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Legislative Effectiveness and State Government Committee

Meeting Summaries
Meeting summaries from some of the most recent ASI meetings:

December 2003 (Fall Forum)
Committee Business Meeting
Managing the Part-Time Legislature
Tips for Hiring and Training Frontline Staff
Recall: Democracy or Disaster?

July 2003 (Annual Meeting)
Public/Private Partnerships
Persuasive Communication
Unfunded Federal Mandates
Taking On The Governor

April 2003(Spring Forum)
The New Legislative Agencies
House and Senate Relations: Lessons in Leadership
New Models of Collaboration
Business Meeting
Tips for Communication in a Wired World

December 2002 (Fall Forum)
The Art of Leadership
The Shifting Sands of Campaign Finance Law
Continuity of Government: Planing for Our Worst Nightmare
Committee Business Meeting

July 2002 (NCSL Annual Meeting)
Lobbying Your Congressional Delegation
Crisis Communication
Preparing New Members on Policy
How Do We Fit in? The Role of the Private Sector in NCSL

April 2002
Committee Business Meeting
Excellence in Committee Work: Focus on Education
Communication Across the Generations
Drawing the Line Between Political and Staff Work

December 2001
Committee Business Meeting
Is the Capitol Safe?
The Changing Legislative Environment
Getting the Message Out
Preparing Legislators to Lead in Crisis

August 2001
The Future of Legislative Document Creation and Management: Sharing Means Saving$
E-Mail Explosion: Getting a Handle on IT
Get Real: A Fresh Look at Legislator Training
The Sunset Process: Still Effective After All These Years?

March 2001
Committee Business Meeting
The Initiative Process: What Changes Are Needed?
Click Here to Cast Your Ballot
The Nightmare Scenario: You Didn't Count My Vote?

December 2000
Committee Business Meeting
The Emerging Cyber Legislature
Legislative Oversight: Who Ensures Legislative Intent?
Term Limits: What's Really Happening?

July 2000
Taking on the Governor
Ombudsman Offices: A New Way to Serve Constituents
How to Get Your Bill Passed

April 2000
How Much Can You Legislate Ethics
E-Communications with Constituents
Campaign Finance: Soft Money, Hard Choices and Rapid Changes
Committee Business Meeting

December 1999
Committee Business Meeting
Building Political Will for Smart Growth
Political Parties: It's Not Just R's Versus D's Anymore
Principle-centered Legislating

July 1999
Beating the Deadline: Making Short Legislative Sessions Effective
Committee Chair Training: Focus on Education
Hitting the Ground Running: New Ideas for Legislative Training
You Oughta Be In Pictures: Telling the Legislative Story with Video

April 1999
Committee Business Meeting
Leading With a Razor-thin Majority
Florida: The Quick Change Legislature
The Good Legislature: Will We Know It When We See It?
State Government Report Cards

December 1998
The New Kid on the Block: The Center for Advocacy and Governmental Ethics
Consensus Building in the Legislature
Identifying and Developing Legislative Leaders
Committee Business Meeting

July 1998
Practical Tips for the Committee Chair
Changing Press and Public Attitudes Towards Politics
Initiative & Referendum: Legislating Without Legislators
The Business of the Media

April 1998
Hard Choices: Dealing With Surplus Revenues
Committee Business Meeting Session
Bypassing the Traditional Media: Communicating Directly with Your Constituents
Speaking Under Fire: Tips for Legislators

November 1997
Term Limits: Impacts on Leadership and the Institution
Checks & Balances: The Crucial Audit Function
Committee Planning Session
IBM Institute for Electronic Government

Legislative Effectiveness and State Government Committee Officers

The officers of the Legislative Effectiveness and State Government Committee of NCSL met on October 9, 2003, and provided some initial planning for committee activities in the coming year.

• Managing Today's Legislature
• Improving Skills-based Training
• Holding Elected Officials Accountable

Under the theme of managing today's legislature are the following topics:

-Constituent service

-Legislator privacy issues, particularly e-mail

-Staffing, including the idea of "legislator as employer", employee status such as "at will", partisan and nonpartisan staff

-Legislative Calendar, including predictability and efficiency and the connection to attracting good legislator candidates

In this session we would look at constituent service, staffing, and calendaring in the context of the part-time legislature, where there are demands for increased service, but there are limits or reductions in resources. We will also look at how you attract a variety of legislator candidates where balancing your work and legislative lives is a constant struggle. This session would be presented as a roundtable discussion with some presenters prepared to give initial overviews and examples.

The committee will review state comparative information on legislative staff practices, legislator compensation and personnel policies. The members will provide feedback and assistance about what other information would be helpful to legislators and staff. This effort will include a look at "best practices" related to these topics.

The theme of improving skills-based training involves both providing actual training at NCSL's Fall and Spring Forums and Annual Meeting and studying the types of training provided to state legislators and staff.

The committee encourages the overall Standing Committee Officers to hold skills-based training in a Special Briefing time slot and believes that the Fall Forum training should be on "Negotiating in the Legislative World." This includes ordinary legislator negotiating on bills and votes, but also covers how leaders negotiate with their caucus, the other caucus and the executive branch.

Fall Forum committee session on theme: Tips for Hiring and Training Front Line Staff

In this session we would look at the people who provide front line assistance, doing secretarial, support and constituent service work. They don't come in with the training that the typical professional staffer has. This session would showcase some best practices to use to hire the most effective people for the job and train front line staffers so that they provide the kind of services legislators need.

At either the Spring Forum or Annual Meeting, the committee will hold a session on what skills and approaches are needed to rebuild the sense of bi-partisanship, civility and respect for the institution.

• Theme 3: Holding Elected Officials Accountable

Under the theme of holding elected officials accountable are the following topics:

-Elections

-Recall procedures

-Ethics, including training, laws and rules, and leadership

-Initiative and referendum

-Term limits

-Citizen participation

In this session we would look at the recent California experience with the recall of the governor and the wide variety of provisions of our state laws on the subject.

Any legislator who works at a "regular" job has to look at whether there are conflicts between that work and legislative business. What is fair in balancing the legislator's right to work and the public's right to know? What are fair disclosure and restrictions in this area, especially in part-time legislatures where you need to attract legislator candidates from a wide array of occupations and backgrounds?

• Effective Legislator CD/Audiotape series – The committee officers will advise NCSL regarding the creation of the "How to be an Effective Leader" CD/audiotape, which will be distributed to all state legislative leaders.

• Session Summaries – The committee will continue the practice of writing summaries for all committee sessions, e-mailing and faxing them to committee members and posting them to the website.

• In-state presentations. The committee will assist legislative staff members who attend NCSL meetings and seminars in providing highlight reports to their colleagues who were unable to attend.

For more information on the Legislative Effectiveness and State Government Committee -
contact bruce.feustel@ncsl.org