With this year’s budgetary process and year bill reviews wrapping up let’s go through a review of what to lookout for next time if you feel you’ve been lost in the process. First is to know that sites like leginfo are great but they are honestly just a catalyst for this large, complicated process. It truly does take work and research to figure out exactly what is going on with the bill that has caught your organization’s interests. It requires building relationships with the representative offices and maintaining those relationships throughout the whole entire year not just when you have an issue. So, we have a question for our audience how much legislative engagement have you done this year? Do you know who your representatives are? Are you engaged in organizations that can help further the untreated issues of your industry? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you may want to consider joining an organization of which you are passionate about voluntarily. This is a good way to get your feet wet when you’re ready to deep dive into the legislative process you have your issue but don’t know where to start that’s where we come in. Our goal is to help you strategize get the issue in front of the right people in the legislature and in other forums. We’re going to ask you questions like are you a part of that organization that truly makes the driving decision after it comes down from the state? In populations like the disability community engagement with every entity that impacts it is essential for social and organizational change. Without people speaking bills just move through the process without those letters without those meanings the decisions are slowly made-up to politicians and those who contribute to their campaigns this never happens because people are always putting in their two cents. So the big question is Are you ready to be part of that conversation as an organization? Are you willing to do the hard work gathering information if necessary, figuring out your exact standpoint on an issue? We are hoping your answer is yes because it is only with interacting with these systems even on the most basic legislative level that you can begin to make an impact and get your voices heard!