My name is Dusten Harward.

Top Five Strengths: Arranger, Learner, Achiever, Belief, and Context

Meyers Briggs Personality Type: ESFJ (Extroversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging)

Im a sinner saved by the grace of God. I love to spend time outdoors enjoying the beauty of Gods creation. I am a web designer/ programmer with a degree in marketing and lots of experience in IT. I have a passion for small business and teaching.

I enjoy outdoor ministry and love to spend any time that I can possibly spare outdoors experiencing God first hand through his creation. Anytime some one asks “Would you want to go camping?” my response has always been “My bag is packed and sitting by the door when do we leave?”.

A little more about my background:

I am the oldest child of 8 kids, so family is a very big thing to me. After college at UNC Charlotte I attended the Focus Leadership Institute.

I work as a project manager as the Director of Integrated Media at Vermillion Creative in Davidson NC. I love working with small businesses and I love technology.

On this blog you will find some of my random thoughts from what it means to live biblically as a man in a fallen world, how to use technology in your small business, to some totally off the wall random ideas. Occasionally I will jump up on a political soap box as I can tend to have some very strong opinions. I try to look at things through the lens of scripture and apply it to my life.

I welcome comments and discussion as it helps to keep ideas flowing. I feel that you cannot truly know what you really believe unless you are challenged or questioned on it.

My wife has a blog which can be found here. We are currently in the process of renovating a house so our family blog found here will be full of those adventures and some others.

My desire is never to intentionally offend anyone but I know that’s an impossible feat online. I believe being challenged to rethink something is also part of really knowing what you believe. If you have never been challenged on your beliefs then how do you know what’s really important to you? So my goal is mostly intended to make you think or challenge your personal beliefs. I will be sure to let you know when I am posting something that could potentially be a rant, those will occasionally happen.

Thank you for reading!

Most Legislative bodies follow a set of rules set forth to help give them an orderly process by which to operate. This helps the group to keep a certain schedule and make things fair.

Many groups operate by something called Robert’s Rules of order (Source: http://www.robertsrules.com/) This helps to give each meeting a specific order and a set of rules by which things can proceed so its fair to everyone involved. The US House and NC House operate under their own version of RRoO.

Consideration of a measure by the full House can be a simple or very complex process. In general a measure is ready for consideration by the full House after a committee has reported it. Under certain circumstances, it may be brought to the Floor directly.

The consideration of a measure may be governed by a “rule”. A rule is itself a simple resolution or motion, which must be passed by the House, that starts the particulars of debate for a specific bill—how much time will be allotted for debate, whether amendments can be offered, and other matters.

Debate time for a measure is normally divided between proponents (Those for the resolution) and opponents (Those against the resolution). Each side yields time to those members who wish to speak on the bill. When amendments (edits to the resolution or bill) are offered, these are also debated and voted upon.

After all debate is concluded and amendments decided upon, the House is ready to vote on final passage. In some cases, a vote to “recommit” the bill to committee is requested. This is usually an effort by opponents to change some portion or table (stop) the measure. If the attempt to recommit fails, a vote on final passage is ordered.

Members of the legislative group can form a committee or elect people to be on a committee to undertake a certain task such as organizing a bill or rewriting a bill so that its definitions and statements are not too general or broad. This was the case for the recent North Carolina House Bill 937. A committee was formed to add some definitions and keep the bill from being too broad or left to someone’s own interpretation.

Some legislative groups (Such as the US House and Senate) now use an electronic system to cast final votes on to ensure accurate numbers and need attendance is in place. According to the Roberts Rules of order certain motions require a 2/3rds majority to pass while others simply require a majority.

Votes may also be by voice vote, and no record of individual responses is available.

Here is a good source of information for Roberts Rules as well (http://www.robertsrulessimplified.com/videos.html)

If you are interested in finding out more about the Legislative process you can visit the US House of Representatives website (http://www.house.gov/content/learn/legislative_process/)

If you are interested in becoming a part of the Legislative process Join your local party groups and become a voting delegate for your Precinct, District or County, or join your county executive board.  On average it’s a total of about four meetings a year and is easy to get envolved.

About the Author:

I am a Volunteer with the Meck-GOP and currently volunteer as the Precinct 206 Chair, and on the Meck GOP Executive Board.

Here is a video to a story about Matt Hammitt from Sanctus Real.

This song that was written has been an inspiring song to me recently. I look at it and cant wait for the day that I will get to share that kind of love as a father.

How many parents today will unselfishly give “All of” themselves for their children. I think many times that is something that very easy to commit to but is much more difficult to live out. Life gets hard.

The bible calls us to stand out and give all of our lives to God and be an example to our kids. This song has many different ways of applying what it speaks of and I think its a great message. Give God all of your heart and server your family. Be there for your family and really stand up and do the hard things.