Tracking Legislatures
Allocating Legislatures Among Staff Members
The legislatures are divided among staff members to ensure that everyone is alloted enough time to properly track the legislatures. Generally, the legislatures are divided evenly among staff members, but the following questions need to be asked before allocating the responsibilities:
- How much time does a specific staff member have to devote to tracking? Some staff members have specific obligations within the Key Votes Department (Vetoes, Hotline, etc.) and in other Departments (if requested by a separate department) that might make it difficult to find time to track several legislatures.
- How many interns does a specific staff member have working for them at the time? Tracking work can be delegated to interns, especially when a staff member needs to set aside more time for other work. Therefore, during the summer months at the MT office, it's preferable to have more legislatures assigned to that office. Whereas during the Spring and Fall Semester, the TX office has more interns.
- How many legislatures are out of session this year? Some states only go into session during odd numbered years (ex: AR, TX, OR, NV, and ND). Of those states, some might have a short special session. Therefore, these states need to be tracked even during years that they are out of session, but they will require substantially less attention than a legislature that has a regular session every year. Keep this in mind so that you don't give one staff member too many of these states.
- How long is the regulation session of a specific legislature? Some legislatures have relatively short sessions (ex: NM, AR, UT, and WY), while others are in session for most of the year (ex: U.S. Congress, IL, MA, NJ, NY, and PA). Furthermore, the states that have shorter sessions are more likely to call a special session after the regular session has adjourned. Keep this in mind so that you don't give one staff member too many states that are in session for long periods, especially if it could interfere with their work load during the busier months.
- How much legislation does a specific legislature generally produce? Some legislatures tend to produce more legislation that fits our selection criteria than others. Therefore, these states require additional time to track. It's best to consult a more experienced Key Votes staffer and/or browse previous year's selections to get a feel for what states produce more legislation that we can select. Keep this in mind so that one staff member isn't overloaded with too many of these states.
Once the aforementioned questions have been considered, the states must be divided among staff members. When possible, it's helpful to distribute the states as follows, in order to make the best use of staff knowledge and expertise:
- States that the staff member has lived in
- Regions where those states are located (the Pacific Northwest, the South, Rocky Mountain states, etc.)
- Session length and frequency
Then, allocate the remaining states among staff to ensure an equal distribution.
When a staff member is assigned a specific legislature, they are responsible for the following:
- Ensuring that the state is properly tracked.
- The potential selections for that state are brought to the selection meeting.
- The selection spreadsheet and press files are created to reflect the selections that were made.
- The advisors for these states are contacted biweekly to update them on the votes selected and the summaries released live. For further information, refer to the advisor contacts guide.
Also, when a staff member is assigned a specific legislature, remember that it is not written in stone. Tracking duties for specific legislatures may change hands freely for whatever reason - the staff member currently responsible for that legislature is busy with other duties, one office has more interns than the other right now, etc. Whenever legislatures are reassigned, remember to update the staff assignments page of the wiki to reflect any changes.
Key Votes Homepage | Training Guide | Summary Writing Guide | Vote Entering Guide | Congress Guide | Status Update Guide | Web Check Guide
