iStateLink 3.0Help and Training Tutorial

December 2010

iStateLink Home Page

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Calendar Key Performance Indicator (KPI) DashboardQuick Lookup

Splash ScreenSaved Searches

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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

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Legislative Bill Records

Legislative reports include: Bill information, Sponsor, Summary, Link to Bill Text,

Status, and Outlook Legislative reports are updated daily

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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 email as bills are introduced and updated. Legislation that is not identified as Priority will be alerted via email 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.

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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)

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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)

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AB

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

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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”

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“Send to My Calendar” via Email

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

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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”

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Reports

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

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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 displayed15

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

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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

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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

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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)

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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 Regulations21

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”

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“Send to My Calendar” via Email

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

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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 Image25

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 legislation26

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Special Reports

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

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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 email

address, website, and an email directory for Stateside’s managers