[LWVNM Action] Legislative Action Study Group

[Linda McDowell]

I agree untangling intent when reading bills can be a challenge, however, to insure agreement with LWV positions, close reading is necessary. Also,  I have been at first committee meetings where testimony and comments were neither enlightening nor accurate. 
Even if we delay bill discussion, I would like to meet and hear people’s suggestions re testifying, succinctly explaining issues, talking to the opposition, writing letters to the editor, etc. 
Linda McDowell 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 8, 2022, at 11:20 AM, karen wentworth via Action <action at mailman.swcp.com> wrote:
> 
> Akkana-
> 
> Almost no one understands the implications of bills from reading them. You
> can read the words, but that doesn't give you the actual impact on people. 
> 
> The best way to understand a particular bill is to listen to the first
> committee to hear it. That's when you will hear the lobbyists explain the
> positive impact, and the opposition groups who will explore the negative
> impact. The fiscal impact reports are also very helpful. After folks hear
> about it in the first committee is the best time to talk about a bill in an
> action workshop because you will have some basis for discussion.
> 
> It's not very helpful to listen to bills before the judicial committees. You
> will learn about legal impacts there, but not much about people impacts. And
> listening to bill discussions on the floor of either house is a crapshoot.
> Either helpful or completely worthless.
> 
> Sorry to be so wordy. These are lessons learned from years of covering the
> legislature as a reporter.
> 
> I would be happy to join an action study group.
> 
> Karen Wentworth
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Action <action-bounces at mailman.swcp.com> On Behalf Of Akkana Peck via
> Action
> Sent: Saturday, January 8, 2022 9:42 AM
> To: action at mailman.swcp.com
> Cc: Akkana Peck <akkana at shallowsky.com>
> Subject: Re: [LWVNM Action] Legislative Action Study Group
> 
> To people interested in the study group:
> 
> I forgot that this mailing list sometimes obscures the email address of
> people replying. If you want to be on the mailing list, please email me at
> akkana at shallowsky.com -- don't just reply to this message, or if you do
> reply, change the To line to my address.
> 
> If you've replied already, no need to reply again -- I found email addresses
> for everybody who's replied so far.
> 
>        ...Akkana
> 
> Akkana Peck writes:
>> At the Action Committee meeting today, I mentioned an idea I'd had:
>> an Action study group.
>> 
>> The problem: legislative advocacy is hard. For instance,
>>  - Finding anything on the Legislative website
>>  - Reading and understanding a bill
>>  - Understanding our League positions and how they allow us to
>>    advocate for or against bills
>>  - Speaking in public for or against a bill
>> 
>> The Advocacy Workshop (tomorrow!) covers the last item, but how do you 
>> learn the other three?
>> 
>> I proposed a study group that meets (at least) once a week where we 
>> mentor each other and learn together. Everybody's welcome, from 
>> complete beginners to experts.
>> 
>> We could do things like parcel out new bills to study group members:
>> choose a bill on a topic you're interested in, read it, try to 
>> understand it, and report back telling us what it's about and whether 
>> we should support or oppose it. If a bill was too convoluted to be 
>> understood, that's useful information too (sometimes that means 
>> somebody is trying to hide what a bill is really about, or maybe it 
>> just needs several people reading it and trying to figure it out). We 
>> can report our findings at the regular Friday Action Committee 
>> meetings.
>> 
>> If you want to be involved, let me know. I have a few people signed up 
>> already. I'll collect any more names I get over the weekend, and then 
>> we can figure out when to meet and how we want to run this.
>> 
>>        ...Akkana
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