Heart of Texas FreeRepublic Chapter Meeting, Tuesday April 27th 7PM(South Austin)

DrewsDad

[DrewsDad]

HEART OF TEXAS FREEPERS(and anyone wishing to join us),

According to our bylaws, we need to squeeze in an April Meeting for the purpose of selecting an Officer Nominations Committee that will recommend a slate of Chapter Officers at the May Meeting(hopefully, we can schedule that one a bit earlier). Officer elections will be held at our June Meeting.

Date & Time: Tuesday, April 27, 7:00 PM
Place:Taco Cabana Inc.
6430 S I H 35 Austin, TX MAP
(512) 462-3082

Here's where the meeting will occur.... The Taco Cabana on the corner of IH-35 & William Cannon. Use Exit 228, whether you're coming from North or South IH-35. From the North you'll see it on the feeder road at the corner of Wm Cannon. From the South, exit Wm Cannon, turn left on Wm Cannon, get in right lane quickly and turn into the Taco Cabana.

The margaritas are $3.00 each or $12.00 for a pitcher for those who wish to imbibe. The food is ultra cheap and good. We can sit outside if the weather is not too hot & humid, otherwise there will be tables we can pull together inside (just got off the phone with management). We are meeting at this place to accommodate our FReepers coming from South of Austin. It's a lure. :-)

This will hopefully be a pretty quick meeting, so anyone who is interested in being on the committee is urged to attend or let us know of your interest if you cannot make it.

That is the only official business on the agenda, but we can also discuss any upcoming FReep opportunities and plans and strategy for the June Texas State Republican Convention in San Antonio.

We apologize for the extremely late notice, but hope to see ya anyway.

Heart of Texas Chapter of FreeRepublic.com Bylaws(Excerpt)

ARTICLE VI: Officers and Elections

Section 1: Officers. The officers of this Chapter shall be a President, Vice-President of Membership, Vice-President of Communications, Member at Large and Recording Secretary. These officers shall perform the duties prescribed by these bylaws and by the parliamentary authority adopted by the Chapter.

Section 2: Nominations Committee. A Nominations Committee of not less than 3 and not more than 9 members shall be elected by the membership at the April meeting each year. The Nominations Committee shall elect its chairman from one of its own number and shall report one nominee for each office at the May meeting each year. Prior consent of said nominees shall be obtained.

Section 3: Elections. Elections shall be held at the June meeting each year. Nominations from the floor will be allowed at the May and June meetings. Prior consent, or the presence of the nominee(s) at the meeting shall be required. Where there is only one candidate for an office, election may be by voice vote. Where there is more than one candidate for an office, election shall be by ballot. A majority vote shall elect. If no candidate receives a majority then a runoff will be held between the highest two vote totals.

[DrewsDad]

Hope to see ya there!

[DrewsDad]

H.O.T. Ping!

Feel free to invite anyone I may have missed.

[DrewsDad]

The Buda Chapter(and any others) are formally invited to join us as well. You may be closer than me to the meeting location.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

PING

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I lived in Buda about 1974.
TOTAL population then was about 70.

[The Bat Lady]

I have talked to the Sarce and we will be there. I would also like to announce you are invited to the San Marcos Library from 2-4 on Saturday May 1st.

Gina Parker will be there talking about how to be a better delegate at the convention.

There will be an important vote for Co-chair of the Republican party of Texas. Two ladies are running, Gina and Tina. I have good friends on both sides who have talked for each of them. If you haven't talked to Gina I urge you to attend this.

Her slogan is "Passion for the Platform" I was haranguing her about SOMEONE in the republican party holding the elected officials feet to the fire to vote the Constitution. I don't think that is much to ask.... found out I was preaching to the choir.

I liked her on the phone, come get to meet her and make an informed decision when you get to the convention.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

:)

JimRob said he'd stop by on his trip around the country. Do we know when that'll happen.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

As you probably know, it's now much larger than that. And I'm still the only FReeper here. Sucks to be me...:)

[DrewsDad]

Gina has my support.

Tina was the 2002 Rules Committee Chair that blatantly abused the rules by declaring any challenge to the chair's ruling out of order. Below is an excerpt from a Tim Lambert letter concerning this act:

The RPT paid parliamentarian cited Robert’s Rules of Order saying that there were not two reasonable opinions opposing the measure and that the motion to appeal the ruling of the chair was dilatory. In other words, since it was deemed to be in violation of state election law, no other reasonable opinion could be offered. (It should be noted that the final arbiter of election law in Texas is the Texas Supreme Court.) Thus, the committee chairman refused to allow the committee even to vote on sustaining or reversing her ruling that the vote on Rule 43 amendment was out of order. In short, if the “team” of the committee chairman (an attorney herself), the RPT legal counsel, and the RPT-paid parliamentarian ruled anything to be illegal, then it could not be considered by the committee, which provided an effective block to both Rule 43 and Rule 44. Perhaps more importantly, this also prevented the opportunity for minority reports which would have then been presented to the delegates on the floor of the convention for debate.

[DrewsDad]

I haven't seen a schedule.

[BJClinton]

We are meeting at this place to accommodate our FReepers coming from South of Austin...

Thanks. The drive up to Lakeway was a bit much for me. Does anybody have a mobile internet connection so we can watch the primary returns from PA?

[BJClinton]

And I'm still the only FReeper here

Wow. I didn't know y'all even had internet access. ;-)

[DrewsDad]

Does anybody have a mobile internet connection so we can watch the primary returns from PA?

I hear Hocndoc has one of them new-fangled devices(if she shows up).

Glad to hear from you and see ya Tuesday night.

[Gracey]

Sorry to break your "lone Freeper" in Buda, but we've had a freeper from Buda for a long time. His handle is JohnReed, as well as his name. He may show that he lives in Austin, because who ever heard of Buda. He's an officer in the RLC and will be at the convention.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Never heard of him, but I guess I've got to find a new town, now.:)

[hocndoc]

I'm afraid that I won't be there. The New Braunfels Republican Women are having their 40th Anniversary, and we're hosting Attorney General Abbott as our speaker.

[gopkat]

Tina Benkiser made the same ruling in the 2002 Rules Committee as Talmadge Heflin did in 1998 and 2000 as Chair of the rules Committee, but no one fussed about Talmadge doing it. He'll be chairing the Rules again this year, and I'll bet he rules anything illegal out of order again.

...oh yeah, and don't forget to ask Gina what she would have done in the exact same situation as Tina was in at the 2002 Rules Committee situation in question. The last time I heard about someone asking Gina, she hung her head and admitted she would have done the same thing!

[DrewsDad]

The last time I heard about someone asking Gina, she hung her head and admitted she would have done the same thing!

I appreciate the information. Welcome to FR.

I still find it a gross abuse of power to declare a challenge to the chair's ruling out of order because "there were not two reasonable opinions". I had not heard that Talmadge did this. Did he just declare a proposed rule out of order or did he make the same ridiculous ruling on a challenge?

I didn't feel that strongly about the proposed rule changes. I am just sick of the heavy-handed approach.

[YCTHouston]

Lambert is generally someone I trust for an honest assesment. His description fits my recollection of the proceedings. Others may argue that a chair has the right to make up rulings based on their interpretations of Texas law, but in any event, that excerpt describes how it went down accurately.

Which doesn't leave one with much hope that Tina is going to be any less heavy-handed than her predecessor, or anymore accessible to the grass roots.