Conference HighLights

January 26-27, 2001
Salt Lake City, Utah

Our fifth National Conference was a great success with featured speakers Janine Hansen, President of Eagle Forum of Nevada; Jim Dexter, State Chair of the Libertarian Party of Utah; Janalee Tobias, President of Women Against Gun Control; and Bruce Bangerter, National Chair of the Independent American Party.

Evening Social

We kicked off our National Conference with a Friday evening social at Home Town Buffet restaurant in Taylorsville, Utah.  We enjoyed our buffet dinner and visiting with each other.  Several restaurant-goers  came over to our group, inquired about the IAP, and asked to be put on our mailing list.

Business Meeting

Saturday morning, we held our National Committee business meeting at Murray City Hall in Murray, Utah.  We heard state reports from Hartley Anderson, Carlton Bowen and Gary Van Horn about the recent elections and state of the party in Utah.  We heard state reports from Dan Hansen and Janine Hansen about the state of the party in Nevada and the national Constitution Party.  We also heard a report from National Chairman Bruce Bangerter on the gains of our national party during the 2000 elections.

We discussed and passed a resolution to encourage state parties that are affiliated with other national parties, to also affiliate with our national IAP.  There is no prohibition against this in our national Constitution and Bylaws, so long as they support our IAP Mission and Principles.  The potential conflict with such an arrangement, will be in presidential election years, should the two national parties nominate different presidential candidates.  We would then expect the state party to go along with national affiliate that has the best presidential and vice presidential candidates.

We amended our Bylaws to add two national officer positions.  The positions of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are mandated by our Constitution.  Other positions may be added or deleted by changes to our Bylaws.  We added the positions of Assistant Secretary and Assistant at Large.  Our Bylaws already provided for an Assistant Treasurer position.

We held our bi-annual elections of national officers.  Three of our current officers were reelected, and another (at her request) was elected to a different position.  Three new people were also elected as national officers.  The seven officers were elected for a two-year term, subject to the stipulation that we may hold early elections if and when other state parties gain official recognition in the IAP.  The goal is to have our leadership represented from all regions of the country.

Bruce Bangerter was reelected as Chair, Sandra Richter as Vice Chair, and Cheryl Tullius as Secretary.  Clair Bangerter was elected as Treasurer, Renee Dale (our former Treasurer) as Assistant Secretary, Pat Champion as Assistant Treasurer, and Patty Arnold as Assistant at Large.

Freedom Forum

Saturday afternoon we held our Freedom Forum at Murray City Hall.

Our first speaker was Janine Hansen.  She is President of Eagle Forum of Nevada, Northern Nevada Chair of the successful Protection of Marriage Act in 2000, a citizen lobbyist since 1971, editor of the Independent American in Nevada, National Committeewoman to the Constitution Party, 1976 Ballot Access Chair and past National Treasurer of US Taxpayers Party. The Protection of Marriage Act won in Nevada by 70%. 

Janine spoke on the "The Blessings that come from the Sacrificial Investing in Liberty."  She related some of her successes and failures in lobbying the Nevada legislature, and gave us much encouragement in continuing our fight for freedom.

Our second speaker was Jim Dexter.  He is a talk show host on KTKK Radio (Salt Lake), State Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah, and a recent US Senate candidate. He invited each of the IAP congressional and state-wide candidates in Utah to appear on his radio show twice each during the 2000 campaign. 

Jim spoke on "The Road to Hell is Paved with Politicians' Good Intentions."  He gave us a libertarian perspective on various issues (some of with which we disagreed with) and vowed to work together with us on the issues in which we agree.

Our third speaker was Janalee Tobias.  She is President and founder of Women Against Gun Control, a citizen activist, founder of other citizen organizations, among Outstanding Young Women of America in 1997, and a free-lance writer. Her WAGC has members both nationally and internationally.

Janalee spoke on "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Mom?"  She talked about the importance of our 2nd Amendment rights, and on the threats and harassment she has received because of her views and efforts.

Dan Hansen, past State Chair of the Independent American Party of Nevada, has been a featured speaker at previous IAP National Conferences, but was not a scheduled speaker this time.  However, we asked him to give a few remarks.  He spoke briefly on Morality and Tyranny, and entertained us with several verbal "Bushisms."

Our concluding speaker was Bruce Bangerter.  He is current National Chairman and one of six founders of the national Independent American Party, former Vice Chair and Executive Director of the Utah IAP, recent Congressional candidate, and past Congressional and US Senate candidate.

Bruce spoke on "America's Cultural War."  He talked about the cycle in the lives of nations, then contrasted America's past as a righteous and blessed nation with the America of today in becoming a wicked and cursed nation.  And he challenged us to doing something about it.

These addresses (or excerpts) are published on our web site.  The National Conference adjourned until July 2001.