Updates From the Research, Editorial, Legal and Committee Staff association
Matt Gehring, RELACS association chair
Hello RELACS colleagues,
It is an honor to serve as your RELACS association chair for 2024-25, and welcome to our first newsletter!
RELACS is off to a great start. Every year, our annual Professional Development Conference seems a little better than the last-and 2024 was no exception. Brett Ferguson, Jon Heining, and the rest of our Texas colleagues showed us that Austin is a fantastic place to gather. I've heard many positive comments about the opportunity our PDS provided to make professional connections, learn about our institutions and be inspired in the work that we do as legislative staff. Add in the sweltering heat and good barbecue for a cultural welcome to Texas, and we could not have asked for more from our planners and host state leaders. Our colleagues in Wisconsin have some big shoes (or, boots) to fill next year, but I am confident they are up to the challenge. Mark your calendars now for Oct. 5-8, 2025, in Madison, Wisc.!
One of the primary roles of the RELACS chair is to set goals for the annual work of our association and to establish committees to achieve those goals. My focus this year is on building internal resilience, including building better infrastructure for sharing RELACS' knowledge and values across each year's leaders and members. Committees to further this effort will engage in strategic planning; document historic practices that have made RELACS among the strongest and most engaged staff associations of NCSL; and find creative ways to bring young and new colleagues into the fold. This work will be particularly important as we expect to encounter some transitions this year, including the retirement of our long-serving NCSL staff liaison, Kae Warnock. To top it off, we also expect to complete a new edition of our Legislative Litigation Toolkit publication.
There are many ways to be involved with RELACS and NCSL as a member. Over the course of this year's newsletters, I will share more about the work being done and the opportunities to be involved. But for now, please accept my invitation to reach out directly with questions or ideas about this work, or if you would just like to brainstorm an issue facing your state or your own work. Whether you are brand new to your legislature, or you are a long-tenured pro, there is a place for you to participate and grow in your career with RELACS.
What I Learned from a Year as the RELACS Chair
Rachel Weiss, Research Director, Montana Legislative Services Division
Legislative work is demanding both of our time and our energy. Staff work hard behind the scenes, often sacrificing time with family and friends during long session days. No one understands the challenges and rewards of legislative service like fellow legislative staff.
That's why I was heartened when I looked over the full room at our recent Research, Editors, Legal, and Committee Staff (RELACS) business meeting at the Louisville Legislative Summit in August. In addition to several past staff chairs of NCSL, past chairs of RELACS or its predecessors, and many RELACS directors, I saw the faces of legislative staff who showed up early in the morning for a run-of-the-mill business meeting that offered no food and no headlining speaker.
At that moment, I knew RELACS is in good hands. That is, your hands. You share your expertise by training others during RELACS webinars, the professional development seminars, and Summit programs. You host and organize those professional development seminars that allow us to gather, learn, make friends, and share our experiences as legislative staff. You serve on the committees that keep RELACS functioning, improve our services and plan for the future.
That August Summit meeting was my final one as chair of RELACS, a two-year commitment that started in 2022 when I was selected as vice chair. I served with the capable and dedicated Erica Warren from Kentucky who, as chair in 2022-23, led RELACS as we navigated the post-COVID world and reestablished a sense of routine after those bumpy times. She prioritized creating a staff exchange program and working to increase opportunities for new and young legislative staff to participate in RELACS. I learned so much from Erica and others during the past two years as your RELACS vice chair and then chair, including that:
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NCSL staff are amazing. They perform for us all the duties we know so well from our work serving legislators. The experienced and wise Kae Warnock is the main RELACS staff and is helped by others in the State Services team at NCSL. Together, they negotiate with hotels and caterers to keep us housed and fed at our professional development seminars, crunch the numbers to keep our budget healthy, deploy and support the technology that allows us to connect, and research challenging topics to ensure we have the best information possible when making decisions that affect RELACS or our home-state legislators. Although I had served as a RELACS director for several years, I still had no idea how much effort the NCSL staff expend to make this organization a success.
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Being the chair comes with a seat on the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee, the governing body for guiding NCSL's efforts on the behalf of legislative staff. I didn't realize this or know much about LSCC when I became vice chair. The LSCC meets in person four times a year, including at the Summit. The 49 members include representatives of every type of legislative staff you can imagine. Serving on LSCC is a time and financial commitment on behalf of you and your employer. But it's one that pays huge dividends. I met some of the finest staff that legislatures across the country have to offer. Regardless of our role or state, we debated the best ways to help NCSL support legislative staff, commiserated about work, and shared stories and friendships.
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You are in the best hands for the years ahead. Matt Gehring is your current chair. As the director of House research in Minnesota, Matt brings years of experience in RELACS and spearheaded the successful 2023 professional development seminar in Minneapolis. His focus on strategic planning and solidifying RELACS practices will ensure a solid foundation for future RELACS leaders. Brett Ferguson, the chief legislative counsel for the Texas Legislative Council, serves as your vice chair. He has worked hard to launch the October RELACS professional development seminar in Austin, Texas, and brings a wealth of energy and ideas to the leadership team.
