What's New in New Member Orientation?

by Bruce Feustel

Many state legislatures are in high gear planning upcoming new member orientations. It helps planners to learn from each other, examining the similarities and differences in their programs.  Almost all the orientations stress learning the basics of parliamentary procedure and the help available from the legislative service agencies.  New members also typically find out about their state's big ticket items like education, health, taxes and the judicial system, as well as hearing some cautionary tales about ethics violations.  However, states have some variations and innovations:

• Missouri takes new legislators on the road to give them a first-hand view of state programs and institutions.
• Colorado and Wyoming have revamped their orientations to provide training in separate chunks, so that new members have some time to reflect on and retain what they learn.
• New Jersey extensively reviews their orientation evaluations to guide future planning.
• Texas, Georgia and Alabama partner with major universities to provide some of their programming.
• New Mexico features a panel of second-term legislators speaking about "What I wish I Had Known When I Started in the Legislature."
• Connecticut places emphasis on a spouse program, recognizing that a legislator's whole family has some adjusting to do.

Orientation planners have some standard words of advice:  Start your planning well ahead of time.  Get ownership from legislative leaders about your program and ask them to require or strongly encourage attendance.  Make the training "hands on" so that new legislators aren't just passive participants.  Focus on the essentials and realize that if they get too much information, they'll forget what you most want them to remember.  Finally, understand that some of the orientation time must be devoted to just letting the participants get to know each other.

It is clear that states are spending more time and effort planning new member orientation, and they are trying to make it fun.  Wyoming used some mock committee hearings that starred legislative leaders and veteran lawmakers as witnesses on a tattoo parlor bill.  The experience showcased their acting skills, but most importantly it showed a bi-partisan interest in helping the new legislators get a sense of how the legislature really operates.  NCSL has conducted some extensive surveys and written some magazine articles
on new member orientation, but the best advice has always come from the exchange of ideas from those conducting new member orientation in the states. 

What's new in your state's new member orientation and what advice would you pass on to your colleagues who are planning the next round?  Let us know by adding a comment below.

Bruce Feustel is a senior fellow in NCSL's Legislative Management program and staffs the Legislative Effectiveness Committee.

Comments

[Alfred Speer]

Bruce:
Your links are missing the most recent "State Legislatures" article on orientation programs: "Learning to Legislate" By Sheila McCant in the July/August 2008 edition. This article outlines the Louisana House's efforts to orient the 59 (of 105) members elected to their first legisative term after term limits.
Anyone desiring more detailed information can contact Sheila, Mary Quaid or me.

[Bruce Feustel]

Sheila's excellent article can be found at: http://www.ncsl.org/magazine/articles/2008/08SLJulAug08_Learning.htm

[Wendy Madsen]

Bruce, thanks so much for this forum. I would love to know the types of staff that coordinate new member orientation in different states, because I think it happens in a variety of staff functions. Perhaps a listserve for orientation planners may be a way to link us together in the future.

My best advice is for planners to focus on what new members absolutely need to know at different points in time, versus what would be nice to know. They will eventually glean the details over the course of their legislative service and it's important not to overwhelm them. Looking forward to more dialogue on this subject!

[JoAnn Hedrick]

Bruce,
Advice I would offer to planners is the following: earn their trust early, provide a reality-based introduction to the legislative process, use veteran legislators to facilitate a mock session, include a spouse program and, over all, be flexible.
With regard to content, I would suggest, among others that are more obvious, briefings on ethics, sexual harassment, constituent services, the lobby and media relations.

[Beverly Adams]

North Carolina partners with the UNC School of Government for new member orientations. The first session held in December after the election is held at the Legislative Complex and the focus is on administrative matters, ethics, learning about the various Divisions, time in the Chambers, etc. A follow-up orientation is held, usually in January, in Chapel Hill at the School of Government and the topics are more policy or "hot issues" related. A third session is held immediately after a new member's first long session and that session in held in Chapel Hill as well.

Spouses are invited to the first orientation session and one of their sessions is on ethics.

All of the articles NCSL has published on the subject of orientation has been helpful.