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Final Report 2009-2010 LSCC Professional Development and Outreach Subcommittee Members Chair: Margaret "Peggy" Piety, Indiana Vice Chair: Marti Harkness, Florida Vice Chair: Gary Schaefer, Louisiana Gwen Bailey, Virginia James Barber, Mississippi Judy Hall, Oregon Gilbert Loredo, Texas Holly Lyons, Iowa Millie MacFarland, Maine Robert Marchant, Wisconsin Mark Mitchell, Kentucky Jimmetta Gourdine Peoples, Alabama Tara Perkinson, Virginia Earnest Sumner, Florida Michael White, Kansas Gary Wieman, Nebraska NCSL Staff: Ron Snell, Karen Hanson, Nancy Rhyme

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•Subcommittee Goal:

Oversee, organize, produce, and market professional development opportunities for legislative staff.

Assigned duties and responsibilities:

(1) In cooperation with Staff Section Officers, review Fall PDS’ and address any issues as necessary, including cost-allocation formula (2) Update NCSL and You brochure (3) Statehouse Ambassadors (4) Orientation for first-time attendees at Legislative Summit in

Louisville (5) Legislative Staff University (LSU) sessions (formerly called Mega sessions) (6) Outreach to personal, district, and partisan staff (7) Project Citizen Pilot Project (8) Legislative Staff Management Institute (LSMI) (9) Identify training opportunities for senior legislative managers (10) Work with Standing Committee officers to update staff lists, if possible (11) Work with Standing Committee officers and Staff Section Officers to market and promote Fall and Spring Forums and become involved in Standing Committees

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Summary of Subcommittee Work Plan The Subcommittee met four times during the 2009-2010 conference year on the following dates:

October 9, 2009 in Richmond, VA January 29, 2010, in Savannah, GA May 21, 2010, in Denver, CO July 25, 2010, in Louisville, KY

To accomplish the Subcommittee's work, Subcommittee members volunteered to serve on two or three work groups that corresponded to the eleven duties and responsibilities assigned to the Subcommittee. The Subcommittee Chair or one of the Subcommittee Vice Chairs coordinated each work group. Between Subcommittee meetings, the work groups conducted their activities using email and telephone conferences. 2009-2010 Subcommittee Accomplishments A. Professional Development Projects

(1) Legislative Staff University (LSU) sessions at the Legislative Summit

Work Group: Marti Harkness, Holly Lyons, Ernie Sumner

The Work Group coordinated the scheduling of and planning for the LSU sessions at the Legislative Summit in Louisville, Kentucky, with assistance from Tim Rice, Staff Vice Chair, and Larry Morandi. The Work Group made sure that the LSU sessions were included in the Legislative Summit agenda, solicited the names of possible speakers and topics for the LSU sessions, contacted possible speakers, and arranged for the promotion of the speakers selected. Speakers chosen for the LSU sessions at the Legislative Summit were:

Jay Kaufman, State Representative, Massachusetts, on Monday, July 26, 2010, from 3:30-5:00 p.m. Topic: Leadership in Challenging Times.

Anna Post, Emily Post Institute, Vermont, on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, from 2:15-3:45 p.m. Topic: Making Your Point Successfully.

Other speakers considered by the Subcommittee were:

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(1) Kevin O'Connor, Illinois-based professional speaker - Organizational effectiveness, conflict resolution, etc. (2) Mary Byers, Illinois-based professional speaker - Managing conflict, leadership styles, interacting with the media, recruitment, women's issues (3) Craig Fugate, FEMA Administrator (former FL Director of Emergency Management) - Continuity of government (4) Betty Lochner, Cornerstone Coaching and Training - Generational issues, succession planning (5) Navy SEAL Cmd. Mark McGinnis - Leadership issues (6) Stan Stenerson, GAO - Writing, communicating with leaders (7) Tom Fiutak, Mediators Beyond Borders, former LSMI faculty - Negotiation, conflict resolution (8) Stephen C. Tweed, Tweed Jefferies, LLC, nationally recognized speaker who lives in Louisville - Strategic planning, healthcare industry focus (9) Elizabeth Jefferies, Tweed Jefferies, LLC, nationally recognized speaker who lives in Louisville - Emotional intelligence, leadership (10) Jonah Lehrer, contributing editor at Wired - Neuroscience, self-control, decision-making (11) Lorlei Kiley (CA) - Leading through influence (12) Tom Kelley, IDEO

(2) Orientation for first-time attendees at the Legislative Summit

Work Group: Gary Schaefer, Mark Mitchell, Jimmetta Gourdine Peoples, Michael White

