Title: Texas Leadership Resources
Original CoS Document (slug): tx-leaders
Login Required to view? No
Created: 2017-12-19 23:38:07
Updated: 2023-11-09 20:44:34
Published: 2017-12-09 01:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T20:24:09.329302266
This is a private page for the assigned leaders in Texas. To access, you must have CB Dashboard privileges and be signed in. Please bookmark this page to return to it quickly. Send suggestions for additions to this page, or report need for updates or corrections, to sia.tx@cosaction.com, or place a message in the TXCOS tech-help Slack channel.
Convention of States Project Mission Statement
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“Build an engaged army of self-governing grassroots activists”. The Aspirational Goals are as follows:
The people organize and restore representative government as defined in our written Constitution.
Restore a culture of self-governance in America.
Inspire a political and spiritual awakening in America.
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Quick-links for the COS road warrior: Public / Leaders Only
This page is organized with the following section headers:
Conference Calls - National and State calls
COS Tools - Tools provided by and/or maintained by National COS
Training - National COS and Texas training resources
Procedure Documents - Texas-specific documents explaining process and/or policy
Rosters / Reference Lists - Various COS and Legislative rosters and lists
Texas District/Legislative Resources - Resources specific to the Texas Legislature and legislative districts
Texas Capitol Resources - Resources specific to the Texas Capitol in Austin
Other Resources - Everything else that doesn't fit in one of the above sections
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Followup Tool Dashboard of
new supporters, providing an efficient method for sending a follow-up email and/or phone call to welcome and thank them for their support. This Tool is accessed from the CitizenBuilder Dashboard using the
Tools / Followup menu on the left, and displays in list form all
new supporters who have either an email address or phone number. Clicking on their name will open a detail page where action can be taken. After completing the Followup, the supporter will no longer be included in the
New Followups display, but instead will appear in the
Archive display, representing those supporters who
you have welcomed. For an introductory training please login to
www.cosuniversity.com.
FUT step by step instructions
Sample Phone Script
Sample Text Messages
District Dashboard Dashboard of
all supporters with an email address or phone number, providing an efficient method for District Captains in particular to manage their supporters, including sending individual emails or logging contact notes. This Tool is accessed from the CitizenBuilder Dashboard using the
Tools / District Dashboard menu on the left. For an introductory training please login to
www.cosuniversity.com.
Sending an Email Blast
Leadership Management Tool (LMT) Dashboard of all applicants for leadership positions, and all assigned leaders. Used to manage the process of vetting and on-boarding new leaders, and to remove assigned leaders. This tool is generally only available to State-level leaders and Regional Captains. For an introductory training please login to
www.cosuniversity.com.
Legislative Management System (LMS) Allows District Captains to review/update the current COS position of the legislators in their district. State leaders have a more complete view, which includes all legislators and details of committee hearings, legislation and votes. This tool is primarily designed for the Legislative Liaison. For an introductory training please login to
www.cosuniversity.com.
COSAction App A mobile app for COS volunteers that currently includes features for News, Reports, Notifications, Leader Directory, MyProfile and TelePatriot. It is available for both iPhone and Android devices.
COS GOTV Texting App
A mobile app for specific texting campaigns
Texas Slack Team Slack is the primary communication tool between and among the entire Texas COS leadership team. If you have not received an email invite, please contact the
State Director. Check out these
Slack Tips for a productivity boost.
COS Texas State Home Page This public home page for Texas highlights current news and items of interest. Links are available for Calendar of Events, COS References, and Podcasts.
COS Wiki This is the official Wiki for the Convention of State Project. An indexed version of Governor Abbott's Texas Plan is included in the External Documents section. A direct link for it is
here.
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Training
COS University Self-paced online training classes covering various topics pertaining to the COS grassroots organization. Your COS account is used for sign on. Once registered on the site, you enroll in the desired classes and proceed through the training at your own pace. The first major class to be offered is DC100 - Convention of States District Captain Basic Training. For a 5 min intro, click
here.
COS Legal Landmines One page explanation of how to watch the legal line of what we can and cannot do when representing Convention of States.
