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Workshop and Report Summaries Presented at the LWVAL Convention 2007 |
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Following are summaries of the workshops and reports presented at the 2007 LWVAL Convention in Tuscaloosa, AL May 19-20.
The League Lobbyist: what it is and what it is not -- Sue Flood, LWVAL Lobbyist Did you know lwval has a lobbyist in Montgomery? Sue Flood volunteered as our lobbyist for the 2007 session of the legislature. What is your image of a lobbyist? If your description of lobbying uses words like “crooked” or “sleazy”, your impression would not fit the League’s lobbyist. We certainly don’t have money to trade for votes! LWVAL pays the $100 registration fee so that it will have an official voice in the halls of the State House. The Ethics Commission defines lobbying as the practice of promoting, opposing, or in any manner influencing or attempting to influence the introduction, defeat, or enactment of legislation before any legislative body. That is what we try to do. Our lobbyist does not act alone, but she works in concert with the LWVAL Board and the Advocacy Committee. The workshop discussed the responsibilities of the Board to set priorities, appoint the Advocacy Committee, and review public statements. The lobbyist observes the legislature, reports to the Advocacy Committee, acts as the spokesperson in Montgomery, and advises the committee as to particular legislation, timing, and legislators to address. Our presence allows us to build relationships with legislators and heightens the League’s visibility as a knowledgeable and truthful source of information. League members can be active as observers and program consultants. We encourage members to follow the action on ALISON and to respond to Action Alerts. Any statement coming as a representative of a local League or LWVAL, however, should be from either the local President or the state President. It is important that the League speak with One Voice. Serving as your representative at the Legislature is certainly interesting. I tell my friends that it is better than TV! -- Top -- Program Planning in League -- Charlotte Ward, Director Local Leagues have a part to play in program planning at every level, but it may be at the local level where they most need help. Any local league can suggest an item for study at any level, but to get an item adopted at the national level usually requires considerable “lobbying” of leagues all across the country for support before presenting the idea to the National Board. In Alabama, with only six local Leagues, getting the State Board to consider your suggestion for study is not so difficult. In fact, your State Board members will often be actively soliciting your local League’s ideas. How does a League go about choosing a local program item? The first consideration is timeliness and local interest. The second is whether or not you are likely to be able to do anything about it, once you have studies and reached a consensus position. There may be times when a study simply to become better informed on a topic is worthwhile, but usually a study should lead to consensus and a positions on the basis of which action can be taken. Here are some areas in which local Leagues have been or could be effective: 1. Education: Are the programs being offered – vocational curricula, advanced placement classes, etc. – meeting student needs? Are there funding issues that should be studied? Are too many students dropping out before graduation? 2. Health and welfare services: does your County Health Department function well? Are the services available to the disadvantaged in your community adequate? 3. Growth Issues: Are zoning ordinances effective and enforced? Is infrastructure keeping up with growth? Is there a provision for parks and green spaces? 4. Government; Are your city and county government structures adequate to changing demands? Are appointed boards effective and appropriately selected? 5. Environment: Are there local problems with air or water quality? Are local natural environments, watersheds, etc. being protected? While invited speakers who are experts on your chosen topic can be useful, a local study is usually most successful when the members get involved in talking to people and digging out the information themselves. You may even publish a “facts and issues” type paper on the results of your study. But at as at every league level, be careful to keep educational efforts and advocacy separate. One thing to remember: NEVER GO INTO A STUDY WITH YOUR MIND ALREADY MADE UP. The League is known for its fairness. We look at all sides of an issue so that when we take a position, we are able to defend it with facts and evidence. -- Top -- Advocacy Report for 2006-2007 -- Ruth L. Wright, Program Chair Positive conditions for current advocacy: • Lobbying: Greater presence in State House and more information for timely action, since 2003-2004. • Increased visibility and momentum from the study. A. Contacts with legislators to gather information in Interviews and through written anonymous survey sent to all. B. Alabama Legislature: Facts and Issues. A hard copy sent to every legislator Also notice and web site references to organizations and libraries. • More comprehensive Legislative Report on the web site www.lwval.org. Includes progress of bills, basis of League support, background and analysis. Advocacy Procedures Advocacy Team (President, lobbyist, program chair, and four appointees—Becky Sylvester, Charlotte Ward--and two strong new members--Anne Permaloff and Mary Lynn Bates.) is responsible to the