National Legislative Program Evaluation Society
Executive
Committee Meeting Minutes
May 1, 2004, Washington, D.C.
The Executive Committee convened at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 1, 2004, at
the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel, in Washington, DC. Copies of
handouts discussed during the meeting are kept on file with the NLPES
secretary.
Members present at the meeting were Martha Carter (via telephone), Philip
Durgin, Steve Hendrickson, Joe Lawhon, Ken Levine, Wade Melton, Tim Osterstock,
Kate Wade and Jan Yamane. Manu Patel and Joel Alter (via telephone) were
also present during parts of the meeting. Also present were Flora
Caruthers (FL) and Bob Boerner, Jo Anne Bourquard, Group Director of the
Legislative Information Services Program at NCSL, and Janna Goodwin (via
telephone) from NCSL.
After convening, the Executive Committee broke into its various subcommittees
for meetings from 2:00 to 2:30 (Group One) and 2:30 to 3:00 (Group
Two). The General Business portion of the meeting then began at 3:00.
General Business
Florida Conference Overview. The conference is scheduled
for Wednesday, October 27 through Saturday, October 30 at the Double Tree Hotel
in Tallahassee. Florida. A $10 increase in the general registration fee
(to $295) is planned for the Fall Training Conference. The conference
sessions will not be held in the hotel, but rather at a conference center about
3 blocks away. Van transport will be available for those that cannot or
choose not to walk.
Florida would like to greatly reduce the amount of paper handed out during
the conference, in part by providing all presentations on CDs that can be taken
home rather than handouts at the conference. Discussion occurred that
oftentimes conference participants want something to look at and make notes on
during the presentations, and that perhaps handouts could be available at
the sessions for people to carry with them if they so choose. Florida said
they would consider this concern as they planned the conference, but at this
point they were committed to trying to use electronic media to reduce the amount
of paper.
Flora reviewed the reception/meal plans. Concern was expressed that
having two receptions might be viewed as extravagant. Flora noted that
these receptions, or at least the Wednesday evening reception, is really a
dinner, so states should consider the registration costs as including most meal
costs.
Committee Reports:
Professional Development and Training. Ken Levine continued with
discussion of the Florida conference. The NLPES Executive Committee
meeting is planned for 8:00 am on Wednesday, October 27.
“Pre-conference” workshops would begin at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The idea
of pre-conference workshops was discussed, with concerns raised about (1)
requiring states to pay extra to participate in the workshops and (2)
having good presenters during times when most people would not be able to
participate. Wade said they may be able to offer these workshops at no
cost and that the reason they wanted to do the workshops on Wednesday afternoon
is that Stan Stenerson needs about 4 uninterrupted hours to do his workshop,
which does not fit in well with the regular conference. A subcommittee
comprised of Ken, Kate, Wade, and Flora was formed to work out these issues.
To recruit moderators and presenters, Florida plans to send a letter and the
tentative list of seminar topics (distributed to EC members) to each state that
has indicated it plans to send someone to Tallahassee soliciting suggestions for
possible panelists from that state. Once they have that information,
Florida will make final selections for which seminars to offer. Wade
also asked the Executive Committee members to make suggestions for possible
moderators and panelists.
Membership and Nominations. Joel noted that the EC chose to fill
Rumiko Okuma’s (HI) position with another representative from Hawaii and that we
were all pleased to have Jan Yamane fill that position. The spring
elections were very successful from the standpoint of the number of votes cast,
428, which is a new record and a significant increase over the last year
(325). The new and re-elected members are Wade Melton (re-elected), Tim
Osterstock (re-elected), Priscilla Anderson (SC), Rakesh Mohan (ID), and Wendy
Brown (VA).
Awards Committee. Martha reported that notice of the awards has
gone out and that there were no changes to the award criteria this year.
Award decisions are to be made by June 11.
Annual Meeting. Tim provided an outline of the NLPES-related
activities for the NCSL Annual Meeting to be held in July in Salt Lake City,
Utah. Key events include an informal NLPES dinner at 6:00 p.m. on Monday,
July 19; an NLPES Executive Committee meeting, 3:15 p.m.,Wednesday; the NLPES
staff luncheon/awards presentation, 12:30 p.m., Thursday; and a second NLPES
Executive Committee meeting, 4:00 p.m., Thursday. Steve, Joe, and
Tim are working on lining up speakers for a Medicaid payment accuracy/fraud
session and a possible session on No Child Left Behind. A session on
state-operated lotteries will also be developed. A staff orientation
meeting will occur on Wednesday, July 21, at noon for people who are interested
in the NCSL executive committee and NCSL staff section matters.
Communications and Technology Committee. Phil reported that
James Barber appears content to continue as the newsletter editor and that the
Committee has contacted him at various points during the year to let him know we
appreciate his efforts and are available to provide support if necessary.
Steve Henderson has also written an article for the upcoming edition.
Tim will make contact with the new Executive Committee members as part of the
Committee’s mentoring charge. Wade discussed the progress being made
toward updating the Ensuring the Public Trust survey, which has a scheduled
completion date of July 2004. This document will be made available via the
NLPES website and, possibly, through the NCSL publications office. Wade
noted that as a result of this survey he found that many of the NLPES key
contacts no longer are at listed addresses and that some of the e-mails to key
contacts came back as undeliverable. Bob Boerner said he would work with
Wade to update the key contacts list and that they had also experienced some
difficulties with outdated key contact listings during the elections.
Discussion then ensued regarding the NLPES/NCSL website. Phil indicated
that he spoke to Doug Sacarto several months ago regarding some issues with the
NCSL database search function (some reports being listed 10 or more times, other
reports not being listed at all), but that these problems continue. Manu
also reported that his staff people could find no reports from their office on
the NCSL database. It was also noted that it can be hard to find
information on the NLPES website, such as the Host State Guidelines, because it
is buried deep within the system. The suggestion was made that all NLPES
Executive Committee members review both the NCSL and NLPES websites to identify
problems and that a letter then be drafted to Doug Sacarto, ccing Karl Kurtz,
his supervisor, to document the problems in writing.
Date and Site for the Next NLPES Executive Committee Meeting. The
Executive Committee will meet next at 3:15 p.m., on Wednesday, July 21, 2004, in
Salt Lake City.
The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Philip Durgin, Secretary
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