iStateLink 3.0 Help and Training Tutorial December 2010

iStateLink Home Page 2 Calendar Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Dashboard Quick Lookup Splash Screen Saved Searches

3 Jurisdictions Monitored To view the Legislative Jurisdictions monitored, scroll down on the home page and refer to the left column of the key performance indicator dashboard To view the Regulatory Issues monitored, left click the “Regulations” tab and refer to the left column of the key performance indicator dashboard

Legislative & Regulatory Issues To view the Legislative Issues monitored, scroll down on the home page and refer to the center column of the key performance indicator dashboard To view the Regulatory Issues monitored, click the “Regulations” tab and refer to the center column of the key performance indicator dashboard If you receive only Regulatory Forecasting, you will default to Regulations 4

5 Legislative Bill Records Legislative reports include: Bill information, Sponsor, Summary, Link to Bill Text, Status, and Outlook Legislative reports are updated daily

6 Regulation Records Regulatory reports include: Issue and subissue Contact person Citation Upcoming Action Status Rule Summary Rule Development Regulatory reports are updated daily

Priority Legislation and Regulations Legislation that is identified as a Priority will be alerted via as bills are introduced and updated. Legislation that is not identified as Priority will be alerted via as hearings are scheduled. Individual legislation that is not identified as a Priority by issue may be customized by the user and made a Priority. From the Bill Record, click the circled “!” to make a non-priority bill a Priority. You will be prompted by a pop-up to confirm the action; click “Set Priority” to mark this item as a Priority. 7

Flag Legislation and Regulations You are able to flag legislation or regulations by clicking the box next to the Record (see A) You can filter a report by to show only flagged items by selecting “Only flagged items” from the Home Page and clicking “View Report” (see B) 8 A B

Add Comments to Records Click the note pad icon to add a comment to a Record (see A) You will be prompted to add your name and enter your comments (see B) You can search for all comments from the Home Page by clicking “View All Comments” (see C) 9 A B C

Calendar Use the calendar to view upcoming hearings and events on bills and regulations we are monitoring Use the calendar to make entries on your personal calendar 10

Using the Calendar Click on any date with a color Scroll to the event you want to add to your calendar Choose your calendar program When prompted, click “Save” 11

“Send to My Calendar” via You may add an event to your calendar when you receive an hearing alert from Stateside Associates Click the red “send to my calendar” button and you will be directed to a page on iStateLink Select the program where you wish to have the calendar event added and select “save” when prompted 12

Splash Screen The screen can be customized with up to 200 words and can include hyperlinks and images; contact Stateside Associates to have the text customized This can be closed by clicking “Hide” and opened by clicking “Show” 13

Reports Quick lookup Newly added bills and regulations Cumulative reports Final enacted bills and regulations Quick reports Refined reports 14

Quick Lookup To quickly find a bill or regulation use the quick lookup feature You can run a search by the sponsor’s last name, bill number or regulation ID If you use a prefix (i.e. AB, HB, SB) when searching by bill number, it is important to separate the prefix from the number with a space Once the criteria is entered, click “GO” and the results will be displayed 15

Newly Added Bills & Regulations To generate a report on newly added bills and regulations, click on the number adjacent to “Newly Added Bills” or “Newly Added Regulations” The number adjacent to the text indicates the amount of bills or regulations that have been added to your report in the last seven days The number does not represent bills which have been updated recently 16

17 Cumulative Reports Cumulative Reports include all bills or regulations To generate a cumulative report for all bills in one state, click on the number adjacent to the state name on the KPI dashboard For a cumulative report for all bills in all states relating to a particular issue, click on the number adjacent to the issue name on the KPI dashboard For a cumulative report for all bills in all states by status, click on the number adjacent to the status name on the KPI dashboard For a cumulative report for all bills in all states and all issues click on the number adjacent to “Total Bills” Similarly for all regulations, choose the Regulations tab and follow the instructions listed above

18 Enactments & Final Regulations To view a report with all bills that have been enacted, click on the “View Enactments” link under the Legislation tab To view a report with all regulations that have been finalized, click on the “View Final Regulations” link under the Regulations tab Links are provided in the report to each individual bill that has been enacted, or to each individual regulation that has been approved, and a link is provided to the full report of all enactments, or all final regulations

Quick Report The KPI dashboard features three criteria – jurisdiction, issues and status The number next to the list item shows how many bills/regulations we are monitoring for you (e.g. 5 Cadmium bills) For quick reports, click the numeral next to the criteria list item 19

Refined Reports You can create a report using the three columns of criteria – jurisdiction, issues and status There is no need to hold “Ctrl” while making multiple selections Once you have selected the criteria of the report, click “view report” at the bottom of the page For best results, click immediately to the side of the item you which to select (clicking the text makes it difficult to select) 20

More Refined Report You may search by date range, then filter by priority, and/or bills you have flagged, and choose your format for output There are five output formats – report, map, list, Excel chart and extended Excel chart When you have selected the criteria, click “view report” Same goes for Regulations 21

Saved Searches After running a report, you can save your search You can save up to five searches Click “save this search” on the top of the report, drag the cursor to the slot you wish to save the search under, click and title the search You can view your saved searches on the home page under “saved searches” 22

“Send to My Calendar” via You may add an event to your calendar when you receive an hearing alert from Stateside Associates Click the red “send to my calendar” button and you will be directed to a page on iStateLink Select the program where you wish to have the calendar event added and select “save” when prompted 23

Interactive Map Use the interactive map for navigation or presentations The interactive map shows the number of bills and regulations we are monitoring for you in the 50 states and District of Columbia To view the interactive map of legislation, select the “Legislation” tab and click “View Interactive Map” (see A) To view the interactive map of regulations, select the “Regulations” tab and click “View Interactive Map” (see B) 24 A B

Using the Interactive Map Click on any jurisdiction to view it’s report For a multiple state report, check the “Allow multiple- state selections” box, select any amount of jurisdictions and click “View Report” You can customize the map colors Right click on the map area and you can save the map as a JPEG Image, PNG Image or PDF Image 25

Grey Bar All of Stateside Associates’ information services represented here Not all clients receive all the information services, so the site features information to help conduct research in that area Local – this section provides links to the county government associations and municipal leagues across the U.S. Issue Management – this section will change periodically to provide information and perspective about State and Local Government Issue Management Current Law – this section provides links to state statutes and regulations States – this section is an aid to understanding the basic processes involved in state legislation 26

27 Special Reports Includes: The Groups Report Current Year’s Session Calendar Next Year’s Session Calendar Partisan Splits State Legislators’ Contact Information

28 Help and Resources Help using iStateLink – Provides contact information to the managers at Stateside Associates, please feel free to call them with any questions you may have Contact Stateside – Provides address, telephone and fax numbers, general address, website, and an directory for Stateside’s managers