We're going to have a strong Florida contingent at the November conference. The group will include Jim Prentice, Stan Jackson, John Jenninngs and Marlin Hokanson. They will arrive in Tulsa on Wednesday, November 14th. We need spots for Jennings & Hokanson on the agenda to go through procedure they are using in Florida for show cause hearings.

In addition to these four, I extended an invitation to Dewey Tobias. He hasn't cleared his schedule yet but will be here if he can.

This Florida group has removed numerous notices of federal tax lien and have the state attorney general up against the wall with complaints against IRS personnel and a federal judge. They mean business and have developed some pretty impressive procedure.

A word of caution for those who didn't attend the first two conferences: Stock up on sleep ahead of time because there isn't much time for it from the time you get here until you leave.

I'm assuming Tim Richardson will attend the November conference. If he does, I believe he should make a Saturday presentation on "sovereignty of the people." They've taken that issue to the mat in the Oregon Supreme Court over an initiative petition for a constitutional amendment & he has developed excellent authorities on the subject.

I forget that new people constantly subscribe to the DanMeador list and that information concerning the upcoming research conference is posted to other lists. Consequently, I forget to include particulars concerning where Freedom Hall is, etc.

Freedom Hall is at 612 N. Antelope in greater Marland, Oklahoma. Metropolitan Marland claims to have a population of 280. Last December, Gail and I purchased the old Marland school, a steel building completed in 1968 that has about 16,500 sq. ft. of floor space, including an auditorium that will accommodate around 400 people. The facility, which was purchased by something over 130 donors, is being developed as a national resource center for the constitutional restoration movement. The building is actually in the name of Christ & Country Ministry, a ministry Gail and I established on October 2, 1998.

And no, Christ & Country Ministry isn't a 503(c)(3) ministry. The "Corpus Christi" (Body of Christ) is antecedent to government and doesn't have to ask government whether or not it can or does exist.

Our disposition generally runs along the lines, "We are one nation under God and we are one nation under law." Our state and national constitutions are cornerstones in the "law of the land" and we must have those anchors if we are to enjoy the fruits of liberty and have reliable justice.

Our closest neighbor of any size is Ponca City, population around 31,000. Ponca City is about 12 miles northeast of Marland on Highway 60. We are located in north central Oklahoma about 10 miles east of I-35. We're about 90 miles south of Wichita, Kansas, 90 miles north of Oklahoma City, and 90 miles northwest of Tulsa. The building is located in the northwest quadrant of Marland the next door south of the volunteer fire department and immediately across the street from the consolidated Methodist-Christian church. The Ponca City Chamber of Commerce maintains a web site that lists many of the local accommodations. Other area towns within 40 miles that have accommodations include Tonkawa, Blackwell, Perry and Stillwater. Stillwater, which is the furthest, is the home of Oklahoma State University.

It appears that the best flight connections are to Tulsa. The easiest ground route from Tulsa is via Highway 64 west (Cimarron Turnpike) then take the Ponca City exit (Hwy. 177) north to the Marland turnoff. The road is now paved (completed about 3 months ago) the four miles to Hwy. 156 that comes in the south end of Marland.

Those who have RV's of various sorts can park them on our 75 x 150 ft. concrete slab in the back, but there is an excellent full service RV park at I-35 & Hwy. 60 intersection. Also, there is a 24-hour restaurant immediately across the road from the RV park. It's around 20 miles from Freedom Hall.

People traveling I-35 from the north will want to exit on Hwy. 60 then go south 8 miles on Hwy. 156. Those coming on I-35 from the south will use the Billings-Marland exit (Exit 203). Drive east from I-35 & follow the signs.

We have 30 or 40 chairs people have donated and will rent another hundred. However, it wouldn't hurt to bring something reasonably comfortable to sit in if you plan to attend the entire Saturday sessions. Steel chairs can get pretty ouchy. We don't have fixed seating so can shuffle things around.

The facility is still a construction project and we have lots of needs. For example, we need some bed frames and could use good twin and double mattress and box springs sets. Through conferences, we usually put researchers up here as the closed sessions frequently extend to sixteen to eighteen hours per day. There isn't much travel time. Right now we are relying on double air mattresses for many of them, but those won't be overly comfortable if we have winter events.

We particularly need three or four more "conference" tables. We have a few six or eight foot folding tables now, and could use a few more of those, but also need a few that are more stable.

We still need a good sound system for the auditorium. One of the Ponca City churches is loaning us their backup system for the Saturday open session, but we need a system that can be wired in then left in place.

It seems that the facility is an "endless" construction project. It isn't like renovating and decorating a house. It took approximately 20 gallons of paint to paint the auditorium/lunch room area. We have two hallways, one of them 100 ft. long and the other about 130 ft. long, both 10 ft. wide. Prior to the last conference, we had three to five people painting in the south hallway for most of two days to get the walls covered.

Want to mop a floor? Gail's kitchen is 15 x 35 and the lunch room is about 50 x 40.

How about running the vacuum? The south hall is carpeted (100 x 10), the primary auditorium area is carpeted, and the carpeted rooms in the south wing are mostly 24 x 30.

People who have been here will be amused by this: It's half a block from my office in the front of the building to the coffee pot! Mark Mayes jokes about the "journey" to the kitchen. Unlike the typical home-based business, around here you learn to plan trips.

We're having to "create" residential quarters. The first major task was to convert a 4-stool restroom. We put in a large shower & reduced the number of stools to one. After the first conference, we concluded that we needed a second shower for when we have extra people so we put a second shower in a north wing bathroom. As finances permit, we will put dormatory-like quarters with a television and sitting room in two of the north wing rooms. The second restroom in the north wing also needs major renovation so that's another pretty expensive and time-consuming project on the seemingly endless list of things to do.

The people aspect of our "vision" is really the more important aspect of the enterprise, but in order for that to be realized, there has to be a facility capable of accommodating both working groups and conference-like events without costing participants an arm and a leg. I'm convinced that we have enough people dedicated to restoring the rule of law that we can get the job done by using the system providing a forum for some of the nation's better researchers and advocates. Unfortunately, many of the more capable people have been broadsided by the system, which is probably the reason they realize the extent of fraud perpetrated against the American people to begin with, so financially they exist on a hope and a prayer.

Those invited to participate in closed sessions of the research conference aren't compensated for time. None of them makes a dime for being here. However, John Feld (Taxgate) and I solicit donations sufficient to cover travel costs and the cost of feeding everyone while they're here. Those who can comfortably afford to usually pay their own travel costs, but we don't want the cost of an airplane ticket to prevent a good researcher from attending if he has something to contribute. Thus far people who understand what we're attempting to do have contributed enough to pay costs of the first two conferences held in May and July. We have some carryover funds, but will need additional contributions to cover the cost of the November conference.

Several people have inquired about presentation videotapes.

This time around we will have Saturday presentations filmed. Since we don't know what we will have, we have no idea what will be available or how much the videotapes will cost. Whatever profits there are from video sales will be used to fund future conferences. Jack Cohen of Seattle is in charge of conference sessions and the agenda, but we probably won't have a Saturday agenda until Thursday or Friday prior to the open session, which will run from about 10 am until some time the evening of Saturday, November 17th.

Our participating researchers aren't limited to a single point of view. They cover a pretty good spectrum. Our central rule is simply, "Check attitudes and guns at the door."

Tax issues dominated the first two conferences and will be at the head of the list at the third. Needless to say, tax issues involve court procedure, etc., too, so there is a natural link to credit and other such subjects. And, of course, tax issues involve both civil and criminal law so we're addressing areas that affect most everyone.

Dan Meador