2016 Conventions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Weirdly, I attended a convention at the Salt Palace each month from February to April. I don't consider myself particularly drawn to conventions or something; that's just how things worked out. It seemed only fitting to go over them all in one post.

The first convention I attended in February would fall squarely in The Good category. Having attended RootsTech for the first time last year, I was eager to go to the 2016 convention. It certainly did not disappoint. When the church does something, it does it right! Everything was first rate, of course. I always have a good time checking out the exhibition hall, for example. There are a lot of interesting displays and good into from various family history companies. I even saw a guy I know from an institute class passing out materials there, so that was fun.

My favorite part of the conference was a session done by Sheri Dew and Wendy Nelson. Apparently, they have been friends for many years and teach or have taught an institute class together. Their whole premise was that they were the good (Wendy Nelson) and bad (Sheri Dew) examples of doing family history work. Sister Nelson talked about how family history has become her go-to for free time, replacing other interests like watching Monk. Sister Dew talked about how she used to tour around with her grandmother, who was a family history missionary, a lot and though she has an appreciation for the importance of the work, she hasn't spent the time necessary to accomplish the work as she should. She committed to repent and work with Sister Nelson so she can find new names and encouraged everyone else to join her in the resolution.

Here are a few other tidbits I liked: Sister Dew made the comment that the pressures and disappointments in her life would have crushed her long ago without the strength the temple provides. Sister Nelson then addressed the power of coupling our temple work with family history and how it provides us with additional, God-given assistance in meeting our personal challenges. I thought Sisters Nelson and Dew had a great chemistry borne of years of friendship that really showed through. Their session was both very entertaining, empowering, and motivating.

One of the smaller, breakout sessions I really enjoyed covered how to better do a family history consultation and even had a live demo. One of the things I picked up there was that I can and should do due diligence and explore the person's tree in advance to find good areas to target with them later to ensure their success. Nothing builds people's testimonies of the work so easily as having a really positive experience the first time does, so I like the idea of preparing better to ensure that. I also liked the thought shared that the best family history workers are servants who actively seek people to help. That's something I can improve upon, as I don't proactively search people out as often as I could.

Another point that I appreciated was that the Spirit most often comes as people make a personal connection to their ancestors. I want to more effectively invite the Spirit into my consultations so that it can carry a love of the work into the hearts of the member. Often, records, pictures, etc. can be a good avenue to allow that to happen. There are also some cool new handouts that were introduced to help inspire people in family history work. They are only available in paper form from BYU right now, but the online version is pretty cool. You can check that out here. I appreciate how the church is always working to put new resources into our hands to make this work more accessible for everyone in the church!

The final concert for RootsTech this year was The Lower Lights, which is an LDS bluegrass band I've become pretty fond of, so that was fun to see them in concert. Overall, RootsTech was, once again, a fabulous experience. It is very worth attending, and I highly recommend it to anyone who can feasibly get there without too much trouble or expense.

I also used that occasion of being in Salt Lake to do some sealings. It was my first time doing sealings there, which was awesome. That was when I learned that the dead can be sealed all at once as families just as the living are, which was info that allowed me to improve our temple day that month as I've discussed. I was glad that I had the chance not just to learn about family history and temple work, but to do it as well!

In March, I went to a less savory, though still valuable conference called UCAP, or Utah Coalition Against Pornography. I wouldn't have ever known about it, but Bishop Lemon talked about it in ward council and strongly encouraged us all to attend. That invitation was then extended to the ward in general as well. It's apparently a problem that he deals with a lot in the ward and has had occasion to see it's devastating effects upon families many times in the past as well. To better arm us against this dangerous scourge, he wanted us all to become more educated about it. Though it isn't the sort of thing I would usually attend, I trust Bishop Lemon, so I signed up to go.

