One Exchange Left! 2025 RELACS Legislative Exchange Program
There is only one exchange stipend left! Expand your professional network and grow your skills as a nonpartisan legislative staffer. The RELACS Legislative Exchange Program is your chance!
The program allows participants to work with a host state to design a visit of three to four days tailored to the goals and learning objectives of the visiting staffer.
If you are seeking an experience specially tailored to your professional development goals, the Legislative Exchange Program is for you. Bring your curiosity, and be ready to learn, share your own lessons learned, and grow your professional network.
For more details on qualification requirements, please see the LEP application. We are temporarily opening the application until May 2. Exchange travel must be completed by June 23.
Legislative Staff Week Webinar: The Power of ‘No’ in a World that Demands ‘Yes’
As a legislative staffer, saying 'yes' often goes hand in hand with providing excellent support and services to those within the legislative arena. But sometimes these acts of obedience, portrayed as service, can come at a cost: high workload, risk of burnout and conflict with professional and personal values. Join Dr. Sunita Sah, physician, behavioral scientist and best-selling author of “Defy,” for a compelling conversation on why we obey, what defiance really means, and how we can all learn to push back, and say ‘no,’ with integrity.
Register for the event.
Last Chance to Nominate a Colleague!
Each year, RELACS offers an opportunity for legislative research, legal, editing and committee staff to be recognized for their work. The RELACS Awards Committee is seeking nominations for 2025.
The Legislative Staff Achievement Awards are given annually to RELACS members who exhibit a high degree of professionalism, competence and integrity in serving the legislature and contribute to the work of RELACS. The Legislative Staff Achievement Awards are given annually to RELACS members who exhibit a high degree of professionalism, competence and integrity in serving the legislature and contribute to the work of RELACS. Submit a RELACS nomination here. The deadline to submit a nomination is Friday, May 9.
Adventures in Accessibility: The Experience of One Legislative Office
By: Brenda van Dyck
In 2019, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law that required the legislature to meet the Minnesota state standards for accessibility of digital content, beginning on Oct. 1, 2024. Digital accessibility ensures that people with disabilities can access digital content. Until the 2019 law was passed, the legislature was exempt from meeting the state standard, but many offices still made efforts to make their digital content accessible.
In the House Research Department, we have been paying attention to accessibility for a number of years. Our office is the nonpartisan legal services office for the Minnesota House of Representatives. Among other things, we create bill summaries during the legislative session and various other publications during the interim. All of these documents go on our website. When we began a project to update the look and feel of our materials in 2018, we incorporated accessibility into this work.
The first step was to learn about accessibility and what makes a document accessible for people with disabilities. For example, how would we structure a document for people who are visually impaired and using screen readers? Luckily, there are useful resources available to guide us. The Minnesota state standard for accessibility requires that digital content meets the accessibility standards of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the federal rule under Section 508. (WCAG standards were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international group devoted to making websites accessible to people with disabilities.)
Familiarity with the standards helped us when we created new templates for our online publications. For example, we created styles in our Microsoft Word documents that formatted text instead of manually changing text to make it look the way we wanted—this included functions like adding space after paragraphs in the paragraph properties instead of hitting the return key to create space between paragraphs, where a screen reader would read out “paragraph” for each line. We also learned other best practices, like adding alternative text for images and charts, and the proper way to create PDF documents so they retain accessibility functions. We discovered how to remediate (or fix) PDF documents to meet WCAG standards. We also developed a work process where we test our documents for accessibility and fix issues that crop up before we put things on our website.
At times our learning curve was steep. We developed in-house expertise through outside training and networking with executive branch experts and others in the legislature who were on the same journey. Our process of learning and implementing accessibility practices has been one of discovery and adjustment along the way.
Larger Accessibility Efforts at the Legislature
The 2019 law also created a legislative staff working group with members appointed by legislative leaders. The group met over the course of a couple of years, familiarizing itself with accessibility, conducting an audit of the legislative website, and putting its findings into a report to the legislature, with recommendations for next steps in becoming compliant with the law. You can read more about the group’s work in its report.
Since that time, the Minnesota Legislature has added staff whose primary duties are to help the legislature in its accessibility efforts. In October, the legislature adopted a formal digital accessibility policy that provides further guidance to staff and members on digital accessibility. The legislature has also started to offer ongoing training for staff on accessibility.
Working to improve accessibility is a work in progress, but these efforts will ensure that more people can access our material.
Note: We welcome inquiries about our experience and accessibility in general.
Written by: Brenda van Dyck, Editor/Publications Manager, House Research Department, Minnesota House of Representatives
The 2025 RELACS Professional Development Seminar!
Dates: Oct. 5-8
Location: Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club, and the State Capitol, Madison, Wis.
Join us for an unforgettable experience at the 2025 RELACS Professional Development Seminar! This event is a must-attend for legislative staff, including researchers, editors, legal experts, and policy analysts. Here's why you can't miss it:
Why Attend?
- 2025 Sessions: Relevant Leadership, Legal Research Using StateNet and LexisNexis, Drafting Constitutional Amendments, What I Wish I Knew Before Staffing an Legislative Committee, Lessons From the New Yorker: An Editor’s Perspective, Legislative Privilege: Understanding the Privileges that Protect Lawmakers and their Staff, The Limits of Expansive Gubernatorial Power: The Partial Veto Case, Advanced Writing Tips for Legislative Staff, Topical Deep Dive: Proof of Citizenship for Voting: Legal Challenges, AI in Legislative Drafting and Simple Reports, Unlocking Lessons from Historic Cases: Ethics and Government Attorneys, Grammar Rules to Live By and More!
- Capitol Tours: Explore the historic State Capitol and deepen your understanding of legislative processes.
- Networking Opportunities: Connect with peers, share experiences and build lasting professional relationships.
Highlights
- Educational Sessions: Boost your productivity with sessions on proof of citizenship for voting, advanced writing tips and committee staffing.
- Cutting-Edge Technology: Enhance your effectiveness with the latest tools and ideas.
- Inspiring Environment: The seminar takes place in the vibrant city of Madison, offering a perfect blend of learning and leisure.
Don't miss this golden opportunity to enhance your skills, expand your network and take your career to the next level. Register now and be part of a community dedicated to legislative excellence!
Register for the 2025 RELACS Professional Development Seminar!