Meet the New RELACS Liaison
Hello RELACS members,
I’m honored to serve as your new NCSL liaison to RELACS. I’d like to share a little of my background and enthusiasm for my new role.
Before joining Legislative Staff Services, I worked as a senior policy specialist for NCSL’s Health Program for three years. I mainly focused on public health topics and performed research, created publications and online resources and planned meeting sessions, among other activities.
Previously, I worked for several nonprofit organizations as a data analyst, researcher, project manager and legislative policy manager. I became fascinated by state legislative policy, so I took the leap to NCSL—and I’m very glad I did.
Outside of my professional life, I’ve been an avid rock climber, skier and cyclist, and recently started trying to golf. A famous golfer said, “A bad attitude is worse than a bad swing.” Luckily, I have a good attitude. I’m also a huge mystery buff. I’ve read all the books by Agatha Christie, and I’m always looking for a new mystery series to binge.
In my new role as the RELACS liaison, I’m excited to learn more about the very important work you all do. I will serve as the primary contact for anything related to RELACS, including member connections, research and the fall professional development seminar. I’m committed to supporting the RELACS community, and I’m happy to assist with the initiatives important to you.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to working with you all!
Warm regards,
Shannon Kolman, Senior Policy Specialist
RELACS Liaison, NCSL Legislative Staff Services
Election of 2025-26 RELACS Executive Committee
Please nominate a colleague or yourself to serve on the Research, Editorial, Legal and Committee Staff Executive Committee!
Nominations for 2025-26 will be accepted through Aug. 22, 2025. The Executive Committee has openings for a vice chair and three directors. Elections will be conducted at the RELACS annual business meeting, held in conjunction with the RELACS Professional Development Seminar in October (see below for more on the PDS).
Vice chair: The vice chair is elected for one year and automatically succeeds the chair the following year. The vice chair, along with the chair, serves as a representative of the association on the NCSL Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee and should be able to travel (at the expense of the legislature that employs the vice chair or chair) to the LSCC meetings to be held during the 2025-26 term.
Directors: Directors are elected for a two-year term and may be reelected for a second consecutive term. To the extent practicable, the eight directors should represent committee staff; bill drafters; editors; researchers; legal staff, including litigation counsel or committee counsel; staff members engaged in other legislative drafting, code revision, statutory publication, or administrative rules review or compilation; and persons doing other committee, legal, editorial or research work in state legislatures. Please note: Directors are not required to travel. All RELACS Executive Committee meetings occur via Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
If you know of someone who would be a great representative of the legislative staff serving in one of these roles, please consider nominating them. If you'd like to become more involved with RELACS, please feel free to nominate yourself. Make your nominations by Aug. 22 by filling out the Call for Nominations form. Thank you for considering the nomination of a deserving RELACS member.
Register for 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:
Highlights
- 2025 Sessions: Relevant Leadership; Legal Research Using State Net 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; Advanced Writing Tips for Legislative Staff; 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 much more!
- Capitol Tours: Explore the historic State Capitol and deepen your understanding of legislative processes.
Why Attend?
- Educational Sessions: Boost your productivity and enrich your knowledge.
- Networking Opportunities: Connect with peers, share experiences and build lasting professional relationships.
- 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!
Click here for more information and to register!
2025 NCSL Legislative Summit
Come celebrate NCSL’s 50th anniversary at the Legislative Summit in Boston, Aug. 4-6! Engage in transformative discussions, gain valuable insights from public policy experts and develop new skills to take your career to the next level.
A few events of note for RELACS members include:
- The Supreme Court: Unpacking the Impact—Find out what this term’s U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions mean to your state.
- Let’s Make It Clear: Precision in Communication—Become an effective architect of information by elevating your communication skills.
- Salute to Legislative Staff lunch
Register today to secure your spot!
Find information and registration for the 2025 NCSL Legislative Summit
Legislative Staff Institutional Essentials Program
NCSL’s Legislative Staff Institutional Essentials program will be held in October and November during five two-hour sessions and two bonus sessions. This online training program is for newer legislative staff who are seeking a broader context about legislatures and the legislative process and will focus on five core competencies.
Staff with less than three years of legislative employment are invited to apply, with the approval of their director/supervisor. Applications will be accepted from May 30 to June 27.
