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POLICY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
Bank Midwest - Cameron
March 24, 2006

Organizational Structure
Great Northwest Day at the Capitol is a product of Leadership Northwest Missouri. The event is coordinated by a volunteer steering committee.

The steering committee is lead by a chairperson or co-chairpersons. For the 2006-2007 Great Northwest Day at the Capitol Event, selected were:

• Cyndra Lorey, Chair
• Mark Garges, Co-Chair

The steering committee includes sub-committees with the following focus:

Events- Natalie Leonard-Redmond, Chair
Marketing and Public Relations- Lisa Luke, Chair
Issues- Shellby Hendee, Chair
Administration-Event Coordinator- Deb Powers
Corporate Sponsorships- Deb Powers, Chair
Policy Development- Ad Hoc Committee

Policies are set by the group through an ad hoc, Policy Development Committee. The Program Administrator (currently Deb Powers) is the Event Coordinator and is ultimately responsible for the outwardly smooth flow of the event. On the day of the event, the Event Coordinator and Committee Chairs are accountable for the successful execution and oversight of event details and the Chair/Co-Chair will make themselves available for any last minute corrections or detail decisions. The Chair and Co-Chair may enact procedure as needed to ensure the success of the event.

Events Committee will plan the details of the event as indicated in previous succession plan. The Events Committee will assign roles within the committee to address various functions and portions of the event (i.e., booth set-up, entertainment, decorations, lunch program, etc).

Event Coordinator will work closely with the Events Committee to ensure that assigned information is compiled and those accepting the tasks are available during the event. Coordinator will also work with the Marketing Committee to ensure proper County-Coordinator contact information; provide event updates for e-mail dispersal; and for follow-up event contact and news releases.

Issues Committee will have the task of coordinating the region’s issues including communication with northwest Missouri legislators, facilitating issue selection and communicating the issues in a timely fashion to the Marketing Committee and Event Coordinator.

Issues Development

Questions

• How can we improve and enhance Issues Development, Communication and Implementation?
• How do we handle issues?
• How do we develop issues?
• How do we encourage regional participation to create issues?

Suggestions

• Send out mass e-mail to all that have participated in Great Northwest Day this past year, (Administrator has e-mail addresses if provided at time of registration). Ask the question, “What do you think are the two most important regional issues that can be impacted by our State Legislators?”
• Have the professionals in those particular fields fine-tune the two issues.
• Combine similar, pressing issues that crop up throughout the region (if it’s timely and important to one community, can the rest support the issue?)

Policies

• Send out a separate invitation to attend the Healthy Communities Summit- with an emphasis on the Regional Legislative Issues Forum.
• Issues that polarize a region or show distinct partisanship are not considered as a primary regional issue.
• Entire Great Northwest committee will look at suggestions and whittle the process down. The entire committee casts the final vote for the top issues.

Event Registration
The primary focus of the event is to raise awareness in Jefferson City of northwest Missouri and northwest Missouri legislative issues. The challenge is knowing who event attendees are so that we may welcome them into the big event and at the community booths. Because each of the participating communities contributes funds and time to the success of the project, it is up to the GNW planners to ensure that both the community participants and legislative guests receive proper care and attention.

• Everyone entering the event must have a name-badge and be registered. (with the exception of Lt. Gov. and Governor)
• Legislators are welcome. The Event Coordinator will make sure that the registration desk has a list of legislators, and name badges for the legislators. One suggestion is to use stick-on badges so that when a badge is pulled, we can later cross-reference to track numbers in attendance.
• Staff members are welcome. Each legislative office will need to identify who will be attending in advance of the event. Staff members need to bring identification badges for the event. Event Coordinator will ask the legislators for a list of aides. Staff members (over 21) will receive two drink tickets.
• Interns are welcome. This is an over 21 event. Interns that are over 21 and that are accompanied by either their legislator, staff member from their office, or a constituent from the Great Northwest are welcome at the event. They must register at the front desk. The will receive two drink tickets.
• Department Directors and Deputy Directors are welcome. They will be on the master list of Legislators and may be designated by a separate color-coded badge.
• Department Staff are welcome. They must be first approved by the Great Northwest Committee prior to issuance of invitation (if it is a group-invited complimentary registration). If not a group invitation but invited by a specific community, it is counted as a community participant and the community hosts the registration for that staff person. (Authorization for these individuals is through County Coordinators only, unless paying in cash. This is for billing purposes.)
• Organizational Directors (MML, MEDC, MO Chamber, etc.) are welcome. They must be approved by the Great Northwest Committee prior to issuance of invitation (if it is a group-invited complimentary registration). If not a group invitation but invited by a specific community, it is counted as a community participant and the community hosts the registration for that guest. (Authorization for these individuals is through County Coordinators only, unless paying in cash. This is for billing purposes.)
• Lobbyists who are not pre-registered and don’t directly relate to northwest Missouri interests are not welcome. If invited by a specific community, it is counted as a community participant and the community hosts the registration for that guest. (Authorization for these individuals is through County Coordinators only, unless paying in cash. This is for billing purposes.)
• County Coordinators will educate their community attendees on these policies so that during their conversations with legislators, legislative staff and department representatives earlier that day, they can be aware of what is necessary to ensure a positive experience for the invited guests.
• Event Coordinator will ensure that the aides at the registration desk will have all of the necessary items to run the registration smoothly including markers, list of attendees, drink tickets (for late or extra registration), name badges, etc.
• Event Coordinator will assign someone to late registration. This is to accommodate someone from northwest Missouri not previously registered that may be at the Capitol during the time of this event.
• The Event Coordinator will request that the side-door be barred from entry so that the group can monitor the entrance of those attending.
• The Chair and/or Co-chair may have the right to approve admittance for a guest on the evening of the event if it is to the benefit of the GNW Day goals and objectives.
• Any individuals wanting to attend the Gala and have their registration billed to their community have to be approved by their County Coordinator, unless paying cash.

