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NCSL's Newest Staff Section
"LINCS" Communications Professionals
By:
Susan Swords
Senior Coordinator
Legislative Information and Bill Room
New Jersey Office of Legislative Services
Volume 5, Number 2 Winter 2000
© Journal of the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries
ASLCS Home Page
NCSL's Newest Staff Section: "LINCS" Communications Professionals
By: Susan Swords
Senior Coordinator
Legislative Information and Bill Room
New Jersey Office of Legislative Services
Shortly after becoming the public information officer for the Louisiana Senate in 1993, Brenda Hodge decided to attend the upcoming NCSL Annual Meeting. But after she arrived in San Diego, she said, "I had a hard time figuring out how I, as a public information and communications director, fit in." At the time, there was no staff section specifically devoted to legislative communications and public information.
The irony was hard to miss: hundreds of communications professionals working in the same field who had no formal means of communicating with each other. After meeting several colleagues from other states who felt the same way, "we decided to do something about our frustrations," Hodge said.
So began the efforts to launch an NCSL section for staff working in legislative information. It took nearly six years, but in 1999, the Executive Committee unanimously approved the creation of the Legislative Information and Communications staff section, or LINCS.
Necessity is usually the mother of invention, so it makes sense that one of the earliest proponents of a new staff section would be someone familiar with all sides of legislative communications. A self-professed "political and legislative junkie" for almost 20 years, Hodge had been a broadcast journalist covering government before going to work for the Louisiana Senate. Having worked as a reporter and then as an information officer who responds to the media, she was keenly aware of the importance of presenting positive messages to the public regarding state legislatures.
"I really felt that with the right support and coordination, professional communications and information staff could make a difference in a day and age when there was distrust of government and the people in it," she noted.
NCSL had offered professional development seminars for public information and media relations staff every other year since approximately 1980. But it was not until the late 1990s that these seminars were conducted each year. Networking with colleagues is consistently a highly-rated feature on LINCS seminar evaluations, but even six years ago, the opportunities were not as extensive to meet and talk with professionals from other states. During the early efforts to gain approval for the staff section, the first steps involved projects to enable communications staff to correspond with each other for an informal exchange of ideas.
After the 1993 meeting, Hodge and several public information staff from other legislatures began working with NCSL to create an accurate directory of legislative employees working in the areas of communications, media relations, or public information. Concurrently, they started contacting their colleagues in other states to "encourage NCSL to somehow focus on the needs of information and communications professionals," Hodge said.
But as some of the key people in this movement left their jobs with legislatures, the undertaking lost momentum. Hodge, however, "did not want to give up."
"Every time I encountered a new project, a new question, a new problem in my office, I was reminded of how great it would be to have a way to exchange ideas, check out new products and technologies, and troubleshoot with folks like myself," she said.
Fast-forward to the 1997 Public Information and Media Relations Seminar in Washington, D.C. Hodge was in attendance, along with her colleague Sheila McCant, the public information officer from the Louisiana House. The two drew up a handwritten petition, signed by many who attended the conference, requesting the creation of a new staff section for legislative communications professionals.
Around the time of the 1997 conference, Susan Swords and Penny Silletti, two public information staff members from the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services, were thinking along the same lines as Hodge and McCant: a staff section for communications professionals would be an ideal way to exchange ideas and information, and foster professional development. After the seminar ended, the four kept in touch and began researching the NCSL requirements for starting a new staff section.
According to criteria adopted in 1979 and promulgated by the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee (LSCC), the procedures for establishing a new staff section are as follows:
1. In order to create new legislative staff sections, requests for such section creation must be received from at least twenty (20) legislatures engaged in the section function. The persons involved in the function of the proposed section must be legislative branch employees. Requests for section formation must be in writing, signed by the person initiating the request in each state and his supervisory authority. The Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee shall review and verify the information provided in any application.
2. The application of any group wishing to be recognized as an NCSL staff section shall be reviewed by the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee. If the Committee favorably reviews and approves such applications, it will forward the application with its recommendation to the NCSL Executive Committee.
3. Criteria to be applied to each application by the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee shall include at least: (a) the anticipated impact of the new section on NCSL staff services; (b) whether the legislative function of a proposed section is of a continuous nature; and (c) whether the proposed section has a professional career orientation.
4. After initial screening, the proposed section shall submit bylaws that are consistent with general NCSL rules, procedures, and terminology to the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee for their review prior to final action and submission to the NCSL Executive Committee.
The four women agreed that the request would likely meet the criteria of having a professional orientation and being of a continuous nature. The next step was to contact public information and media relations professionals in the member states. Silletti, the New Jersey Legislative Service publications and program specialist, noted that virtually all the staff she spoke with were very receptive to the initiative, even if they were not able to provide a letter of support.
"I was actually surprised and then encouraged by the responses from other states. When we called around for support letters, everyone liked the idea," she added.
Over the course of several weeks, Silletti and Swords contacted every state in an effort to obtain a letter of support for the idea. Although the guidelines require obtaining letters from 20 individual states, 26 letters had been gathered by the time of the 1998 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.
"The fact that we went to the LSCC with 26 letters when only 20 were needed showed strong support. The petitions and attendance at PIO conferences also helped prove that this was something the NCSL should give meaningful consideration to," Silletti said.