In the end, we had about around 25 people come to the conference from the ward. I guess we were the only ward group like that there, so we became kind of recognized by the organizers. We had a few stragglers who showed up late, but the registration folks were able to pretty quickly get them squared away and directed them to where the rest of us were.

The keynote address was offered by Jeffrey R. Holland, so that was definitely worth hearing. Probably the most depressing thing he mentioned was a study that indicated that among Millennials, the majority think that littering is more unethical than viewing pornography. That's pretty shocking, and shows the depths of depravity to which we have sunk. Fortunately, there are a growing number of organizations that are raising awareness of the harmful effects of pornography, like Fight the New Drug. The conference came right on the tail of the Utah legislature declaring porn to be a public health hazard, so it's also encouraging to see that measures are being taken to fight the epidemic.

I went to a number of different classes covering different topics and some were good while others were not so great. The first one I went to was about fighting porn among young adults and supporting those who struggle with the issue. There was a panel of 4 anti-porn advocates that lead that out, all in their mid to late 20's or so. One was a recovered porn addict who is working toward becoming a marriage and family counselor. His perspective was particularly interesting as he discussed getting hooked on porn and overcoming the problem, including what helped him and what didn't.

The main take-away that I got out of that very informative class was that there is power in becoming educated about how to fight porn and becoming a public advocate on social media and other venues. All the panel members talked about how they've had a number of friends approach them for help concerning the problem because their peers knew that they were involved in the cause. That gave these folks the opportunity to share essential resources and other support and love to those who were struggling.

At that session, I happened to sit with Austin, my friend from the ward mission, and another couple guys from the ward. After it was over, I had a clear idea of the next class I wanted to go to, which was a practical class on how to help others overcome porn, I made a beeline for it as it addressed the main topic I was interested in learning about. Austin and one of the other guys decided they would just follow me since they weren't too set on any particular class. Unfortunately, by the time we made it up the two flights of stairs to get from the first classroom to the next one, the class I wanted to attend was completely full. There was still some standing room only around the sides, which I was perfectly willing to take advantage of myself, but I could tell the men weren't thrilled about that prospect, so in honor of their wishes, I suggested we just attend another class just across the hall about appropriately teaching kids about porn.

That seemingly innocent decision ended up being quite a bad one, unbeknownst to us at the time. The class was far too explicit for my taste, with the teacher and some video they showed talking about specific kinds of porn that I'd never heard of and never wanted to hear of or know about. The whole thing was uncomfortable, and even more so because I was sitting in between the two men who had followed me. There were moments that I simply wanted to walk out, but then she'd go into some info that was useful, so I didn't leave. She had some valuable info to share, I just wish she would have left a lot of the crap out  so I could have better appreciated it. I talked to the men about it afterwards and they both agreed that they were very uncomfortable at times as well, so I regretted leading them and getting myself into that lion's den inadvertently.

Overall, despite that one unfortunate class, which I complained about in the feedback they asked for by the way, the conference was something that I felt was worth attending. Though it dealt with a tough subject that I wish it wasn't necessary to address, it really did provide me with an overall sense of hopefulness and an increased ability to provide support that many need in this world. So dealing with The Bad wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Now on to The Ugly. That can only describe politics this year, though fortunately, it's a good amount less ugly here in Utah than elsewhere in the nation. I suppose I ought to mention to start that I went to a Ted Cruz rally in Provo during the lead up to the Utah caucus. I rather like rallies, so it was fun to get one in for this election cycle, though Cruz really isn't my first choice as a candidate. There were others there as well, though, like Carly Fiorina, Glenn Beck, and Mike Lee. It was fun to hear from them too.

The caucus came just a few days later. I was there, of course, and I was pleased to see that a number of my friends from the ward were there as well. We all staked out a place so we could enjoy the process together. Unfortunately, from the start, our precinct was pretty unorganized. They didn't even let anyone in the line into the building to start registration processing until 7:00 when the caucus was supposed to start. Because of poor techniques in handling the crowd, it took a full hour to get everyone checked in properly before things could actually begin. Things stayed pretty slow from there, with a good 15 minutes at least spent reading the Utah Republican County platform, which we'd all already had an hour to peruse at our leisure while we were waiting for the registration to finish. Finally, we started in to the voting.

