Award Descriptions for Fiscal Year 2006
International Programs $75,000
For twenty years, NCSL has promoted communication, understanding and the exchange of ideas among state legislators and legislative staff and the members and staff of national and subnational parliaments and other counterpart organizations throughout the world. Requests for information from NCSL are most often about federalism, public policy issues such as economic development, fiscal relations, social services, and infrastructure development, and technical assistance projects involving staff training and the legislative institutions in developing countries. Many NCSL activities mirror our domestic work, and grant funding supports most of the international activities. Foundation assistance has supported relationships with organizations including the German Partnership of Parliaments, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Parliamentary Conference of the Americas and UNALE. Foundation assistance also allows NCSL to host legislators from other countries that are visiting our states, and to sponsor reciprocal visits.
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Leaders' Institute and Services $70,000
This award supports the Leaders’ Center, offering state legislative leaders specialized services including timely information on public policy and ideas for innovative management. Meetings include the Leadership Institute, Washington briefings and the NCSL Annual Meeting. Publications include training materials and CD-ROMs for new and veteran legislative leaders, and roundtable discussions with legislative leaders featured in State Legislatures magazine.
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Legislative Training Innovations $50,000
The Legislative Effectiveness Committee plans to continue NCSL’s recent legislator training project by creating a “How to be an Effective Committee Chair” CD. The committee will organize a recording session in Denver with four experienced committee chairs and a moderator. The participants will provide advice on how to make meetings run smoothly and productively, how to handle the strong personalities of certain committee members, why it is critical to make the public feel welcome and important, and how to prioritize the committee’s business. Work as a committee chair demands leadership skills, and the CD participants will describe how chairs must communicate honestly and directly, how to build consensus, how to balance firmness and fairness, and how to articulate a position to colleagues, citizens and the media. CDs would be distributed to legislators in January 2006. This CD would replace a popular, but slightly outdated, previous committee chair CD.
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Web Development/Design $45,000
This award supports the recommendations of the LSSC Task Force on IT Review and the revised Strategic Plan to fund ongoing web development and design activities. These activities would enhance the work conducted by the publication and marketing staff to promote NCSL to legislators and staff, create opportunities to move printed publications to the Web, enhance on-line business services and possibly generate additional revenue.
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Legislative Staff Management Institute (LSMI) $30,000
Since 1990, the Foundation has supported the operation of the annual Legislative Staff Management Institute. The Institute is the nation’s premier program for developing and enhancing management and leadership skills for America’s leading legislative staffers. The Foundation's assistance enables NCSL to provide scholarships for senior legislative staff attending this executive management program. This year the LSMI took place July 23-30 in its new location, Sacramento, California in cooperation with the Center for California Studies, Sacramento State University and the University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning and Development.
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LegisBriefs $30,000
NCSL is in its thirteenth year of producing LegisBriefs, short briefing papers on the hot issues facing state legislatures. NCSL staff write 48 LegisBriefs a year on issues ranging from managed care to welfare reform, school violence to tax cuts, recycling to auto insurance. The series analyzes successful approaches, provides multistate data, offers alternative courses of action, and gives resources for more information. Legislators use them to get good background information on topics being discussed in their legislatures.
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New Member Services $20,000
Following the November election, NCSL sends each new legislator the NCSL and You brochure, the 15 Tips for Becoming an Effective Legislator, and a series of CDs including How to Be an Effective Legislator, Understanding the Budget Process, and Working with the Media. The audiotape on How to Be an Effective Committee Chair is now also being sent to all new committee chairs. This award supports the ongoing program for new members.
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Energy 101 CD $15,000
The Energy 101 CD/cassette tape will assist legislators and staff in learning the basics of energy policy and will address crucial energy issues. This self-taught audio resource will allow legislators and staff to listen at their own pace – at home, in the office, as they travel between the state capitol and their districts. The CD/cassette tape will include interviews, briefings and other descriptive material on energy, focusing specifically on policy-related issues. Topics will include energy efficiency, renewable energy, energy/air quality, electric industry restructuring, fossil fuel issues, alternative fuels and energy-related transportation issues. NCSL will distribute the Energy 101 CD/cassette tape to state energy committee chairs.
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Clean Air Initiative $15,000
To support the tracking and summarizing of state air quality legislation for NCSL’s Environment, Energy and Transportation Program database. The database includes summaries of bills being considered during the 2005-2006 session, as well as those considered in 2003-2004, that touch on the diverse topics surrounding the issue of air quality. The legislation addresses a variety of topics that include, but are not limited to aspects of motor vehicle emissions, including new vehicle technologies and emissions testing; greenhouse gas emissions; and multi-pollutant strategies; and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). The database can be searched by state, topic and keyword. In addition, this award helps support the publishing of an online version of the quarterly Clean Air Newsletter.
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Institute for Legislative Health Staff Development $15,000
The NCSL Institute for Legislative Health Staff Development is a one-week long seminar that provides in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of state health policy development and is primarily geared to the needs of relatively junior (usually less than three years experience) legislative staff in the states. In addition to providing a foundation for understanding basic state health policies and programs, the Institute experience also enhances the participants' analytical, research and communications skills.
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Education Technology Partnership $10,000
This project seeks to inform a national legislative audience about the promise and potential of technology in education. The project will collect and disseminate the current state of education technology infrastructure. It will examine how many states are utilizing high tech educational options and how states keep up with the quickly changing technologies. In addition the partnership will explore the impact of technology on student learning. Lastly, the partnership will explore some of the key policy questions about the application of technology in the new era of education.
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Fiscal Partnership – Economic Development $10,000
Individual states spend millions of dollars annually on economic development programs. Yet few states know the exact amount they spend to support economic development initiatives. No state knows how effectively the money is spent. Academics and policy makers continue to debate a fundamental question: Do state financial incentives have an effect on state economic growth? This project will examine state economic development tools and programs. It will establish a set of guiding principles for lawmakers to consider when thinking about economic development policy.
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NCSL Affinity Program $10,000
This award will support efforts by NCSL to create a purchasing program for state legislatures. This purchasing program would be modeled after the U.S. Communities program operated by the National Association of Counties and the National League of Cities among other groups. The primary goals of the program are to provide legislatures and individuals associated with legislatures the opportunity to purchase goods or services at a competitive rate that might not be available through current operations. Vendors participating in the purchasing program would give NCSL a percentage of the sales in exchange for the opportunity to market directly to NCSL constituents.
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Healthy Lifestyles Partnership $5,000
To address the issues raised by obesity and its state health and budget impacts, this partnership will convene a working group focusing on obesity policy options. The partnership will gather information from the working group to prepare an online and printed short publication outlining obesity policy options and best evidence-based health practices for addressing obesity in the states.
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