Thousands of state legislators from across the country met in San Antonio, Texas from August 8-11 for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Annual meeting. Legislators discussed a number of issues facing state governments, including open government/transparency, shrinking budgets, changing role of state government, health care, education and immigration. Legislators had 150 different policy sessions to choose from to learn the latest strategies other states are using to save money or get the latest information on a pertinent issue. I represented NASCIO at the conference and promoted the role of states CIOs and trends with state IT. I attended several sessions discussing various aspects of technology such as “Using Technology to Get More Bang for the Buck” which legislators had a conversation about cloud computing, consolidation, virtualization and legacy systems.
Legislators also elected new leadership for NCSL. Kansas Senate President Stephen R. Morris has officially become president of NCSL while Representative Terie Norelli of New Hampshire was elected president-elect. In addition, NCSL’s membership approved a number of policy statements that allows NCSL’s staff to lobby Congress and the Obama Administration. NSCL will post presentations from their conference at www.ncsl.org at a later date.