We started with electing our precinct chair. Because everyone was unhappy with how slowly things were going, we ousted the chair at the time and elected a new one, Nathan. We didn't have a lot to go on, but in his speech, I and my friends felt like he seemed responsible and on the ball. Others must have agreed, and we were all thrilled to see that things started to go much more smoothly as soon as Nathan was elected. He began right away to move things along better, so we were all thrilled with the immediate results of our decision!

After the other precinct officers were elected, it was time to elect delegates. I'd kind of toying with the possibility of standing for an office, but they were asking for a 2 year commitment, which I wasn't sure I could make. I didn't want to move and leave the precinct in the lurch. When the election for delegates came, however, one of my ward friends quickly turned to me and suggested I should run. I told her I was interested, but shared my hesitation. She thought it wasn't a big deal, so she decided to nominate me.

It turned out that many more people were interested in being a delegate than in filling any of the other roles, so I was running against 7 other people for the position. I figured my chances weren't all that good of winning, but tried to present my case as well as I could. I made my speech first, emphasizing that I had long been involved in the Republican Party back in Virginia and in College Republicans while I was in school. After hearing from the others, I was convinced that I was unlikely to win, especially considering that one of the other candidates talked about serving as a Marine.

I was okay with losing that election, however, because I felt like I would be satisfied serving as a county delegate, which I understood would fall to the losers of this election for the state delegates. With that in mind, I didn't even vote for myself in that election, so you can imagine my shock when I won the election and became one of 2 state delegates from our precinct! It was thrilling, but I knew that I was in for a new kettle of fish. As the conventions drew nigh, I began receiving a ton of mail from every candidate running. There were also a ton of robo-calls, invitations to delegate parties, etc. that flooded my way. It was pretty overwhelming.

I knew that I had a real responsibility to those who elected me to carefully study out the candidates so I could make informed decisions. As I ignored the propaganda and focused on the records of the various candidates, I was able to formulate distinct impressions on who would be the best choices to govern. Our precinct leadership also organized a couple of meetings where we could all get together and discuss the candidates. Those were pretty interesting, and though they didn't change my opinions, they did inform them more fully. I was pleased to discover that Nathan's ideas largely coincided with my own, though there were a few others who favored more extreme candidates like Jonathan Johnson for governor. I was hoping that I would find more compatriots at the convention, though after participating in a delegate Facebook group, I feared there were more ultra-conservative fanatics that would attend than those who took a more moderate and reasoned approach.

The convention day finally came, and I made my way to Salt Lake in company with the other delegates in my precinct. Nathan was an automatic delegate as a function of being precinct chair and there was one other elected delegate. The atmosphere was pretty electric even as we entered the Salt Palace. There were big towers of election signs everywhere and a ton of different people standing around handing out various papers, pieces of swag, etc. We made our way into the registration area pretty quickly and got ourselves all squared away with our convention materials.

We had about an 45 minutes before the convention actually began, so we spent some time walking around the area set up with booths for the candidates. Everyone was there, Gary Herbert, Mike Lee, Jason Chaffetz, Mia Love, as well as their respective competitors. They were all talking to delegates, but I didn't feel all that much need to talk to anyone. I'd already done my research and made my decisions. I ended up talking to Gary Herbert's wife a bit, but only because it seemed like the done thing, and Neil, the third delegate from our precinct, goes back with with Herberts a ways. That period was productive for me, however, as I was able to collect a number of political shirts supporting the candidates I like. I figured that would come in handy as things gear up for the general, and when would I have a better chance to collect them?

