One of the ideas they are toying with has been tried before: a secret oath by conservatives to throw their support behind a single candidate selected by a vote of the members at Wednesday’s meeting.

Some high-profile conservatives are already frowning on that idea, noting it was tried and failed four years ago when a similar meeting coalesced around Rick Santorum, who failed to win the nomination…

Another idea offered by former Missouri GOP chairman Ed Martin is fresh to the quadrennial confab of conservatives. He wants to launch a concerted effort to persuade every GOP candidate to stay into the race until the end.

The goal would get each of the dozen or more expected GOP candidates to hold onto their delegates and to finish their campaigns at the Republican nominating convention in Cleveland in summer 2016, increasing the chance for a brokered deal for the nomination.