Ozark Patriots Meeting Schedule to Change

Since our inception in July of 2021, the Ozark Patriots have been meeting twice a week. Our first meeting was in the back room at the Arena Sports Grill in Mountain Home on a Wednesday night, and had right around 45 participants. Feedback after that meeting was that although it was a great meeting, many folks that would have liked to have been there could not attend, because they were at Wednesday evening church service.

After our initial meeting, word about our organization began to spread, and it was recommended that we head to a larger venue and choose a different night; we chose Tuesdays. Al Beers, a well known local Patriot, business man and restaurateur, offered us a spot at his centrally located brand new venue, Buncles Brick Oven Pizza & Brews, and the Ozark Patriots have been meeting there (with one exception) every other Tuesday since.

At the time we were forming the Ozark Patriots, we had no way of knowing that we would grow as quickly – and accomplish as much – as we have in such a short amount of time. At our second meeting, which had over 70 attendees, we formed “action committees” to focus on getting involved in local politics in north central Arkansas, and to address issues and concerns in our community. We started with the following committees: School Board, Quorum Court, Local Elections, Voter Outreach & Polls, Watchdog and Local Needs.

Our School Board committee took off immediately, after one of our members requested help the first day of school to fight mandatory mask mandates put in place by the Mountain Home School Board – with no input from students or parents. Quorum Court was the next to take off, and as part of our “local elections” outreach, it was determined many of our members were interested in joining the Baxter County Republican Committee. This is where we started to run into issues! Both Quorum Court and the Baxter County Republicans meet on Tuesday nights. The school board and City Council both meet on Thursdays. We learned at our first meeting that Wednesdays would not work for many folks. Fridays are extremely busy nights for local restaurants, so that leaves us with Monday.

Therefore, beginning Monday, October 11th, the Ozark Patriots will be meeting the second and fourth Monday every month at Buncles, with a start time of 6:30 PM.