The convention itself was pretty interesting, and went by much faster than I imagined. One of the first things they did was a role call for each of the counties. There were huge ones, like Salt Lake county and us in Utah county, that had a ton of delegates and thus made a ton of noise when we were called out. A few counties only had 3 delegates, so everyone helped applaud those folks. Some had traveled quite a ways to attend.

After some housekeeping, we got down to business. Voting began right at the top of the ticket with the gubernatorial race. I was firmly in the Herbert camp, but there were plenty who wanted someone else to replace him. The original race had 4 candidates, but after everyone put in their clicker votes, 2 of the candidates had such low results that they were eliminated. I was concerned to see that Johnson, who I really don't like, was winning on that first round. After a second round of voting, I was shocked to see that Johnson still came out on top, despite the incredibly high approval ratings of Herbert across the state. Still, it was close enough that both candidates will go to a Republican primary, where I feel very hopeful that Herbert will prevail.

The general feeling among the delegates that I saw was highly anti-incumbent. Though virtually all the challengers ran an almost entirely negative campaign solely attacking the record of their opponents rather than describing what they would do to make things better, it seemed like a shocking number flocked to these unproven folks.

Personally, I like to see a record in governance that I can carefully weigh and see if I agree with a voting record. However, almost none of these challengers had any lower government experience. Rather, they were shooting for a state office without putting in any time on a city or county level. That kind of annoys me, honestly. I think a foundation of experience in local government is important in appropriately grounding prominent politicians on the state or national level. That time spent in the trenches of their community, rubbing shoulders with the people, is invaluable. It can temper a politician in essential ways and can also teach them the ropes of working effectively in the public sector through real problems. Most of the politicians I like rose through the ranks in this way.

All these hard-core conservatives are really sold on the caucus system and are constantly making a big stink about preserving it's integrity or something. Here in Utah, there's been a "Count My Vote" movement aimed at weakening the power of the caucus by enabling signatures and other avenues that can lead to a primary. The majority of delegates I've seen feedback from are all up in arms about this change and feel completely threatened by it. Though I'm okay with the caucus system and see some advantages in it, I also see how more radical factions tend to get power through it, so the decisions of the convention are less representative of the people. For that reason, I like the hybrid system that enables both a caucus and a primary, but I know I'm in the minority on that. Still, it strikes me as a silly thing to get all crazy about!

The other races went by much more quickly. In those, fortunately, the incumbents are popular enough that they were able to beat the challenger without going to a primary. Even so, it was surprising how much support those challengers were able to garner even against such stalwarts as Mia Love and Jason Chaffetz. It's like everyone has become convinced that change is the only positive way forward, though often, that which is tried and true is much more reliable.

I'd done a lot of research on national delegates before the convention to find those with more moderate views. Though I supported Cruz in various ways at caucus time, I was never convinced that he is the best option for the party. Thus, I wanted people that at least would carefully consider other options, though the vast majority of delegate candidates were declared to be 100% Cruz through every round of voting. That inflexibility was a big turn-off for me, but apparently it was the opposite for others. All my careful vetting and spreadsheets of candidates didn't do much good as those who got elected came solely from the official Cruz camp slate. To me, that's just lazy voting. I think delegates have a responsibility to do some real vetting. Even if one did support Cruz all the way, it would be nice to give some folks who aren't Cruz campaign insiders a chance to go to the national convention!

Despite the frustrations I felt, I was overall very glad to have had the chance to be a delegate. It was a highly interesting process and motivated me to become educated much more quickly about Utah politics. I just hope that Johnson will be crushed in the primary in July. That would bring me great satisfaction, because I really rather dislike the guy, and I don't want to see another unpalatable politician at the top of the ticket. To be fair, Johnson isn't nearly as repulsive as Trump, but he would also be a mistake, in my opinion. Whatever happens this year, though, I'm excited that I will have the chance to represent my precinct again next year.

So that was the conventions. All of them were quite different from the others, but each was uplifting in its own way.