Davis County Conservatives train members to read bills and mobilize for 45‑day legislative session

Tina Horlocker, chair of the Davis County Conservatives, opened Thursday’s meeting by urging members to “stay in touch for those 45 days” and to help monitor the state legislative session that began this week. The group focused the evening on practical training: how to find legislators and bills on le.utah.gov, where to read fiscal notes and version histories, and how to follow committee actions — the appointed speakers stressed committees are where much of the substantive work on bills happens.

Don Guymon, the group’s vice chair, led a step‑by‑step demonstration of the legislature website, showing how to use rosters, keyword searches and the bill page features that list sponsors, last action and fiscal notes. “If you want to start tracking a bill, get notifications of bills,” Guymon said during the walkthrough, adding that the site marks additions (red underline) and deletions (blue strike‑through) in bill text and that committee votes and the “last action” fields are essential for following progress.

Members also discussed using AI tools to speed review. Several attendees described a preview of CitizenPortal.ai that summarizes bills and attempts to rank constitutional fit; a presenter warned the tool “is still learning” and said it should not be taken as definitive legal advice. “Do not take its word for that,” one member said, urging cross‑checking AI summaries against the original bill text and fiscal notes.

Organizers urged members to sign up for volunteer slots to monitor committee hearings, noting the legislature posts daily committee schedules. Olivia (identifying herself as Tina Horlocker’s daughter and a volunteer coordinator with Utah Eagle Forum) outlined a plan to assign volunteers to 1–2 hour committee blocks, take notes and enter findings into a shared Google Doc that coalition partners could use for coordinated action.

The meeting closed with announcements about upcoming speakers and local events, and with an appeal to recruit neighbors and younger voters to join the group’s efforts during the session’s busiest weeks.