So this past weekend was the LPTexas State Convention in Irving, TX. At this convention we elect state wide candidates, elect party officers, elect delegates to the LP National Convention, amend Bylaws, and amend the party platform.

In preparation for this convention I served on the Rules (Bylaws) Committee where we crafted 63 proposals over 19 business meetings and multiple additional working meetings. During the convention we were able to get to Bylaw 50 and had five additional bylaws passed after that were included in the earlier non-controversial bundle. This was quite an accomplishment as we had never proceeded through that many amendments before. It was also a personal accomplishment as I crafted the base for several of the bylaws presented to include a few I wasn’t as excited about but had been requested by members.

In our SD Caucus I was elected to SLEC again. In the previous term I helped to affiliate three new counties in my senate district. While I worked with the new county chairs only one held a county convention to retain status as an affiliate. My already established counties retained their affiliation. In this next term I will invest even more time working on any new county affiliates. I am optimistic that the new CRM will help give me the data I need to do better there. In the next term I will also try to review the policy manual to make updates that are required since Arthur Thomas has declined to run for another term. I have worked with him in the past and feel I am the most up to date on the policy manual to make amendment proposals. I have also consulted individuals about potential longtime members that would make good Judicial Committee candidates. I plan to reach out to some to see if they would accept the nomination.

As far as the delegates to the National Convention, that part has me feeling very down about my involvement. While I have been very actively engaged in my county as part of the executive committee and as part of the state executive committee, I apparently have drawn the ire of some members of a particular caucus. Even with my work benefiting them, they seem to want to retain my work but not my voice. I later was shown a list of individuals to vote “no” on with my name on that list. If we go by rankings on the list of those that will be delegates it seems some members that have very little participation and are often hindrances to the basic work the party gets done are valued more than I am. This was a difficult revelation to me and will impact my decisions for the type of work I will do for the party in the future. Luckily many other good hardworking members of the party had enough support to overcome this but I was a casualty of the factionalism within the party currently. All of this while I have been expressing the stance of trying to not be a part of any of the factional caucuses but apparently there is a “if you aren’t with me, you are against me” attitude from a particular faction.