The Work Group arranged a time for the orientation, and with assistance from Sharon Crouch Steidel, Martha Carter, and Karen Hansen, put together the program and handouts for the event. The orientation for first-time attendees was scheduled on Monday, July 26, 2010, from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The program was informal with available staff officers (Staff Chair, Vice Staff Chair, and Immediate Past Staff Chair) present to welcome first-time attendees and explain NCSL and the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee (LSCC). Staff Section Officers also attended to welcome the first-time attendees, serve as mentors, and explain their individual staff sections. Attendees received packets that included information, such as Things You Need to Know about NCSL, and summary information about LSCC and the standing committees. To promote the event, first-time attendees received several email invitations to the

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orientation. At least one invitation included instructions and a link on how to create a personal agenda for the meeting.

(3) With Staff Section Officers, review of staff section Fall PDS' issues

Work Group: Gary Schaefer, James Barber, Holly Lyons, Ernie Sumner In cooperation with the Staff Section Officers and with assistance from Larry Morandi, the Work Group identified for both 2011 and 2012 four locations for consideration by staff sections as joint PDS hubs. The criteria for selecting the PDS hub cities included travel costs, accessibility by air, attractiveness as a destination to PDS attendees, whether the city was a state capitol or was near a state capitol (increasing programming possibilities), and past success hosting NCSL meetings. Locations recommended as PDS hubs are:

For 2011:

- Baltimore, MD - Denver, CO - New Orleans, LA - Portland, OR (join the Research & Committee Staff Section (RACCS) that has committed to hold a PDS at this location, October 2-5, 2011)

For 2012: - Austin, TX - Atlanta, GA - Madison, WI

The Work Group also discussed the timing for possible joint PDS meetings and recommended the September - October period, the same period in which staff sections have held PDS meetings in the past.

(4) Legislative Staff Management Institute (LSMI)

Work Group: Marti Harkness, Rob Marchant, Tara Perkinson, Michael White

With assistance from Gary VanLandingham, Karl Kurtz, and Tim Hodson, LSMI co-director, the Work Group presented information about the 2010 LSMI, including proposed outreach and recruitment efforts, and the proposed budget.

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2010 LSMI will be held August 13-22 in Sacramento, CA. The core curriculum will be maintained this year, is designed for legislative staff, and is geared to adult learning. The program builds from beginning to end, and includes breaks and networking. Past participants have had high degree of satisfaction with the presenters and program content. In 2009, 94% of participants would recommend or highly recommend LSMI to other legislative staff. Proposed outreach and recruitment efforts for 2010 included both general and targeted initiatives. General outreach efforts were:

(1) A brochure emphasizing value of staff training even in a period of budget constraints was posted on NCSL website with hard copies available at NCSL meetings and through the mail. (2) At least two email blasts were sent to legislative staff. (3) All 152 alumni of the LSMI Sacramento sessions were contacted asking for help recruiting participants. (4) 2009 applicants who were accepted, but could not attend, were invited to reapply in 2010.

Targeted outreach was made to 16 states that fit one or more of the following criteria:

(1) Staff participation in LSCC. (2) No participation in Sacramento LSMI. (3) No participation in LSMI since 2007. (4) Three or fewer participants sent to LSMI. (5) Geographic proximity to Sacramento (roughly west of the Mississippi).

The Subcommittee offered a few additional outreach suggestions: (1) Put articles about LSMI in staff section newsletters. (2) Develop short (2 min.) podcasts of LSMI alumni or presenters. (3) Offer an alumni “refresher". (4) Offer staff section scholarships.

The 2010 LSMI proposed budget was presented and assumed 20 participants (18 out-of-state/2 in-state). Total direct costs in 2010 were estimated at $110,140 (4% increase over 2009) with revenues anticipated at $98,500 and additional in-kind support from USC and Sacramento State of $50,910. The participant charge of $2,250 remained the same. The projected deficit was to be addressed by obtaining additional grants, and if necessary, reducing special programs. The Subcommittee approved the 2010 LSMI budget and outreach plan as presented.