Board. Board discusses issues and positions fully when setting priorities for the year. Advocacy Team follows legislation. For a close decision or a new issue, the Team can consult the Board by email. Copies of letters sent are provided for the Board. Major lobbying in 2007-2008 I. For the legislative positions adopted at Council 2006, announcement and advocacy began after the November election but before the Orientation and the Organizational Session. • Positions with brief statement of Potential Impacts to every legislator, to all newspapers in the state, and to like-minded organizations that might support them. Good coverage in news articles with legislators asked to comment, and supportive editorials from major papers. • Letter to every Senator before the Organizational Session urging a strong legislature that can function for Alabama no matter who leads, citing two of our positions to advance that aim--a better committee system in the Senate and a Nonpartisan Public Policy office on model of Legislative Fiscal Office II. In the 2007 session the Advocacy Team analyzed bills, including amendments and substitutes, recommended lobbyist’s questions to legislators and positions to advocate, sent letters, often delivered by lobbyist, to committees, and the Rules Committee. Action Alerts, like the one for Constitutional Convention bills, can reach all legislators with League members as constituents. Calls to Montgomery office are better than emails for most. Demonstrations of support for legislation that will not pass can provide a headstart for next session. Sponsors are sometimes thanked and encouraged to continue. Major decisions • PAC transfer ban: To support McLaughlin’s Hb 120 to ban all PAC transfers but to oppose the substitute composed and passed by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The loopholes were too large for genuine reform. • Judicial Selection: To support League’s long-standing position for merit selection and not address the question of non-partisan elections. Op Ed to the Birmingham News received publicity. Merit Selection bill by Judge Gorman’s group was introduced late in the session. Nonpartisan Election bill has not moved. • Picture ID for Voters: Opposed by LWVUS. LWVAL cannot lobby for it in the League’s name, though individual members are free to do so in their own names, so long as League is not mentioned. • Constitutional Amendments on banking and corporations: Like all other supporters of a Convention, League welcomes improvements to the present document by DeMarco, using Representative Venable’s work. Needs • More MALs to lobby legislators from non-League districts. • Local League to make sure members without email receive Action Alerts (telephone tree or pre-arranged buddy system) • League members to recruit friends who will advocate in their own names, especially in non-League areas of the state. • Keeping focused, seizing every opportunity and perseverance. -- Top -- LWV Technology Workshop -- Jean Johnson, Technology Director; and Scarlett Gaddy, 2nd VP RESEARCH TOOLS League Resources as Research Tools - Treasures to be found at the LWVAL and LWVUS websites
LWVAL Website at www.lwval.org
Members’ Page of the LWVAL web site. Use as username “lwval” and as password “alconref”. On the member’s page are: LWVAL Core Documents (program, bylaws, etc.), LWVAL and LL Directories, and Resources for League Leaders – instructions, tips and tricks for presidents, membership chairs, treasurers, publicity/visibility chairs, advocacy, fundraising. LWVUS Website at www.lwv.org Member’s Page - Even if you are member of the LWV, you must register to access “For Members” To register, go to Important items to check out:
Google as Research Tool
Focus your search
When "ggogling" at www.google.com, narrow your search by using quotation marks around phrases, or use negative sign (-) in front of words to find hits NOT including those words. Use specialized Google Data Bases to search certain items exclusively. For example:
Use Google Alerts - Emails are automatically sent to you when
there are new Google results for your search terms. Google
Alerts can be your free personal ongoing media research service! Create Google Alerts here.
ALISON as Research Tool
Use the Alabama Legislative System Online (ALISON) to follow legislation important to you and your local League. ALISON includes
information about bills such as sponsors, history, fiscal notes,
amendments and substitutions, and status. Get a quick and dirty ALISON user’s guide
here. Or read the more comprehensive “Citizen’s Guide to
ALISON” (Appendix C of the Alabama Legislature: Facts and
Issues.
LWVAL uses ALISON and on-site lobbying and observations by Sue Flood to post the LWVAL Legislative Report. Updated weekly during the legislative session. Follows legislation important to LWVAL positions and advocacy priorities. -- Top -- YOUR LEAGUE’S WEB SITE (Your League’s public face!) - Every local League in Alabama has a web site (see them at www.lwval.org linked in left column), and they each have visitors every day! Let Jean Johnson (jjohnson@lwval.org), Yvonne Brakefield (ybrakefield@lwval.org) or Scarlett Gaddy (sbgaddy@yahoo.com) assist your League with instruction on how to keep your website current and interesting. No programming experience is necessary, software is free, and training takes 2-3 hours. Ongoing time requirement is approximately 1-2 hours per month. ALSO COVERED IN THIS WORKSHOP – The next step - Information on blogs, wikis, meeting and educating via web conferencing. This information will be posted soon. -- Top -- |
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