COLLABORATION! The current industry "buzz" word. Collaboration in lobbying is the working together of multiple people to accomplish an end result, whether that is passing, killing, or amending a piece of legislation. TELICON offered our first collaboration tool, ATLAS, over twenty years ago, and today we have five powerful collaboration tools, each with its own purpose. Let's start... ATLAS - ATLAS is the tool that reaches within an organization to the subject matter experts so they can provide the most comprehensive analysis on the impact of a piece of legislation to the organization. Currently, ATLAS is in use in seven states by thousands of analysts. This tool is used by state agencies, associations, corporations, and even lobby organizations who want to engage their clients. eTEAM - First released twelve years ago, eTEAM allows multiple lobbyists to work together on the same piece of legislation by sharing resources such as remarks, documents, white papers, press releases, and spreadsheets to create a coordinated effort at the capitol. Read how easy it is to use in the short User's Manual . POSITrac - Released four years ago, POSITrac is designed to distribute the job of securing vote commitments to non-client members of your organization. For example, when there is a legislative day at the capitol you can assign bills to different teams and specific legislators to meet with. From their smartphone they can see where to go, what the legislator looks like, review the specific talking points, enter a commitment, and even make notes. POSITrac is include with your account. eSHARE - This feature has been available for over years. It is used primarily by associations who want to share their comments with their members who are also subscribers of TELICON. Remarks by the parent organization can be viewed as Associated Remarks in the Remarks and Documents section of each bill.  TRANSNET - This feature has also been available for years. Each night after all of the actions are loaded we build a web page with your bills and comments and publish it directly to your web page. Once it is set up there is no involvement on your side to keep it current. We can also provide it in XML format if you have a tech team that wants to customize the look. Information provided by Andy Fish, Managing Partner, Telicon

View Opening Day Senate Protocols Here View House Recommendations Here View Texas State Preservation Board Protocols Here

As noted in the Quorum Report, House Administration Committee Chairman Charlie Geren just released the results of a House member survey which provides thoughts on conducting business during the pandemic. We received a copy of the survey from the House that you can download here .

The Sunset Commission met this morning with the goal of approving rules for how it will review significant state agencies during a pandemic. But the meeting abruptly melted down and was eventually adjourned with no decision made on how to move forward. Most members seemed to expect it would be a short meeting including a quick vote on a plan that had basically been agreed to over the last week. But it turned into a two-hour discussion about whether meetings should be in-person or virtual. In that sense, it was not unlike the State Republican Executive Committee’s recent marathon emergency meetings over whether the Republican Party of Texas Convention could be held in person or online. The Sunset Commission members adjourned without voting, despite what was thought to be an initial test for setting procedures for the upcoming legislative session. The rules, seen here, were distributed to members last week. A last-minute suggestion by Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood to propose either hybrid or in-person meetings divided the commission. Chairman John Cyrier of Bastrop, along with Transportation Chairman Terry Canales of Edinburg, Energy Resources Chairman Chris Paddie of Marshall and Reps. Stan Lambert of Abilene and Craig Goldman of Fort Worth, all pushed for a vote today. Along with Hall, Vice Chair Sen. Dawn Buckingham of Lakeway and Senators Pat Fallon of Prosper and Angela Paxton of McKinney questioned the move to virtual meetings. “I’ve advocated for opening schools and slowly and intelligently opening Texas. We’re having an in-person meeting to debate whether we’re having an in-person meeting [and we have] hand sanitizer, social distancing and masks,” Sen. Fallon said. “Let’s get to work in person and get ‘er done.” Rep. Paddie said the heart of the matter is not how they meet, but the timeline. He noted that at this point in the last review cycle the commission had already reviewed many of the agencies on their agenda. “We are already behind,” Paddie said. Among the 21 agencies up for review this time around are the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the Texas Department of Agriculture, Animal Health Commission, Economic Development and Tourism Office, Jail Standards, Law Enforcement, Parks and Wildlife and the Teachers Retirement System. The full list is here. Sunset Executive Director Jennifer Jones said they’ve spent months preparing for virtual hearings but added the staff is ready and willing to adapt if needed. “If our plan is to not go virtual, then we need to regroup,” Jones said. A visibly irritated Chairman Cyrier pushed for a vote on the plan, even if it is imperfect. Sen. Buckingham suggested voting on the rules without the language about meetings. Texas House members opposed that idea. Sen. Hall went further, objecting to a vote at all, suggesting instead they propose a hybrid plan. “We don’t have to do this as a hard either-or. We’ve already done both,” Hall said. “If we consider a hybrid, we respect the liberty of individuals. We give them a choice,” Hall suggested. A schedule could be released in advance and witnesses could sign up for allotted slots at the Capitol or online, Hall argued. “We’re setting a bad precedent,” Hall insisted. “School leaders could say, ‘if the Legislature can’t meet in person, then why should we?’” Rep. Canales said that could be a logistical nightmare, and potentially unfair to the public. “Once that schedule is filled, do we have to say it’s first come, first serve?” Canales asked, noting other issues such as safety protocols with large crowds needed to be addressed. “We need to keep moving,” Canales said. Rep. Goldman questioned Sen. Hall’s timing. “What changed? We got this (proposal) a week ago. What changed?” Goldman asked Hall. “I’m a slow learner,” Hall said. “Why throw this out today? The staff could be ready. You said you were a slow learner but I don’t believe it,” Goldman said. Creating the rules is part of the work they do, Hall said. And they are setting a precedent for the body and the state. After a recess, Sen. Buckingham pulled down her motion and Chairman Cyrier adjourned the meeting. “This is not the outcome we had intended,” Cyrier said. After the meeting it appeared the commission nixed their next meeting, which had been slated for later this month. By James Russell Copyright August 04, 2020, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved. Printed with permission.