COS Freedom Speakers is the exclusive Toastmasters group for COS. One of the most important things you can do is to be able to communicate effectively. Speaking is not just about speaking publicly, it's about speaking on zoom meetings, doing presentations, talking to legislators, giving your testimony in the legislature or in your community meetings. We meet online every Thursday from 10am-11am. Contact Joanne Martin: joanne.martin@cosaction.com
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<HTML><dt></HTML>COS Presentation Guide<HTML></dt></HTML>
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<HTML><li></HTML>Some helpful tips on how to prepare for making COS presentations. Introduction to Convention of States Presentation is available for download as a standard presentation or if you have internet connection at the event, you can use the Prezi version of the presentation. Here is a narrated version available on YouTube. The presentation is about 20 min to complete. Add time for Q&A session afterwards<HTML></li></HTML>
<HTML><li></HTML>There is also a COS Presentation for Passed States to help your audience understand what we do as a Passed State while waiting on other states to pass.<HTML></li></HTML><HTML></ul></HTML>
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Meet and Greet (How-To) As a District Captain, you will want to have a weekly or monthly meeting to organize your volunteers. This document has a sample agenda and many topics that can be covered. We have many speakers that will come to your meeting for free. Internally,
here is our speakers page. Externally, you can get free speakers from Texas Public Policy Foundation or Texas Scorecard as an example.
Session #1 - Introduction and Overview
Session #2 - The Texas Legislative Process
Session #3 - Practical Advice in District
Session #4 - Practical Advice at the Capitol
Session #5 - Political Reality
Texas Legislative Pledge is a document you can have signed by any candidate, elected official or party leader. Once you have the document signed, please send to your State Director.
Working with Slack Webinar: Getting Started (45 min)
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Procedure Documents
Rosters / Reference Lists
District Captains by Region This webpage shows all the current District Captains and Regional Captains, organized by region, with their contact information. This is a great place to direct new supporters for them to determine the District Captain for their district. The information is refreshed at least weekly. The last updated date/time is shown in the lower-left corner of the page.
COS Acronyms Don't recognize an acronym or special term? Check on this web page to see if it has the definition.
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Texas District/Legislative Resources
Texas District Lookup This site allows you to locate your House and Senate districts based upon your address. You can also find Member and District information from this same site.
Texas Legislature Online This is the main site for locating most everything related to the Texas Legislature, including members, committees, and details of legislation. Here is a
10 minute video prepared by Paul Hodson explaining how to use the site.
Texas State Directory
- House / Senate These directories provide additional information for the legislators beyond what is offered on the “official” State website, particularly for their staff. This site only allows you to do 5 lookups per day without a paid account, but if you open it in a private/incognito window in your browser, just close it down when you've reached your limit and start again fresh. A bit of an inconvenience, but it allows you to get around the daily limit.
Texas Live and Archived Broadcasts
- House / Senate These sites provide access to live and archived video and audio of Texas hearings, floor proceedings, and other recorded events for the House and Senate. Here is a
3 minute video prepared by Paul Hodson explaining how to use the sites.
Texas Online Journals
- House / Senate These sites provide access to the written journals (unofficial) of all the proceedings for Legislative actions in the full body, including text of amendments and votes.
Legislative Reference Library of TX The primary purpose of the Legislative Reference Library is to satisfy the reference and research needs of the Legislature, its staff, and its committees. Whenever possible within this framework, the library will assist the public and other state agencies with legislative research.
Texas Redistricting Maps This site has the official House and Senate district maps. You can select downloadable maps, as well as use the interactive maps.
US Statistical Atlas This site provides an interactive map of the US, with the ability to select views based upon State House and Senate districts, as well as metro areas, counties, and Congressional districts. Excellent method of locating the surrounding districts to your district.
Texas COS Regions This webpage shows the districts which comprise each of the Texas COS regions, with the major cities for each, and links to the Statistical Atlas information. The legislators are also shown for each district, with links back to their home page on the Texas Legislature Online site.
House District Locations by Metro Area This PDF document includes a map of all major metro areas within Texas, showing which House Districts are substantially contained within each. Several major cities are also shown separately. Below is a spreadsheet showing the cities and metro areas by House district.
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Texas Capitol Resources
Capitol Floorplan This is a PDF document showing the floorplan of the Texas Capitol buildings, with office numbers shown.
