God’s Rhythms
Any close observer of God’s amazing creation will see that there are patterns to be discerned over time. Some flowers bloom first thing in the morning and fade as the day goes on, our moon waxes and wanes like clockwork, affecting the lives of those who enjoy surfing the waves that surge and recede in a shared rhythm. Through the recent disruption of our daily routine, thanks to a disputed policy called Daylight Savings Time, we are all made aware of how the sun is our own cue to begin and end our day.
Legislative Rhythm
There is another man-made cycle disruption that occurs every year here in Florida that relatively few people even notice. If you happen to be someone who works within or with the state legislature, or if you happen to be a public policy nerd (like me), you would notice that the legislative session starts on a different date based on whether or not we’re in an even or odd numbered year. According to flsenate.gov, sessions begin in January on even numbered years and in odd numbered years, sessions start in March. Why, you ask? Mostly to accommodate the biennial (which means occurring every two years) mayhem better known as our election campaign cycle.
Legislative sessions last for 60 days, but the service that Florida’s legislators commit to their constituents extends year-round. The other three-hundred and five days are spent listening and learning from the people who reside in their districts. They also spend time striving to understand the challenges faced by local governing bodies such as county commissions, school boards, city councils as well as business and associations.
County Legislative Delegation Meetings
In fact, in the months leading up to the session, legislators designate time to organize themselves by the counties which their districts cover. They meet with local governing bodies, interest groups and citizens to hold a formal hearing where those groups are allowed to present their concerns. These are known as County Legislative Delegation Meetings, because we discuss their occurrence frequently with our COS volunteer team, we refer to them simply as CLDMs.
We encourage all volunteers to attend those meetings and if they are feeling bold enough and confident in their knowledge of Article V and Convention of States, they can sign up to speak to the delegation. CLDMs only happen once a year per county. It takes some tenacity and resourcefulness to find out when and where the meetings are being held, but it’s worth the effort. We could delve into all the reasons why, but that’s a topic for another day. The key point is that preparation for and participation in CLDMs is an important phase (season) of the legislative cycle for both the lawmaking body and our grassroots team learning the art of self-governance.
Next Season - Interim Committee Weeks
Another important series of events that we like to call a season is the schedule of what is known as Interim Committee Weeks. As with legislative session dates, the time of their occurrence depends on whether they fall on an even or odd year. If it’s an odd year, with no election chaos, they occur the months before the year-end holiday. They are scheduled by the Speaker of the House and Senate President.
Those weeks of committee meetings highlight the progress of the administration of the executive branch of Florida’s government, aka the Governor. Many of the presentations are progress reports on programs that were conceived and “birthed” through the legislative process in prior sessions. Some meetings are intended to “prime” the members of the legislative body for upcoming work intended to address specific issues in the next upcoming session.
The Session Begins
Once session has convened, a flurry of bills is filed within the first week. House Reps present their bills to three different committees in hopes of getting through that “gauntlet” by securing votes of support at each stop. Amendments may be proposed, voted on and added along the way.
Throughout the process, legislators reach out on their own time to communicate with fellow members whom they affectionately call colleagues (even when they disagree). They work out details within their sponsored bills that cause reluctance in granting an approving vote. This culture of collaboration becomes obvious to anyone who takes the time to see them in action while in committee.
Full Circle
So, there we have three seasons… CLDM season, Interim Committee season, and the culmination of those two seasons into Session, a crescendo of all that prior work. What would the fourth season be? And why is it so important to our grassroots effort?
It’s what we call our Homefront Season and it’s where COS volunteers can have the most impact by forging a relationship with our very own state house representative and senator.
Time on the Homefront fills a major part of the year when our legislators live and work among us as fellow Floridians. They too, get to experience the ramifications of the policy decisions that were made those few months in Tallahassee. This is the time when they make themselves available in their district offices for visits by you the citizen, constituent and self-governing activist. They welcome the opportunity to meet with your volunteer team and receive input and feedback on all that has been addressed via state law presented, debated and voted upon in our state’s capitol.
Convention of States at Work
Our job, as citizens, is to understand the issues and problems that our legislators attempted to solve, and to thoughtfully consider the new laws and programs created to rectify whatever societal issue needed to be addressed. Informed feedback, whether thoughtful criticism or heartfelt support is greatly appreciated by our lawmakers.
It is up to us to make sure we are paying attention throughout the process and respond when it is most prudent and appropriate. That’s why our legislative liaison team will be working to keep each district team informed of all the activity their representative and senator is engaging upon throughout the session.
We encourage our district captains to share the video links of meetings and floor sessions with their volunteer team and then plan to meet and discuss specific content that they find relevant. If you’d like to be kept apprised of your legislators’ endeavors, email the Legislative Liaison Team.