If you are interested in serving RELACS in a leadership capacity, volunteer to be on one of the RELACS committees in 2024-25 or future years. When nominations open again in the spring, consider running to be a RELACS director. For more information on either opportunity, contact Kae Warnock.
Most of all, thank you for the work you do for your legislatures and for RELACS and for all the support and enthusiasm you showed me over the past two years.
2024 PDS Handouts
The 2024 RELACS Professional Development Seminar in Austin, Texas, last month produced a lot of materials. Please visit the RELACS Discussion Platform to view handouts from sessions, plus a library of organizational charts from 17 states, so far. Visit https://groups.ncsl.org/ and click on Collections. If you are unable to access the RELACS group, please reach out to Kae Warnock - there is likely an easy fix.
RELACS Legislative Exchange Program Recap
By Misty Mason Freeman
In 2023, RELACS launched its inaugural Legislative Exchange Program cohort. Three staffers-a policy analyst, a research analyst, and a senior staff attorney-went on the road to learn about nonpartisan services in another state.
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Julie Humberstone, a policy analyst with the Utah Office of Research and General Counsel, visited the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives.
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Brian Fuller, a senior staff attorney with the Wyoming Legislative Service Office, visited the Wisconsin Legislative Council.
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Erin Sullivan, a research analyst with the Montana Legislative Services Division, visited the Oregon Legislative Policy and Research Office.
The participants shared that they were impressed by the professionalism of their counterparts and enjoyed learning about the similarities and differences between state legislatures and the roles of the nonpartisan offices serving them. Participants experienced different approaches to committee administration, bill drafting, supplying background research, supporting legislators with subject matter expertise, and more, which gave them ideas to take back and try in their own states. They also shared their own innovative approaches with host states.
Participants had the opportunity to meet others grappling with the same challenges and broaden their network of thought partners for the future. From staff who do the same work to subject matter experts who complement their work, they now have people to email or call in the future.
Misty Mason Freeman is the director of the Legislative Policy and Research Office, Oregon.
Apply for the 2024 Legislative Exchange Program
Looking for an opportunity to 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. The deadline for applications is Dec. 15, 2024.
Interested in hosting a legislative staffer?
RELACS Legislative Exchange Program: Host States
RELACS is providing this opportunity for the 2024-25 season. This an excellent professional development opportunity for legislative staffers. Participants will spend a few days with another legislature's legislative services office to learn about similarities and differences between the states. The goal of the program is to familiarize participants with all aspects of their host legislature, with an emphasis on their job specialization. In addition to offering hands-on training, the exchanges facilitate the sharing of ideas and innovations between state legislatures, with the host offices and exchange participants learning from each other.
We are compiling a list of legislative service offices (research, drafting, legal, committee and editing) willing to host a participant in the next six months (through June 15, 2025). The financial cost is minimal or nonexistent for host offices, and it is a win-win experience for both the host and selected participant. This is an opportunity for a legislative staffer to visit your capital city and learn more about your state.
"Hosting a research analyst from a different state was a rich experience for our team, allowing us to showcase and celebrate our work and innovations. In tailoring the experience to the person's professional goals and in the debrief after, we were also able to learn about their office's approach," said Misty Mason Freeman, director, Oregon's Legislative Policy and Research Office. "We are eager to host again!"
If you are willing to host a participant in 2024-25, please complete this host form by Dec. 15, 2024.
RELACS Report Needs You!
Back in times that now feel ancient to many of you, the precursor of the RELACS Report was a print publication called "The Legislative Lawyer." It included best practice articles like what we now publish in the RELACS Report, staff features and a segment of state updates from designated correspondents in each state. These state updates were usually a fun read of a paragraph or two presenting the public factual information about what was going on in each state's legislature-a somewhat dry report of the hot topics, dramatic or intriguing events, or simply whether session was in or the interim was at play, presented with the subtle humor of which only legislative staff are capable. Many staff have expressed a desire to see the return of the State Update, but to do that, we need a correspondent from each state. If you or someone you know would be willing to serve as your state's correspondent and draft a blurb no more than twice a year, please email Jennifer Jackson and Gisele Tolbert.
Additionally, the RELACS Report editorial board is always looking for new material and suggestions. If you or someone you know has an idea for an article about best practices, something interesting related to your duties, or a legislative staff member we should profile, please email Jennifer Jackson and Gisele Tolbert with the subject line "RELACS Report Suggestion."
Jennifer serves as RELACS secretary and RELACS Report editor this year and Gisele is the chair of the RELACS Report Editorial Board. They can be reached by email at [email protected] and [email protected]
Interested in the RELACS Report?
If you would like to receive The RELACS Report, or know a legislative staffer who would, contact Kae Warnock.