Capitol Complex Map This map shows a street block map of the entire Capitol Complex, with all of the parking lots and structures shown. It is described as the employee parking map, but it gives a great overview of all the buildings and parking.
Register for Witness Testimony To offer testimony at a House or Senate hearing, or even to register your presence at a hearing, you must do so online using the House website. There are kiosks throughout the Capitol to do this, but you can save time by creating your account in advance. This site explains how this works, and allows you to create your account. When at the Capitol, you may then sign in using either one of the kiosks, or you may use your own mobile device, provided that you are connected to the Public-Capital Wi-Fi network.
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Other Resources
Blockwalking
Blockwalking is an easy, effective and fun way to grow the grassroots. It also is a ready-made event for local teams that can be scheduled when convenient to the team.
COS Business Cards Convention of States has teamed up with VistaPrint to make it easy to order customizable business cards with the COS logo.
COS TV Commercials
here are the YouTube links to the COS 30 & 60 second TV Commercials:
The COS Print-Your-Own-Proshop (Jan/2021)
This is the perfect option for those who would like to support the movement by purchasing their own promotional items. While VistaPrint is passing on their corporate pricing, feel free to shop around and use your own local printer if desired.
Reimbursement: Items purchased here do not qualify for reimbursement. By ordering here, you are paying for them yourself. Please note that if you are looking for printed materials for events that COS will pay for on your behalf, please fill out a print order form.
COS Public Service Announcements (PSA)
is a short, community-oriented message that radio stations air at no cost in order to fulfill their obligation to serve the public interest. PSAs are a cost-effective way for non-profit organizations to raise awareness about the benefits their organizations provide. Radio stations receive PSAs as audio files – typically recorded as :30 or :60-second messages. These files can be accompanied by scripts for announcers to read live on air.
COS Brand Resources Provides guidance on when you can and cannot use the COS logos, and how they should be displayed. Links are available to download the logo image files.
Community Events Exhibits Program This is a comprehensive document prepared by Darren York, Texas State Director for Prayer and Ministry. It provides a wealth of information useful when planning events, such as Gun Shows and Exhibit Booths. National COS does cover the booth costs for many events, but request must be submitted
at least 3 weeks in advance –
Use these forms for events
Event Petitions Page When you have Internet access at an event and can have a computer or tablet available, you can have people sign the COS petition using this
special petition form, which allows you to optionally enter the Event Name and Event Description in the fields at the bottom of the form for the first petition, and they will remain until you change them. The Event Name will be added as a tag to the signer's profile. After the first signature, the form will be re-displayed, with the entry fields blanked out. You will want to first sign in to CitizenBuilder so that you will automatically be recorded as the “recruiter” for the people signing.
How to Whitelist Email Addresses Instructions for how to whitelist email addresses for all the popular email clients. You should consider whitelisting the following domains: conventionofstates.com, cosaction.com, selfgovern.com
Texas COS Facebook Page
National COS Facebook Page
Find Out Who Represents Me
Texas Newspapers and New Media
Central Region COS Text Alerts To sign up to receive Central Region COS TEXT alerts to your mobile phone, send “REGION4” to the number 68398 (leave off the quotes). This will opt you in to receive TEXT Alerts related to the Central Region, including invites to Thursday evening Regional and National webinar meetings.
Supporter Address Update Link This link takes supporters to their My Profile page where they can enter or update their full address. This link is included in the Followup Tool email template. Even though a supporter may have signed the petition on the website, the petition cannot be sent on to their legislators until their full address is entered, because this is needed in order to ensure the proper districts are assigned.
Hardcopy Petition Spreadsheet When collecting
hard-copy petition signatures at a local event, instead of mailing the documents to the address for manual entry, which can take quite a while, you may enter the information into this spreadsheet and it can be submitted to National for importing. This process is much quicker. Be sure to include your recruiter number if you would like the supporters to be entered as your recruits. You may forward the completed spreadsheet to
sia.tx@cosaction.com. Remember that it is very important to have the supporters provide an email address (or at least a phone number) so that we may establish contact, and a full address is needed for their petition to reach their legislators.
COS Privacy Policy
This page explains what information is collected, why, and how it is used and protected.