Corporate Sponsorship and Community Recognition
There is a recommendation to leave corporate sponsorship recognition as is. There are a limited amount of items within the event that are available for sponsorship. The minimum dollar amount for logo recognition has been set in the past. A previous event sponsor has the first option to continue sponsorship. Other corporate sponsors may be listed at the bottom of the page on the GNW Event Agenda and Lunch Program.

The focus is on community and community support. Each of the communities will be listed as presented on the community sponsorship registration form. The listing will be for a community as a whole (i.e. Worth County; Maryville-Nodaway County; Albany) and will not reflect separate sponsorships among community contributors (no separate recognition for organizations or businesses that might contribute to the whole of the community sponsorship). This reinforces that we are all one community- from city to county to region.

Booths will remain community booths only. Communities may invite and feature corporate and organizational entities within their showcase space.

Event Components
GNW Breakfast: Sponsorship that provides wrap up to event. Time: 7:30-8:30 a.m. At 8:00 a.m. there will be a briefing of the Monday evening Legislative dinner and other comments from the collective group about the legislative issues and how our elected officials perceived them.

Alternative Options for Afternoon Event during GNW Day: It is up to the Events Committee to plan alternative activities. However, many use the GNW Day at the Capitol event also as their “local legislative day” and may have their own agendas. Encourage County Coordinators to communicate with Event Committee those alternative activities prior to Optional Event planning. Marketing Committee reiterate to the County Coordinators that this is a great time to use the afternoon to talk to legislators.

Youth Involvement
Great Northwest Day at the Capitol is a professional event. The evening activity focuses on meeting and greeting legislators and department representatives and showcasing northwest Missouri. It has an adult emphasis including a band, reception, and hospitality stations.

Questions

• Can youth under 21 attend the event?
• Who is responsible for that youth? Parent, Community Designate, the group?
• Once at the event, how can we ensure that the youth stay directly with their responsible party?
• What happens with all scenarios?

Discussion

The GNW Day at the Capitol has a high-caliber reputation - how can we ensure that within our communities and in Jefferson City that reputation remains intact if those under 21 years of age are in attendance at the evening event?

Decisions

• The Great Northwest Day at the Capitol event including the Introduction on the House/Senate Floors, the Great Northwest Luncheon, and the Afternoon Activities- including legislative/department visits, are open to those under 21 years of age.
• Anyone under 21 attending any part of the Great Northwest Day at the Capitol two-day event MUST BE accompanied by a parent. The only exception: if the youth is affiliated with a specific organization or entity, the guardian or coordinator for the group is permitted to be the person responsible for the youth; as long as the GNW Event Coordinator receives parental permission for each participant provided by the group coordinator and guardian contact information in writing prior to the event (i.e. University or College Students, special interest youth). The County Coordinator cannot be the person responsible for the youth.
• The evening event is a 21 years of age and over event. Because there are hospitality stations, no one under 21 is allowed into the evening event. County Coordinators should let their community participants know this well in advance (encourage if they do invite interns and legislative staff to the event that might be close to that age, they let them know that rule as well).
• Because the evening event is a 21 and over event, no special recognition or consideration will be allotted to an organization or entity that features youth under 21.

Question: Can there be an alternative evening event for youth with the band centered between the two rooms or have an evening event for youth?

Decision: If connected to the Great Northwest Day at the Capitol Event, would have a separate sub-committee for the Youth event and activities would have to be pre-approved by Great Northwest Steering Committee.

Suggestion: Have a Separate GNW Youth Day with mentors for legislative lobby.

The decisions made by the Policy Committee throughout the Policy Discussion Notes are subject to the acceptance of the Great Northwest Day at the Capitol steering committee and will go into effect immediately upon approval.

**Policies adopted by the Great Northwest Steering Committee, August 22, 2006.

Download policies as a Word file.