Get involved

Be informed

Understand the platform. Know its faults. Know the proposed solutions.

You don't have to read the whole thing. At least browse through some of the categories at right.

Vote in the March Republican Primary

You must vote in the March 2, 2010 primary to make a difference.

Voting in the primary does not bind your general election vote in November. It does not make you a "registered Republican." It only means you are affiliating with Republicans to have a say in selecting Republican candidates. If you have no opinion on any of the candidates on the ballot, you may cast a blank ballot.

Ask the election judge for the Republican precinct convention time and location.

Submit resolutions to your precinct convention

Bear with me. This has a lot of words, but it's not that hard.

The precinct convention is a miniature political convention. It is the evening of the March primary, starting not long after 7 PM, possibly at the same location as your precinct's primary election. Verify with the election judge.

It shouldn't be that formal, and you probably don't need to memorize Robert's Rules of Order. It's commonly accepted that you only need as much formality as necessary to get the job done; if someone is enforcing minutia at a precinct convention, then you have a pinheaded convention chair or the attendees aren't playing nicely.

At this convention, you submit one or more resolution to reform the platform. Separate resolutions can target burning issues, or a single, lengthy resolution can cover everything at once.

Be careful how you play this. If you submit everything as a huge resolution, you may overwhelm the precinct convention and be shot down. However, you can also overwhelm the convention with 200 individual resolutions.

One tactic is to submit resolution after resolution. If the convention attendees get tired of this, propose a compromise of accepting your omnibus resolution.

If you can, discuss this with your precinct chair in advance as a courtesy. Both of you can strategize the most efficient way to handle this. But be careful! Your precinct chair may be a great person but is more likely than not to be suspicious of your motives. You must make sure any arrangements are fair to you and to the precinct convention attendees.

Also, the precinct chair is not the same as the precinct convention chair. The precinct chair is an elected party office with a 2 year term. The precinct convention chair can be any attendee and is selected as one of the first orders of business of the convention. So whatever arrangement you work out with the precinct chair must anticipate that this chair may not be who runs the convention. Thick enough for you?

If you don't know your precinct chair, get the name from your county Republican headquarters. (Look it up at the Texas GOP web site.)

What happens after the precinct convention

Resolutions that pass the precinct convention go to the senate district convention. The senate district corresponds to your state senator. At this convention, the senate district platform committee assembles its own proposed platform. All Texas senate district platforms are then merged into the state platform at the state convention.

The precinct can send delegates and alternates to senate district and state conventions. If you're able to go to either, get your name on the list.

Don't worry if you're "only" an alternate. Attendance is generally so poor, and rule-enforcement is sometimes so lax, that you will probably be a full-fledged delegate despite this.

If you're really motivated...

If you're really motivated, here's some more steps.

Pester the senate district platform committee

The senate district platform committee meets befor the convention and assembles a platform from two sources:

1. The prior election cycle's platform. (In 2010, that is the 2008 platform, what this site is about.)
2. Resolutions from the precinct conventions.

The senate district platform committee may be stacked with comfortable "old hands." These folks may need encouraging to take seriously yours and others' platform reform resolutions.

Look up this committee's schedule. Your county Republican chairman should know who to ask. Ask the senate district platform committee chair if you can speak in front a platform committee meeting.

Attend the senate district convention

This convention must approve the senate district platform. People may offer resolutions from the floor to change it. You should stick around and work to defeat hostile or anti-reform amendments.

If your precinct didn't appoint you to the state convention, the senate district also can appoint a slate of attendees and alternates. Review this beforehand with senate district convention officials or the county chairman.

State convention

The state convention assembles the state platform. The process is similar to the senate district convention, just on a larger scale. Repeat steps 4 and 5.