State and Federal Communications was a sponsor of a recent WASRG holiday event to raise money for The Children’s Inn at NIH, which is located in Bethesda, Maryland and serves pediatric patients and their families from all over the world.

Current WASRG President Stefani Grant from Unilever and 2015 WASRG President Rebecca South from State & Federal Communications sent the following thank you note:

“On behalf of the Washington Area State Relations Group Board of Directors, I would like to let you know that the Annual WASRG Holiday Happy Hour raised $1,974 for The Children’s Inn at NIH!  Your generosity and good cheer helped to make our event fun and allowed WASRG to give to a worthy cause.”

We are always happy to work with WASRG and we’re honored to do our part to help The Children’s Inn at NIH!

The research team at State and Federal Communications has developed an Inaugurations Guide to help provide our clients with the most up-to-date changes. The guide is based on the November 2014 elections and provides names of the governors, inauguration dates, rules about providing tickets to events, and contributing to inaugural committees.

This guide provides you with yet another compliance reference tool to effectively handle the changing legislation as it pertains to government affairs. For non-subscribers you can gain access to the guide by clicking on the following link, Inaugurations Guide.

The Washington Area State Relations Group (WASRG) is throwing a holiday party with fun, food, and networking – all for a good cause! State and Federal Communications is proud to be a sponsor of the WASRG Holiday Happy Hour & Philanthropic Event in Washington, D.C. on December 17, 2014.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to The Children’s Inn at NIH, a facility designed to keep families together as children receive treatments for critical illnesses at the National Institute of Health.

State and Federal Communications is pleased to announce the addition of information to assist you with your planning for the upcoming gubernatorial inaugurations and related events. The document, available for subscribers to our services, can be found on the User Dashboard, which is the landing page you arrive at after logging in to the website. The link can be found on the left-hand side, below your bookmarks and the link to the Classroom tutorial videos.

Two common scenarios are covered: the rules on providing inaugural event tickets to public officials and the rules covering contributions to inaugural committees. All 36 states that elected a governor in 2014 are covered.

We had a great time at COGEL 2014 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We enjoyed four days of expert sessions on campaign finance, lobbying, and government ethics. Plenary speakers included Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto; political reporter Dave Davies; Jeff Smith, professor of politics and advocacy at the New School; and Paul Liebman, Chief Compliance Officer for the University of Texas at Austin.  It was great to see everyone. We hope you enjoy these photos from the conference:

State and Federal Communications has a team of 10 leaving tomorrow to attend the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) 36th Annual Conference! It will be held from December 7-10 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

COGEL always  offers great sessions concerning lobbying, campaign finance, governmental ethics, and election laws and best practices.

It will be good to see many familiar faces and meet new members.

Here is our December-January calendar. If you are attending any of the coming events, please stop by and say hello!

December 3   Ohio Society Holiday Party; Washington, DC

December 6-10   COGEL, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

December 9-12   NCSL Fall Forum, Washington, DC

January 8-11   NCSL Executive Committee Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana

January 9-11   Women In Government Annual Meeting, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida

January 11-16   Public Affairs Institute, Laguna Beach, California

If you are in a panic about 2015, relax, we have you covered. The list attached shows all of the jurisdictions included in the State and Federal Communications website. Every state in our country will be in session in 2015 and those cities and counties are not going to sit back and do nothing. They will all be busy.

We are happy to report our list of municipalities continues to grow and many more will be added along with the U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

So many of our clients are drilling down from the states and going to cities and counties, and those jurisdictions do not always follow state rule. We have always emphasized doing your homework before venturing into a state, and our website can help when you are planning your municipality work.

Stay tuned…We are venturing into unknown territory in 2015 and reviewing international lobbying and campaign finance laws.  Who knows where this will take us.

In the meantime, State and Federal Communications wishes our clients and friends a very happy holiday season and we looking forward to seeing you in the New Year.

click here to view

Thank you,

Elizabeth Z. Bartz
President and CEO
@elizabethbartz

The SGAC Foundation Leaders’ Policy Conference is always an extraordinary gathering of legislative leadership from the states and top state government affairs professionals. We are attending the conference, which will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona on November 22-25, 2014. The agenda boasts a wide range of speakers including Donna Brazile, Secretary Tom Ridge, and Ashley Judd!

State and Federal Communications is proud to be a Special Events Sponsor of this great event!

State and Federal Communications is proud to be a sponsor of the Professional Women in Advocacy Conference on November 19-21, 2014 in Washington, D.C.

We are also excited to announce Elizabeth Bartz will be moderating the Friday lunch discussion panel Been There, Done That: Words of Wisdom and Experience.

The amazing panel lineup includes Debra Cabral, CEO of Story Partners; The Honorable Nancy Johnson, Senior Advisor of Baker Donelson; and The Honorable Barbara Kennelly, Founder of Barbara Kennelly Associates.

Lobby Comply will be taking a one-week break. We’ll be back on Friday, November 14 with our weekly News You Can Use Digest.

Enjoy your weekend!

Elizabeth Bartz has been named one of the 2014 Women of Power by the Akron Urban League at their Fourth Annual Awards Luncheon.

The organization says: “Women of Power Awards are granted to women who have made a difference in the organizations where they work and also to the community at-large.  Award nominees can be of any age or level in their careers, they might be well known in the community or unsung heroes, but they are women who are committed to making a difference and giving back.”

Congratulations, Elizabeth!