What My Career with the Legislature Means to Me
By Tracy Shahan Snelson
When I start thinking about what my career here at the Texas Legislative Council means to me, the only way I can really answer the question is by answering first: Why I do this for a living? This job is insane. During the legislative session, I barely sleep. I miss bedtimes, midnight cuddles and field trips with my children. I rely so heavily on my husband that he starts knowing the in and outs of the legislative calendar, too. The question is harder to answer when I reflect on my own personality. In Texas, the legislative council is nonpartisan. I am opinionated. I have been told my face shows my truth to the point where I once had to have a conversation with a supervisor about controlling my looks of indignation in court. I have friends who still, almost seven years into my career here, can't wrap their heads around me actually enjoying a nonpartisan position. So, why? Why do I stay?
The easiest answer is what I would tell you if I gave you information about a position with my agency. It's all true. I absolutely love the people that I work with inside the council. They are talented and kind humans. They are brilliant and serious professionals. The culture here is incredibly collaborative. It is unlike anywhere I have ever worked. Additionally, the work is challenging and interesting. It's a form of problem solving that is intellectually stimulating and unique. The professional wrestler, Bobby Lashley, once said in an interview “… and I tell 'em—the people that I'm wrestling—‘Man, just take this in man, because this is crazy. Because at some point in time you're going to be just … just Bobby Lashley, and you can look back at some of these moments and say, 'Man, I did some really cool stuff, with some really cool people.'" I think that sums up the easy answer for me. I get to do some really cool stuff with some really cool people.
But there is a deeper answer as well. A more nuanced one. And, I think it, in itself, is really about the answer to the question, whom do we serve? I think that question is hard for people in the legislative law field because it's varied. We have ethics CLEs every year trying to nail it down, and it's still complicated. However, for me, it's really why I am here. It's really why this job matters to me.
The first answer, the necessary and correct answer to the question is obviously, my clients. The 181 legislators who were elected to serve the people of their districts and to legislate. Their will is mine, and despite the fact that I may not agree with them all, they were chosen to be here and are—on a good day—doing their best to serve the people that did the choosing. I get to help them do that, and that is really an awesome responsibility. It's easy to lose sight of that when you're up at 2 a.m. reinserting a comma that someone asked you to remove the day before. But we are helping the leaders chosen by the people of this state to shape it.
Which leads me to the realization that I also serve the institution of the legislature. In a recent debate on the house floor, former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan said, "It's not about us. You and I will be a face on a composite in the basement one day, and we won't be remembered." As depressing as it may sound, I think this holds as true—if not more so—for legislative staff. We, as individuals, don't really matter. The institutions we serve and protect, those do. I could write a treatise on the importance of an independent legislative branch to a free republic, but I could certainly not do any better than those who have come before me. However, when I am sitting there, with my late-night comma, that is also what I am doing. I’m ensuring the integrity of the legislative branch of government continues beyond me.
Like every public servant, I also serve the people of the state of Texas. Regardless of what a law says, working to make sure people who are not lawyers can both find it when they need it and understand what it requires is essential to the functioning of government. We cannot continue if every law written is litigated for five years before being effective. The laws that are passed must, to the greatest extent possible, mean what they say, or this great big society falls apart at the seams. I am here so that in 15 years a person wondering why their city has an election in May instead of November can figure it out without having to call a lawyer. I am here so that my friend can find the statutes specifying the requirements for her divorce without me. This is also really easy to lose sight of in the hustle and bustle of a legislative session, but our audience, the people who ultimately will read and use our work, are the approximately 31 million citizens of this state. Again, I say, what an awesome responsibility.
Finally, whom do I serve? Maybe, for the sake of our legal editors, I should ask "what" do I serve? I serve the law itself. This job requires us to do lawyering in the upside down. We don't see the law as written and attempt to interpret and apply it. Instead, we see how our clients want the law to be interpreted and applied and then attempt to write it to get them there. It's an iterative process. It's imperfect and messy. Ultimately, though, it serves the integrity of the law itself. The law is remarkable in its implausibility. It's just this thing, these words on a page, that we have all believed in so hard that they have become manifest. As a society, we have set out boundaries then imagined them into being, and every day I get to walk outside and fix the fence posts. I am a small cog in the huge machine of Texas government, but my role is to create the words of this magic spell we have all agreed to follow, and I honestly could not be more honored.
Tracy Shahan Snelson is a Legislative Counsel III and has served with the Texas Legislative Council for 7 years. Tracy has an undergraduate degree in neurobiology from The University of Texas and a Juris Doctorate from Baylor Law School.
Why do you serve your legislature? We’d love to hear from more RELACS members! If you would like to submit an article for the RELACS Report about what your job means to you and why you serve, please send your submission to Shannon Kolman.