(5) Identification of training opportunities for senior legislative managers

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Work Group: Peggy Piety, Gilbert Loredo, Millie MacFarland

The Work Group coordinated its efforts with the Work Group planning the LSU session at the Legislative Summit so that one LSU session of interest to senior legislative managers was included. B. Outreach Projects

(1) NCSL and You brochure update

Work Group: Marti Harkness, Gwen Bailey, Millie MacFarland, Jimmetta Gourdine Peoples, Tara Perkinson, Gary Wieman

The Work Group, with the assistance of Karen Hansen, updated and revised the online version of NCSL and You brochure, which provides information concerning NCSL resources, opportunities, and services available to legislative staff. The brochure was introduced as a printed publication in 2006 and had not been updated or made more web friendly since then. Given the current budget constraints, a decision was made to produce the "new and improved" brochure only in online form and to add multimedia content and make other changes so that the brochure would be more web friendly. The updated NCSL and You brochure is available on NCSL's website: http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?TabId=18558. Updates include hot links and embedded short videos. The Work Group recommended that consideration be given at a later time to adding content, such as video introductions from staff section chairs and an e-learning tab. The Work Group also recommended monitoring the brochure's use to determine whether printing the updated brochure when NCSL's budget permits is advisable.

(2) Statehouse Ambassadors

Work Group: Peggy Piety, Jimmetta Gourdine Peoples, Gary Schaefer The Work Group, with Karl Kurtz's assistance, continued the promotion and development of the Statehouse Ambassador program. Statehouse Ambassadors are legislative staff who volunteer to serve as in-state field representatives for NCSL. To promote increased use of the Statehouse Ambassadors listserv and provide

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useful information to the Ambassadors, monthly messages were posted on the listserv. Topics of the monthly messages were e-learning, webinars and other professional development opportunities, the standing committees structure and programs, research links, LSMI, the personal staff network, a featured Ambassador's outreach efforts, the Legislative Summit, registering at NCSL's web site, and updating legislative staff mailing lists. While the monthly updates were useful to some Ambassadors, they did not result in an increased use of the listserv. As in past years, the Statehouse Ambassadors and the NCSL state liaisons at the Legislative Summit attended a breakfast meeting in order to network and share ideas about the Ambassador program. The need for technology updates to improve the Statehouse Ambassador program was discussed. These technology requests included:

(1) The ability to update information for legislative staff who are in NCSL's data base (not new staff) online. (2) The addition of proposed staff section/standing committee affiliations to the online new staff information form. (3) The addition of a request for staff section/standing committee interests to the staff welcome page.

Although work on these updates was not completed, the Work Group recommended that NCSL complete these technology updates as soon as resources allow. Finally, a survey of the Statehouse Ambassadors and NCSL state liaisons was conducted to determine satisfaction with the program and to solicit ideas for improvements and changes. Seventy-one people participated in the survey: 27 Statehouse Ambassadors and 44 NCSL state liaisons. In general, the Ambassadors responding to the survey tended to rank the program as more effective than the state liaisons did. Suggestions for improvement focused on more or better communication between the Ambassadors and the state liaisons. Some of the suggestions included:

(1) Have the Ambassadors and state liaisons meet more than once a year, perhaps by conference call or by having an orientation/update on NCSL's programs and priorities. (2) Consider whether a social networking option might meet the Ambassadors' needs more effectively than the current listserv. (3) Provide confirmation that staff updates provided by an Ambassador have been properly added to NCSL's data base. Make it easier for Ambassadors to edit or delete existing staff entries, when necessary. (4) Consider how to provide additional opportunities for Ambassadors and state liaisons to work together to better promote

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NCSL.

(3) Project Citizen Pilot Project

Work Group: Gary Schaefer, Gwen Bailey, James Barber, Rob Marchant, Jimmetta Gourdine Peoples, Peggy Piety, Gary Wieman

Under Gary VanLandingham's guidance and with assistance from members of the Work Group, LSCC conducted a pilot project that matched legislative staff in seven states with classes that were learning about public policy and community problem solving using the Project Citizen curriculum. The purpose of the match was to allow legislative staff to share knowledge of state legislatures and to provide useful information and contacts to the students in relation to the public policy problem that they were studying. Between 130 and 140 legislative staff in the seven states participated in the pilot program. The seven states were California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. At the completion of the pilot program, the legislative staff participants were surveyed concerning their experience. The program's greatest challenges were: (1) finding enough classes for all of the legislative staff who volunteered; and (2) getting a response from teachers who were matched with a legislative staffer. [Add survey results.] The Work Group recommended that the program continue as a pilot again next year with some modifications. One suggestion was to provide information to teachers about the kinds of help a legislative staffer can offer to a Project Citizen class. [Other recommendations] Karl Kurtz and Jan Goehring of NCSL and the Trust for Representative Democracy provided major support for the Project Citizen pilot project.

