Award Descriptions for Fiscal Year 2007
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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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New Member Services: $75,000
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 CD's 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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Leaders' Institute and Services: $60,000
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
This award will allow NCSL to continue its CD series on How to be an Effective Legislator. This will include updating precious CD's in the series and production of new professional development materials as directed by the NCSL Executive Committee.
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NCSL Challenge Grants*: $50,000
This award is to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the NCSL staff. Staff will be challenged to develop innovative ideas that would allow NCSL to expand services and support legislators and legislative staff in the 50 states and territories. Strong consideration will be given to proposals that not only expand services but also generate revenue. Similar awards have been granted the last two years. Proposals will be submitted to the NCSL Executive Director and approved at his discretion.
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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 enhance the work conducted by the communications 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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Web Editor: $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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Partnerships of Parliament*: $40,000
The award will support the ongoing relationship with the German Partnerships of Parliament. It will provide NCSL with the ability to host delegations from Germany to visit state legislatures and allows for reciprocals visits.
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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 15-22 in 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 fourteenth 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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Immigration Task Force: $15,000
In response to unprecedented federal and state activity in immigration, NCSL President Senator Steve Rauschenberger and President-Elect Leticia Van de Putte created a new Executive Committee Task Force on Immigration and the States. The federal proposals address border, worksite and interior enforcement; legal status for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., and a new temporary worker program for new arrivals. At the state level, more then 550 bills were considered in 2006, with nearly 70 enacted, almost double that of 2005. The Task Force is conducting site visits on border control; economic efforts of immigrants; and cooperation with federal law enforcement, and heard presentations from interested parties including the private sector. Legislators are investigating proposals by a variety of members of Congress and the Administration for cost implications, preemption of state authority, and unfunded mandates. Finally, the Task Force is identifying best practices in responding to immigration challenges at the state level.
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Health Information Technology Partnership: $10,000
The NCSL Forum for State Health Policy Leadership proposes a project with the NCSL Foundation to strengthen the capacity of state legislators to respond to issues related to the use of technology to improve access, quality and effectiveness in health: HITCh--Health Information Technology Champions. States are generally supportive but wary. Past experiences with investments in information technology have yielded mixed results. There are serious security and privacy concerns related to health and medical data in electronic form. Legislators want to better understand the possibilities and limitations of current trends in order to tailor state policy and make decisions about how--and how much-- to invest in information gathering, analysis and dissemination in support of quality, value purchasing, error reduction, and program efficiency.
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Connecting America - Broadband Partnership: $10,000
The NCSL Connecting American project proposes to assist state legislators in understanding broadband and will outline for lawmakers the various policy options that can facilitate the deployment of broadband throughout the states. This proposed project will include a one-day invitational meeting, two site visits, an article in NCSL's State Legislatures magazine and a project website incorporating the information and resources gathered from the project.
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NALFO Training Video: $5,000
The National Association of Legislative Fiscal Officers (NALFO) is interested in updating its 1997 training video devoted to legislative fiscal analysis. The video gave a national perspective of the important legislative fiscal analyst position and provided a helpful overview of the various types of fiscal positions and skill requirements needed for them. While the original video was ground breaking, it needs to be updated. Primarily this would entail a greater emphasis from the staff analyst perspective on what they do, challenges of the job, satisfaction and so forth, along with perspectives from legislators and staff directors. The new versions would be created in a DVD and would be distributed to all 50 state legislatures as well as to schools of public affairs/administration.
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* Represents additional awards approved by the NCSL Foundation Board of Directors on August 7, 2007.
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