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I'm a [Insert Role at Lege Here], why should I use this site?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. I am a legislative staffer.

   Unload all the things you have to do on a day-to-day basis that get in the way of your doing the real work your boss requires you to do. Copies. Tracking news stories. Talking with constituents. SLT will help you help your boss. It’s that simple. You process a lot of paper and other forms of information about news, events, bills and constituent opinion that is NOT confidential and that people want to see. You can show it to them on SLT without having to make copies or getting stopped in the hallway. Create a user account for you personally or one for your office so you can enable your constituents, the public and agency staff to keep up with what you are doing. Alas, you can even get those pesky lobbyists off your back for copies of committee documents. Just send them to your profile at SLT. And remember: as a legislative staffer, you have special privileges on SLT; any post by an official on SLT can be viewed and sorted in ways that normal SLT posts aren’t. Try it.  

2. I work at a state agency. 

   All the documentation and research your provide members and staff of the legislature can be posted on SLT for everyone to see. You can upload posts to your specific agency Guide or your personal profile (under your name, a pseudonym or a generic agency name that doesn’t identify you personally) so that when people need access to documents or other information – late at night or early in the morning – they’ve got a place to go. Likewise, if you encourage legislative staff to post to SLT, you won’t have to constantly bother them with requests for documents used in legislative hearings. Are agency stakeholders constantly hassling you for information? Send them to your profile on SLT."

3. I am a lobbyist.

   You need information that everyone else has. The agencies have it. Members and staff have it. You don’t. Save your chits with committee staff and just encourage them to post (or have agencies post) documentation to SLT so everyone can see it. With respect to the issues you’re pushing, you need the legislative community to have easy access to your one-pagers, Power Point presentations and all the other information (daily news, public input, events, documents) that support them. You need to do two things: 1) set up a free issue Guide so that your clients, legislative and agency staff can retrieve information about the latest goings-on with respect to your issue. 2) you might also consider using SLT’s private Groups feature. The private Groups feature enables you to talk with your client or other interested parties without posting information to the public SLT. Whatever you choose, SLT will help you manage your day-to-day information.  

4. I am a member of the media.

   If you need information for committee proceedings or a Member office, you can now ask them to post this information to SLT for everyone to see. SLT’s posting features for News, Documents, Events, Posts and Guides remove the distribution and cost considerations from the calculus of public officials trying to determine whether it is appropriate to release public information. There may well be reasons under the law to prevent release of information, but no longer can it be said that it’s too hard or costly.

5. I am a citizen.

   You’ve got a right to see the information your legislators consider. It’s that simple. SLT gives you the same access that everyone else has. For free. You’ll also be able to voice your opinion on the issues that are important to you through our special Guides feature. Want to tell a legislator what you think, just go to their profile and say it.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why register?

   Registration is free and SLT organizes your Documents, Posts, News, Guides and Events for your convenience in your own personal profile (under your name, a pseudonym or a generic agency name that doesn’t identify you personally). Everything you do is tracked for your benefit and for everyone else's. You can even register under multiple names, so long as your email address is different for each one. You can fully reveal your identify or totally expose it.

2. What's up with my Profile?

   Your profile does a lot. It helps you manage all the information you use on a daily basis - Events, Public Posts, Documents, Guides, News. It also takes matters a step further, though. It enables other people to see what is important to you and they can track your interests and movements based on what you do. If you produce a lot of documentation, for example, posting it to SLT enables people to interact with your profile instead of you. And that's helpful.

3. What is tagging and why do I have to do it?

   Tagging is a simple a way to identify what you are posting to SLT. You need to tag so that people who conduct searches can find what it is you have to show. If you don't tag, it will be harder for users to find your content. It may take a time or two to get used to, but over time you'll find it's pretty easy. And, for your convenience, SLT remembers your tags so if you use a lot of the same tags over and over you don't have to re-type them.

4. What can I do with the Events feature?

   SLT enables anyone to post information about upcoming events. Whether it's a fundraiser, funeral or happy hour you can tell the SLT world about events you think are important. We even have cool maps to show your desired audience how to get there. Remember, if you don't want a lot of people showing up to your event, you probably shouldn't use SLT. Just something to keep in mind.

    

5. What can I do with the Documents feature?

   In the Legislative world, multiple parties have to share information to make things happen. Particularly in state agency and legislative settings, documentation is extremely voluminous. SLT provides users with a means to upload documents that are important to the legislative or political process. SLT users can search by relevant tags (subjects), the person who uploaded it, the relevant agency and so on. If a document needs to be edited or deleted after it's posted, no problem. The person who uploaded the document can simply take it down or alter it. Check it out.

6. What can I do with the Guides feature?

   Guides may be the most unique and most helpful feature on SLT. Guides enable SLT users to post comprehensive information about Issues, People, Committees, Bills and Floor proceedings and more. Setting up a Guide is free and is a super way to convey and organize your concerns for large audiences.

7. What can I do with the News feature?

   SLT users determine what news is important to read. SLT does not provide original news content at this early stage; we hope to provide original content one day soon. When SLT users read on-line news, they simply add it to SLT by using a special button. There is no need to cut and paste. After this, you quickly tag it and add any comments you think are relevant. SLT posts it to the "New" section for all SLT users. SLT users then vote on whether they like the article or not. You can, too.

8. What is the Voting feature and how do I use it?

   SLT let's users rank what is important. SLT users – not SLT staff - are the first line of defense on the site for content. If SLT users think a post or other type of content is inappropriate, they simply “flag” the post to begin the process of removing it, or at least reducing its prominence on the site.