A Meeting of the "Like" Minds

I attended the American Majority Activist Training Event on Saturday, May 9th, at the Shawnee Branch of the Johnson County Library along with my friend and neighbor, Sandy Simons. We both felt the event was enlightening, thought-provoking, fun and worth every penny of the small fee. It was defiantly a meeting of like-minded individuals.

Dennis Wilson, Board Chairman of American Majority in Kansas, greeted the large, lively group that threatened to spill out of the training room into the hall at the Shawnee branch of the Johnson County library. He spoke briefly about the mission of the organization and explained that their goal was training ordinary citizens to become more involved in their communities and public policies that affect everyone. He is a former Kansas State Senator, State Representative, Businessman, and the former Vice President of the City Union Mission.

His started his opening remarks by saying,

"the most influential people
are the ones that show up"

and it was more than a clever throw-away line at the beginning of a presentation. It was a call to action for ordinary citizens to get involved in their communities on the most basic levels such becoming a Committee Chairperson in your local political parties, running for local office or supporting someone who is running and shares your views of conservative values and free markets.

I think the thing I liked the most about the Event was the expertise and affability of the staff. Field Representatives Becka Romm and Elizabeth Patton did an excellent job of explaining and teaching the American Majority Training Program.

Becca opened with a general outline of the Program and the most impressive statement that I took away from this event. "No matter where I am in life, I can make a difference". She talked about building coalitions by starting with individuals who get involved in local political groups or charitable organization, starting small, setting goals and having a plan. Here is a list of "small steps" to creating a successful coalition.

• Identify a need or issue
• Grow your group
• Creat a vision for a solution
• Establish targets
• Plan a strategy
• Implement success

I was amused by Becca's use of "small steps" because anyone who has ever read my blog has seen my Small Steps Alert. It is just small news items (and sometimes big ones) that support conservative values. Small things that make a difference.

Elizabeth introduced the attendees to the use of the traditional media such as newspapers and journals as a tool to get your ideas and opinions out to other people. She explained the proper form for the Letters to the Editor and the longer Opinion Editorial. Holding our leaders accountable was also a recurring theme of the training. She introduced many at the training event to blogging and social networking.

One thing that surprised me was my introduction to Wiki-Projects and their importance. As long as I've been writing and researching on the internet I have avoided using Wiki-pedia as a source reference, believing that the entries found there were misleading at best, left-leaning in some instances and inaccurate. I was wrong.

Earl Glenn, AM's guest internet guru, introduced us to all sorts of Wiki tools such as Wiki-FOIA which is a source reference for requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act. Important and very useful sites Judge-pedia and Ballot-pedia. These are all wonderful reference sites and I'm sure I will visit them often.

There were just too many websites and social networks mentioned such as The Sam Adams Alliance, Sunshine Review, Facebook and Ning, to learn anything in depth about the ones I didn't already know. I am going to busy myself over the next few weeks and months to see what's out there. These sites and more will be explored by all of us who attended the training session.

If you want to know more about how to find and use the information I gleaned from this event you can clik on the links or you can attend the next American Majority Training Session. It is on June 19th at the Town and Country Bank located at 4707 West 135th Street in Leawood, KS. The cost for the event is $20 per person. Please visit AM's website for registration information.

All-in-all, the day was a complete success for me and my friend, Sandy. We couldn't stop talking on our way home about how excited we were with our new found knowledge. I guess you could say Sandy and I have already built our first coalition. Two neighbors who want to make a difference in their community.