(4) Outreach to personal, district, and partisan staff

Work Group: Peggy Piety, Judy Hall, Gilbert Loredo, Rob Marchant, Michael White

With assistance from Brian Weberg and Angela Andrews, the Work Group tackled programming and outreach efforts to personal, district, and partisan staff. Of the 34,000 staff members who work the nation's state legislatures, 11,000, or almost one in three, are personal staff. NCSL defines "personal staff" as staff who work directly for a state legislator, or as part of a small team reporting directly to a legislator, with the legislator providing supervision and direction of the staff's work

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product. Personal staff may be located at the state capitol or at a district office. The Work Group developed a list of topics for possible e-learning and professional development topics, using NCSL personal staff training track evaluations from the Philadelphia Legislative Summit and the results from Angela Andrew's survey of personal and district staff as a starting point. Suggested topics were:

(1) Constituent services/problems (2) "Managing" your member (3) How to conduct a town hall meeting/event management (4) Time management/organizational skills (5) E-technology issues: how state (public) and personal (private) systems fit together and balance; staff as data manager for personal interactions as well as e-interactions (6) Management of social media (as an E-learning program)

Consideration was given to programs already in the NCSL catalogue that might be used, such as "What I Wish I Knew --" or a personal staff session taped in Philadelphia. The Work Group's general thoughts on e-learning/professional development for personal staff were that interactivity is valued, and that, if learning opportunities are sold to legislators, the legislators will send their staffs. To try out this idea, a flyer concerning the LSCC webinar, Writing for the Legislative Audience, was sent to all 350 legislators in Michigan and Missouri and addressed to the attention of personal staff. The flyer generated only seven responses. Rather than abandoning this idea, the Work Group recommended trying this strategy again after rethinking how to get more staff to respond and participate. Statehouse Ambassadors were seen as key in the outreach effort to personal and district staff. The option of having a regional PD meeting for personal staff was discussed. The consensus of the Work Group was that this might be feasible in a couple of years after the economy improves. Possible regions for the PD meeting are areas where personal staff are concentrated: the Northeast, the Northwest, or Texas. It was suggested that the meeting occur "live" and then be offered online "on demand", and to use Facebook in connection with the meeting. The Work Group decided that NCSL should build infrastructure in 2010 for a possible regional meeting in 2011 in Washington State or Portland, OR. The Work Group also discussed and decided not to have a targeted personal and district staff program at 2010 Legislative Summit, because of time and space limitations. With input from the Work Group, NCSL staff developed a web page for personal and district office staff: http://www.ncsl.org/personalstaff. Although the personal and district office staff page is available on NCSL's website, the current links to it are

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difficult to find. In an attempt to address this problem, the suggestion was made to add a tab for Personal Staff at the top of the Staff Services page. The Work Group considered possible networking options for personal staff, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, and NCSL options of a Listserv or Networking Collaboration. The pros and cons of each option were reviewed. In addition, the Work Group looked at the results of Judy Hall's January 2010, email survey of personal and district staff in Washington, Oregon, and California. The survey asked whether staff would use a social networking option or an NCSL district/personal staff web page. After much discussion, the Work Group did not have a clear cut preference for a particular networking option, and there was a mixed response as to whether personal staff would use any networking option. The Work Group did suggest that any networking option selected should allow postings that can be accessed anytime by staff, such as Facebook, Govloop.com, or an NCSL in-house option, rather than a listserv. Taking the Work Group's suggestions, NCSL staff created a group called "Personal Staff Network of the National Conference of State Legislatures" on Govloop (www.govloop.com). The decision was made to use Govloop because it provides group members with resources in addition to those available through NCSL. The purpose of creating the group is to allow personal staff to network with each other, share ideas, offer advice and build a community of peers. NCSL is the administrator of the group. The group is “closed,” meaning individuals need to be invited, or request access, to join the group, in order to provide personal staff with a safe venue to share concerns, provide input and seek camaraderie. Initially, NCSL will drive the content, but the plan is to eventually have content created/driven by personal staff.

(5) With Standing Committee Officers and Staff Section Officers, efforts to increase legislative staff participation in the Standing Committees

Work Group: Gary Schaefer, Judy Hall, Tara Perkinson, Gary Wieman

The Work Group, in coordination with the Standing Committee Officers and the Staff Section Officers, and with Ron Snell's assistance, undertook several projects to increase legislative staff participation in the NCSL standing committees and to market NCSL standing committee programs and services to legislative staff. The lists of staff appointed to standing committees were updated by sending an email to each staff member on a standing committee and requesting confirmation of the person's appointment. NCSL used the responses to the emails to update its list of committee members and to make the list of committee members (both legislators and staff) more accessible on the standing committee web pages. Martha Carter, a past Staff Chair of the Standing Committees, was instrumental in coordinating these

