2017 Annual Meeting session on advocacy through legislation

1. Supporting Museums and Cultural Heritage
Through Legislation
Representative Ivy Spohnholz
Bianca Carpeneti
Museums Alaska 2017 Conference
September 29, 1:30pm

2. Aims
● Unpacking the legislative process
● Building your strategy
● Identifying tools & resources you already have
● Introduce you to new tools & resources you can take advantage of
● Case studies
● Q&A session
● Next steps

3. The
congressional
legislative
process in a
nutshell

4. Specifics for Alaska?
● Ninety-day regular session
● Regular, extended, special session -- what’s the difference?
● Sine die adjournment
The Committee Process
● Committees of referral
● What do committees do?

5. Advocacy vs. lobbying
● Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regulates lobbying, and produced a
PDF on the relevant law (AS 24.45):
http://doa.alaska.gov/apoc/pdf/manual-lobbying.pdf
● What’s the difference?
● What are the limitations?

6. Strategy: Building Coalitions and Advocating for Your Issue
● You have to have a community of people who care and who can work with you.
● What is your constituency?
● Who is your team?
● How do you deploy your team?

7. What tools do you already have?
● Social media
● Local partners
● Powerful stories about your work and community interactions
● How do you make these work for you?

8. New tricks and tools
● The Alaska Legislative website
○ Legislators and committees
○ Bill Action and Status Inquiry
System (BASIS)
○ Tracking bills & committees
(BTMF & “Live Now”)
● Legislative Information Offices
(LIOs)

9. Legislators and committees
● Do you know your Representative and
Senator? Find out here.
● Do you know who serves on the
committee your bill is referred to?

10. Bill Action and Status Inquiry System (BASIS)
● BASIS tutorial (http://akleg.gov/start.php)
● Example: Library Construction Grant (2008, SB 119)
● Example: Museum Construction Grant (2017, HB 166)
Bill history/action for legislature Detailed minutes for the bill.

11. Tracking bills & committees
● Bill Tracking Management Facility: https://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/btmf_login.asp
● “Live Now” feature: http://akleg.gov/index.php#tab5

12. Legislative Information Offices (LIOs)
Year-round: Anchorage, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Matsu,
Nome, Seward, and Sitka
Session-only: Barrow, Cordova, Delta Jct., Dillingham, Glennallen, Homer, Kotzebue,
Petersburg, Tok, Unalaska, Valdez, and Wrangell

13. Case Study: Optometrists
● Partnerships
● Citizens taking the lead
● Building coalitions

14. Case Study: Benefit Corporations
● Anticipating alignment and friction
● Amendment process

15. Final thoughts...
● Being a good neighbor/community member
● Building relationships
Q&A and discussion