The House Parliamentarians recently sent out a memo which outlines 3 interim options for conducting business in light of the current pandemic:   Option 1 – Post Committee Chair Updates to Committee Members/Public on the House Website Option 2 – Issue a Formal Request for Information through TLO/TLIS and House Website Option 3 – Online Events Conducted by Committee Chair   You can view the memo here .

During our recent Mentorship Zoom , Mignon McGarry and Lara Keel discussed their thoughts on a variety of topics, including best practices. Mignon said not to overlook the tried and true and explained that things like handwritten notes have a lot of value - particularly with legislators and staff who receive an over abundance of electronic information. In short, a handwritten letter adds a personal touch that cannot be duplicated electronically. To this end, we talked with a local company - PK Designs - and they are offering PAAT members 20% off stationery through June 15. They have designed some more business specific sets for PAAT as well as have a variety of other options. The stationery takes just a little over a week to arrive - sooner if you need a rush order.

We are excited to launch the PAAT mentorship series . Our goal is to create a platform for young or new lobbyists to learn from seasoned vets and have the opportunity to ask questions and pick their brains on a variety of topics. Click here to see the line-up and register for our initial Zoom discussions. Each mentor Zoom discussion is limited to 10 participants in order to allow for a more personal conversation.

We just received this question in our compliance in-box and wanted to share our response in the event others are having a similar issue. We are wondering if it is possible to suspend a lobbyist's registration for a period of time, while the lobbyist is not receiving any compensation from the client or making any communication on the client's behalf. If possible, we'd like to suspend a registration rather than file a lobby termination notice, because re-registering would require another payment of registration fees. If a filer becomes inactive, he/she may terminate the registration. A termination report is required and the filer will have to agree to the restrictions. Please see Form TN – “ Before You Terminate Your Registration " . For a filer that is registered in a year and files a Form TN, there is no threshold over which registration is triggered. The first communication will require re-registration. At this time, a filer who re-registers as a lobbyist in the same calendar year is not required to pay a second registration fee. The fee is $750 for a calendar year. If a filer is inactive, but remains registered, reporting is still required. Let us know if you have any questions on this issue.