ progress. Last, note that we are restructuring the platform this year to provide clarity and keep subjects from overlapping. I encourage you to explore the Platform spreadsheet to understand the new organization and find other helpful references, including committee membership and the 2016 platform. Once again, that link is right here. Legislative Priorities Committee Details -- Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Room C3
The Legislative Priorities Committee intends to group testimony as much as possible by subject heading. They’re basing their subject headings on any submissions from county and SD conventions, and they will also hear testimony on any additional topics from any delegate or alternate, State or County Republican Party Officer, elected Republican Public Officeholder, or Republican Candidate. Please note that all times are subject to change! Please refer to www.texasgop.org/delegates regularly for updates. Please arrive at least 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled time in order to help keep the committee on schedule. Their intention is to hear invited testimony Monday 11:30am-5pm, and public testimony for large chunks of time of Monday evening, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Since it’s impossible to know ahead of time how many people will want to testify on each subject, they’re avoiding a rigid schedule of public testimony. However, here’s the order in which they hope to consider topics:
Monday, 7:00-10:00pm:
Tuesday, 8:30am-12:00pm:
Tuesday, 12:00pm-6:30pm:
Tuesday, 7:30-10pm:
Wednesday, 8:30am-11:00am:
Wednesday, 1:00pm-3:45pm:
All times are subject to change! Please refer to www.texasgop.org/delegates regularly for updates. Please arrive at least 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled time in order to help keep the committee on schedule.
Rules Committee -- Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 301 The Rules Committee will meet in Room 301 at the Convention Center beginning at 11am on Monday and 8am on Tuesday and Wednesday. They will consider the convention rules that will govern the business of our convention, including things such as electronic voting rules, how the platform will be debated on, when and how someone can close debate, how legislative priorities will be presented, plank-by-plank voting, limitations for debate, and more. They will also consider amendments to the RPT Rules (click here to see the existing RPT Rules).
Committee Agenda & Testimony: The committee expects to begin deliberations by considering the existing RPT Rules and either the 2014 or 2016 Supplemental Rules, depending on committee preference. They will start at Rule 1 and go through Rule 44. All of those documents are available for viewing at texasgop.org/delegates, under the “Rules” Committee heading. Subject to committee approval, the committee would like to invite delegate and alternate testimony at the top of each hour. If you aren't able to be there when they’re debating a certain topic, simply show up when you’re able, and ask to testify on something already debated. Their projected schedule is:
Credentials Committee -- Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 223 The Credentials Committee will meet in Room 223 of the Convention Center at 11am on Wednesday, and will be available throughout convention to address any credentialing issues that arise. The Temporary Committee’s charge (pre-convention) is to “hear any contests concerning delegates and alternates which were not filed as challenges and shall recommend the resolution of such contests, plus the temporary roll about which there is no contest, to the SREC. Additionally, this committee shall hear all challenges forwarded to it by the State Officials Committee, plus any challenge under appeal, and shall recommend the resolution thereof to the State Convention. Upon resolution by the State Convention of any challenges under this appeal process, this committee shall recommend the permanent roll to the State Convention. The Permanent Committee’s charge (during convention) is to “continue to add registered delegates and alternates to the permanent roll throughout the convention.” Organization Committee -- Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 216 The Organization Committee will meet in Room 216 of the Convention Center at 11am on Wednesday. This committee recommends temporary convention officers to the SREC and permanent convention officers to the body. These include chair, secretary, and sergeant-at-arms. The temporary chair is specified in the RPT Rules as the State Chairman, who appoints a parliamentarian.
Temporary Committee Chairs Finally, I’d like to introduce you to the individuals I’ve appointed to chair the convention committees. I have full confidence in their abilities to conduct committee business in a fair, open, and transparent manner. The Temporary Committee on Legislative Priorities will be chaired by Amy Clark. Amy is our Vice-Chairman, chaired the first Legislative Affairs SREC committee through the 2017 legislative session and special session, shaped the beginning interactions between RPT and the legislature on our priorities, and has extensive experience in grassroots activism and issue advocacy within the legislature. The Temporary Committee on Platform & Resolutions will be chaired by Mark Ramsey. Mark is serving his third term as SREC committeeman for SD 7 and has previously chaired the SREC Resolutions committee. He has past experience as a 3-time member of the State Convention platform committee and working in the legislature. The Temporary Committee on Rules will be chaired by Bruce Bishop. Bruce has represented his district at every Republican Party of Texas State convention for the past 30 years, serving as caucus chairman, caucus parliamentarian, and member of the Rules committee. He was elected to the SREC in 1996, and during his three terms was a member of the CRC and Officials committees. The Temporary Committee on Credentials will be chaired by Garrett Peel. Garrett is the current Jefferson County Chairman, and has helped RPT with hosting fundraising events and attracting new donors as well as party growth in his area. The Temporary Committee on Organization will be chaired by Naomi Narvaiz. Naomi is serving her third term as SREC committeewoman for SD 21 and has held many leadership positions within her community, including as a member of City of San Marcos Ethics Review Commission and SMCISD School Health Advisory Council.
Thank you again for your dedication to keeping the Republican Party of Texas strong and ensuring that our platform, priorities, and rules reflect the will of the grassroots. See you in San Antonio! For Texas, James Dickey Paid for by the Republican Party of Texas and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. www.Texasgop.org |