Conference HighLights

January 16-17, 2004
Salt Lake City, Utah

Our eleventh National Conference was successful with an evening social, two business meetings at which we further refined our national Platform, and a Freedom Speakers Forum.

Standing and Special Committee Meetings

We met all day Friday, first as the Rules Committee for an hour, then as the Platform Committee for the rest of the day.  Everyone present participated in both committee sessions.  As usual, our efforts were very harmonious.  We met in a conference room at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

As the Rules Committee, we reviewed a formally proposed change to our Bylaws that would allow the election of national officers from unorganized state parties. We then made our recommendation for ratification by the National Committee. 

As the Platform Committee, we closely scrutinized the Government section and most of the Defense section of our Platform.  We also considered small changes to the Unalienable Rights, Natural Resources and Society sections of our Platform. We then made recommendations for consideration by the National Committee.

Evening Restaurant Social

Friday evening a few of us met at HomeTown Buffet restaurant in Taylorsville (Salt Lake), Utah. We enjoyed dinner, visiting and talking about a number of topics (mostly political). The extremely cold weather deterred many from attending the social.

National Committee Meeting

We met for five and a half hours on Saturday for our National Committee business meeting in the Salt Lake County Commission Chambers, at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.  After opening ceremonies, we had state, regional and national reports, then a Credentials report.

We reconvened the the Platform Committee session for several hours (during the National Committee meeting) to further refine the Platform sections, and then adjourned the Platform sub-session to return to National Committee business.  

We received the Rules Committee report, then ratified the one change to the IAP Bylaws that will ease eligibility requirements for national officers.

We debated and passed a simple change to the Natural Resources section (subsection Energy), and extensive rewording to parts of the Government and Defense sections of our national Platform. A proposed change to the Unalienable Rights section (subsection Life) did not pass. (A proposed change to the Society section [subsection Substance Abuse and Gambling] was tabled Friday.)

We had planned to discuss our National Convention and the 2004 presidential race, but ran out of time. National Committee discussions for those items will have to be handled by email before our next National Conference in July. 

Freedom Forum

At Saturday mid-afternoon we held our Freedom Forum also in the Salt Lake County Commission Chambers.  Jared Beck, Acting State Chair for Utah, spoke on "American Truth." Rich Mack, son of former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, spoke in substitution for his father who was campaigning elsewhere for Governor of Utah (no speech title). Ramsi and Kesia Kefu, young granddaughters of former national Vice Chair Sandra Richter (who passed away 1-1/2 years ago), sang "I'm Proud to Be an American."  Cathy McDonald, Western States Regional Coordinator, spoke on "In Partnership with Eve."  And Will Christensen, national Vice Chair, spoke on "A Chosen Generation." The forum was enjoyable and successful. We then adjourned our National Conference until July 2004.