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Steering Committee Meeting Summary
Sunday, April 21, 2002
New Orleans, Louisiana

Members of the committee were briefed on the project sessions that have been held so far, including:

Pam Greenberg provided members with a proposal from Thomas Opinion Research of Virginia to conduct focus groups to gain insights into citizens’ expectations and perceptions about communicating electronically with state legislators and state legislators’ web sites. The focus groups will be held in Denver in June 2002 and will be videotaped. Members of the committee suggested that focus group participants should reflect diversity in geographic, ethnic, and racial make up, and should reflect both savvy and non-savvy Internet users, as well as individuals with differing levels of political involvement. Members suggested that Web sites reviewed by the focus groups could include sites that take a “template” or limited / restrictive approach and those that do not. Some topics to explore could include tolerance for commercial and political advertising on sites, subscription-based legislative sites, and sites provided through companies such as CampaignOffice.com.

Members also discussed the agenda and possible speakers for the project-sponsored sessions at the NCSL Annual meeting to be held in July 2002 in Denver, Colorado. A concurrent session, The Electronic Trail: Perils of Policymakers and Private Citizens, will cover electronic privacy issues, including privacy of citizens and legislators at home and at work. Committee members suggested covering archiving and data recovery issues, and proposed that speakers should be asked to formulate specific recommendations for legislators about what they can do to clarify the state of the law in this area.

The committee agreed that the one-on-one Web makeover sessions, which received positive feedback at this meeting, should also be offered at the Annual Meeting in Denver. In addition, the committee will need to schedule enough time at the Denver meeting to review a detailed outline of the project publication and a story board for the project video.

Committee members agreed that the E-Communications project timeline would be extended until December 2002 as the project did not begin until August 2002 and additional time is needed to schedule new tasks, such as focus group meetings. By December 2002, the project will complete the online video and publication.

The Making E-Communications Work Web site provides background information on the project and information on past and upcoming meetings.

Next Meeting of the E-Communications Steering Committee:

Steering Committee Meeting Summary
Friday, December 7, 2001
Washington, D.C.

Members discussed the agenda for the Assembly on State Issues (ASI) meeting to be held April 18-20, 2002 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The session, "This Old Web Site," will demonstrate a "makeover" of a legislator's website, illustrating best practices that can be applied to web sites. The session will also cover tools and technologies that can be used in developing web sites, and will discuss online forums, threaded discussions, chat rooms, streaming audio and video, and other types of e-communications. The ASI meeting will also offer legislators the opportunity for one-on-one expert advice and "makeovers" of individual web sites. The steering committee also will meet at the ASI to continue project planning.

A basic agenda for sessions at the NCSL Annual Meeting was developed. Several sessions are planned on the following topics:

• hands-on PowerPoint training for legislators
• managing e-communications
• steering committee meeting to review and comment on draft video and publication.

The Making E-Communications Work web site provides background information on the project and information on past and upcoming meetings.

Next Meetings of the E-Communications Steering Committee:

• April 18-20, 2002 - Assembly on State Issues Meeting, New Orleans, LA
• July 22-28, 2002 - NCSL Annual Meeting, Denver, CO

Steering Committee Meeting Summary
Monday, November 5, 2001
Denver, Colorado

Members discussed the overall project goals and formulated plans for achieving the project objectives. Deliverables for the project include programs at four major NCSL meetings, a web video, and short publication. The steering committee members recommended holding a focus group meeting to determine what constituents want from state legislator web pages, and they suggested taping the meeting so that portions could be included in the project video.

The steering committee also recommended creating a web site for the project, which would provide access to administrative information about the project as well as reports, articles, presentations, etc. on best practices in managing e-mail and web pages. You can find the Making E-Communications Work web site at http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/communicate/epartner.htm.

The first program about best practices in managing e-communications was held in San Antonio, July 2001 during the NCSL Annual meeting. Subsequent programs and steering committee meetings will be held in conjunction with major NCSL meetings:

• December 5, 2001 AFI/ASI Joint Meeting - Washington, DC
• April 18-20, 2002, NCSL Assembly on State Issues Meeting - New Orleans, LA
• July 22-28, 2002, NCSL Annual Meeting - Denver, CO

Winter Meeting, December 5 - 7, 2001
Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, Washington DC

Program: Wednesday, December 5^th from 1:00 - 3:00 pm
During the Winter NCSL AFI/ASI meeting, the project will sponsor a program, Web Magic: How to Create and Manage Effective Web Pages, which will address the following issues:

• What Do Constituents Want?
• Key Ingredients of Effective Pages (including content, design and technical capabilities of users)
• Maintenance/Human Resource Requirements in Management of pages
• Policies/Ethical Questions
• What Cool New Technologies are on the Horizon?

Steering Committee Meeting, Thursday, December 6, 2001, 5:30 to 6:15 p.m.
The E-Communications Steering Committee will meet to plan the next meeting, scheduled for April 18-20, 2002, in New Orleans.

Spring Meeting, April 18-20, 2002
Hyatt Regency, New Orleans, LA

For the April 2002 ASI meeting in New Orleans, steering committee members outlined the following programs:

• Model Legislator Web Page: Demo of What Works and What Doesn't
• Participating in Online Discussions: Pros, Cons and Policy Ramifications
• This Old Web Page (Legislators Sign-up to Get Free Individual Make-Over Advice for Web Pages)

The steering committee will meet to discuss plans for the NCSL Annual Meeting in July in Denver.

NCSL Annual Meeting, July 22-28, 2002
Denver Convention Center, Denver, CO

During the NCSL Annual Meeting the project will sponsor the following programs:

• E-Mail Privacy
• Legislators' Training on Power Point
• Best Practices in Using E-Communications

At the July 2002 steering committee meeting, members will review and comment on the draft video and publication.