The formal request for the staff section was presented to the full LSCC in Las Vegas. At that time, Silletti emphasized to the Committee the belief that creation of a public information and communications staff section would prove beneficial to NCSL. By July 1998, nearly 400 legislative staff had been identified whose employment responsibilities could accurately be described as public information, media relations, or other communications. It was conceivable that many of these staff were not as involved in NCSL because there was no staff section that specifically addressed their profession. Silletti and her colleagues indicated their goal to bring more members into the NCSL fold.
Committee members had questions pertaining to the impact of the new staff section on existing staff sections, but the proponents reiterated their belief that communications staff could offer their support, as well as additional services, to all members of NCSL. Additionally, NCSL Executive Director Bill Pound indicated the impact would be negligible because the organization was already supplying some support and services to staff in this area - for example, with semiannual training seminars.
Initial screening of the request was completed at this meeting. Incoming LSCC Chair Tom Tedcastle announced that he would establish a task force to further review the application as well as the existing guidelines for creating new staff sections. Former LSCC Chair Butch Speer was appointed to chair the task force, which met again during the Executive Committee meetings in October 1998 to discuss the request. That October, plans were made to hold a meeting between the task force members and public information officers at the next scheduled Executive Committee and LSCC sessions, to be held in New Orleans, January 1999.
In the meantime, Speer and LSCC Chair Tedcastle attended the 1998 Media Relations and Communications Seminar in Seattle, at which time Speer and the four women who initiated the application led a session on the meaning of a new staff section. Speer discussed elements of the task force's deliberations, acknowledging some concern among existing staff sections that legislative staff had become too specialized and possibly even fragmented. Yet once the task force considered whether public information and communications staff could logically fit in with another staff section, that possibility was ruled out, he said. He further noted the benefits of being a staff section, such as greater opportunities for professional development and networking among colleagues, and access to resources which meant obtaining a stronger return on the dues paid to NCSL.
In January 1999, Silletti and Swords prepared to depart from New Jersey and meet with members of the LSCC task force in New Orleans. Along with McCant, they answered any outstanding questions and reviewed the proposed bylaws and mission statement. In addition, they presented the results of a survey taken of communications professionals which showed there could be as many as 2,000 potential members of LINCS working in state legislatures. During the subsequent full LSCC meeting, the task force recommended establishing the new staff section after concluding in its evaluation that the proposal met the criteria of having a continuous function and a professional orientation.
The LSCC then unanimously approved the recommendation for submission to the NCSL Executive Committee. Later that day, the Executive Committee also unanimously approved the creation of LINCS, the 10th NCSL staff section. It was the first time a new staff section had been ratified since 1982, when the Legal Services Staff Section was formed.
Once approval was gained, work began on assembling a LINCS Executive Committee. Numerous discussions were held among the four women who initiated the application and NCSL staff to come up with a list of directors who would provide the new staff section with the positive direction, solid talent, and professional resources crucial to the start-up phase. Special attention was paid to ensuring that the Executive Committee was balanced in terms of partisan and nonpartisan membership as well as geography and legislative chamber, since LINCS members are employed in virtually all segments of state legislatures. Further, everyone agreed it was important to have representation from a good cross-section of the various specialties in the field of legislative communications, such as media relations, public information, broadcast services, and publications.
By mid-spring, the Executive Committee was set. The Committee includes Chair Susan Swords, Office of Legislative Services, New Jersey; Vice Chair Sheila McCant, House of Representatives, Louisiana; Secretary Penny Silletti, Office of Legislative Services, New Jersey; as well as Brenda Hodge, Senate, Louisiana; Rick Chisa, House of Representatives, Washington; Charlene Glagola, Legislative Information, West Virginia; Mitch McCartney, Legislative Information, Nebraska Unicameral Legislature; Therese Mitchell, House of Representatives, Pennsylvania; Dan Shellenbarger, Government Telecommunications, Ohio; Katherine Staat, Senate Media Services, Texas; and Maribeth Stuart, Office of the Senate President, Maine.
Around mid-spring, plans were discussed for the first official LINCS business meeting during the 1999 NCSL Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. The LINCS bylaws were still considered proposed while the LSCC continued to review them, but the new staff section's Executive Committee needed to vote to conditionally adopt them. Discussion of subcommittees was also placed on the agenda, since this was the first meeting at which members could sign up for the LINCS Steering Subcommittee, Awards Subcommittee, Publicity Subcommittee, Technology Subcommittee, and Civic Education Subcommittee.
LINCS also held its first professional development seminar as an official staff section in New Orleans in October 1999. Feedback from nearly 100 LINCS attendees was again strongly positive regarding the staff section. Consistent among the remarks was the gratifying feeling of professional recognition that comes with a designated staff section.
"The initial reaction has been wonderful. We keep hearing very positive things from people who are learning about the section and attending our conferences," Silletti noted.
"It is an amazing feeling to be part of a ground swell...when you feel as if you are really on to something important. I think this was sort of an example of democracy in action. It was a grass-roots campaign led by a group of professionals who needed something - some help - from a larger authoritative body. It was very encouraging to find the folks at each level of NCSL really willing to listen with an open mind and help us to craft something that would work for everyone involved," she said.
For more information about ASLCS, write or call:
Joan Barilla
National Conference of State Legislatures
7700 East First Place
Denver, CO 80230
Phone: 303/856-1349
FAX: 303/364-7800
E-mail: joan.barilla@ncsl.org
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