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Wrap up: Legislature 101 (complete video embedded)
Feb 08, 2010 | By mailelaulii neff
Senator Les Ihara, Jr. noted that normally, workshops on the Legislature don't draw big crowds. He said that the Kanu / Common Cause event on January 28th was the largest audience he'd seen gathered for such a workshop in over a decade!
More than 100 people crammed into the room at the State Capitol on a Thursday evening. We also "live streamed" this event via the internet - a first for us. We had some sound challenges at first (mahalo to those online that helped us sort that out), but got the sound and video working well about half way into the event. In addition to 115 people in the room, 70 more tuned in during the live cast. We'll definitely live cast more events!
Doing our part as citizens requires that we know about the Legislature, and this is where "Leg 101" came in. Suzanne Marinelli, Coordinator for the Public Access Room at the State Capitol kicked it off with a brief and entertaining talk about how to keep track of bills, connect with your representatives, and stay informed. One thing she emphasized: Legislators deal with thousands of bills every year, and cannot possibly know everything about every issue. They depend on the testimony of citizens, like us, to help them understand the pros and cons, and to expand their knowledge about the issues.
Suzanne was followed by an all-star panel that included Rep. Maile Shimabukuro, Sen. Les Ihara, Jeff Mikulina of the Blue Planet Foundation, and Kapua Sproat of the Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. The two legislators gave an inside perspective on what kinds of messages from citizens make the biggest impression on lawmakers, emphasizing the importance of talking to -your- representative and letting them know that you are a constituent and you vote. Jeff and Kapua talked about being effective as citizen-advocates. Kapua's list of Top 10 Things to keep in mind was invaluable.
If you missed the event, we've posted the unedited video below in two parts. If you want a great summary, check out Carmine Lim's journal entry Legislature 101. We also posted up Helpful Links for Citizens, Olin posted a few on the Kanu flickr page and Patrick Kelly (the picture up top is from his collection) and Ricky Li posted a few to the Kanu Group page on Flickr. What we couldn't post was the taste of the yummy food provided by Melanie of Red Ginger Cafe.
The workshop was a first step in gearing up for our 2010 "Make Our Voices Count" campaign where we will ask Kanu members to commit to getting involved in the lawmaking process. In the coming week, we will post 10 issues, have members discuss and vote, then create opportunities for people to make their voices heard at the Capitol. Stay tuned for the launch of Make Our Voices Count soon.
Mahalo to our partners at Common Cause, and to all who participated!
Part One
Part Two
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