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efforts. Efforts also were made to update the list of staff appointing authorities. Emails were sent to appointing authorities requesting confirmation of their authority, but few responses were received. Other sources were contacted for information to update the appointing authorities list, including NCSL state liaisons, other NCSL staff, and Subcommittee members. The Work Group recommended that efforts continue to update the list of staff appointing authorities. A "cheat sheet" concerning committee policies and procedures and a "motions table" as a quick reference on parliamentary procedure updated and distributed at the Fall Forum for use by standing committee officers. Standing committee staff officers met for lunch at the Fall and Spring Forums. Both events had good attendance and were great networking opportunities. Judy Hall, Staff Chair of the Standing Committees, recommended that round tables be used for future events to facilitate networking. The Standing Committee Officers used several strategies to promote standing committees to state legislative service offices, including the following:

(1) Each overall standing committee staff officer was assigned to two standing committee and two staff sections for purposes of communication. (2) Standing committee marketing material was distributed to each standing committee and each staff section chair/president, along with a personal note. (3) Consideration was given to writing promotional articles for staff section newsletters, although this proved difficult because of the differing deadlines among the staff section newsletters and the timing of those deadlines with the availability of information about the Fall and Spring Forums. (4) States near Washington, D.C., were targeted for promotional efforts to encourage attendance at the Spring Forum, which was within driving distance of staff members who ordinarily would not be able to travel to a more distant Forum location.

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Recommendations for 2010-2011 A. Continue current professional development efforts

(1) Continue offering the Legislative Staff University sessions and first-time attendee orientation at the Legislative Summit. (2) Continue support of staff section professional development programs, in cooperation with the Staff Section Officers. Continue efforts to encourage staff sections that do not have other site commitments to locate their PDS programs in the recommended hub cities in 2011 and 2012. (3) Continue support for the Legislative Staff Management Institute. (4) Continue to offer, as appropriate, training opportunities for senior legislative managers.

B. NCSL and You Brochure (1) Consider adding additional content to the online brochure, such as video introductions from staff section chairs and an e-learning tab. (2) Monitor the online brochure's use to determine whether it is advisable or necessary to print the updated brochure when NCSL's budget permits.

C. Statehouse Ambassadors (1) Consider whether to continue monthly messages posted on the Ambassador listserv, or whether there are better, more effective methods to communicate with the Ambassadors. (2) Continue working on technology updates to improve the Statehouse Ambassador program, including at least following:

(a) The ability to update information for legislative staff who are in NCSL's data base (not new staff) online. (b) The addition of proposed staff section/standing committee affiliations to the online new staff information form. (c) The addition of a request for staff section/standing committee interests to the staff welcome page.

(3) Continue sponsoring a networking event for Statehouse Ambassadors at the Legislative Summit. (4) Consider suggestions from Ambassadors and NCSL state liaisons for improving the program, such as:

(a) Have the Ambassadors and state liaisons meet more than once a year, perhaps by conference call or by having an orientation/update on NCSL's programs and priorities. (b) Consider whether a social networking option might meet the Ambassadors' needs more effectively than the current

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listserv. (c) Provide confirmation that staff updates provided by an Ambassador have been properly added to NCSL's data base. Make it easier for Ambassadors to edit or delete existing staff entries, when necessary. (d) Consider how to provide additional opportunities for Ambassadors and staff liaisons to work together to better promote NCSL.

D. Project Citizen Pilot Project (1) Continue the pilot program again next year with some modifications aimed at:

(a) finding enough classes for all of the legislative staff who volunteered; and (b) getting a response from teachers who were matched with a legislative staffer.

(2) Prepare and provide information to teachers about the kinds of help a legislative staffer can offer to a Project Citizen class. (3) [Other recommendations based on survey results]

E. Outreach to personal and district staff (1) Consider whether have a regional meeting for personal staff in 2011 in Washington State or Portland, OR. (2) Think about how to get more staff to respond to a professional development flyer sent to the legislator for whom the staff works. Then, promote increased personal and district staff participation in e-learning/professional development opportunities by mailing the information to the legislators addressed to the attention of the personal staff. (3) Add a tab for Personal Staff at the top of the Staff Services page to make the personal and district office staff web page more visible on NCSL's website. (4) Complete the development of and promote the personal staff group on GovLoop.com. Consider whether additional social networking options for personal and district staff are advisable.

F. Efforts with Standing Committee Officers (1) Continue updating the list of staff appointing authorities. (2) Continue to work with Standing Committee and Staff Section Officers to:

(a) increase legislative staff participation in the standing committees; and (b) market standing committee programs and services to legislative staff.