The idea behind NOLA developed over a drink in a hotel bar. Push Howard (Oklahoma) and Emerson Gilbert (Ohio) met for the first time at the 1987 Denver National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) meeting, and discovered each other�s involvement in online legislative services. They agreed that those in this burgeoning industry should get together to discuss matters of common interest, and set out to identify companies operating in other states.
After research and outreach, Emerson and Push called together the first meeting just a year later, on October 7th, 1988, in Chicago. Those attending included: Bob Hannah and Sue Moore (Michigan), Andy Fish (Texas), Ned and Diane Creighton (Arizona), Cheryl Bell (California and New York), and, of course, Emerson and Push. They discussed the merits and pitfalls of companies meeting to share ideas, and agreed that an organization of companies could provide a forum for open and frank discussions of product, marketing and technical ideas.
While that first meeting was an informal meeting, the attending states determined that any organization should not be an association, and that it would consist of "associate" states. They also agreed that membership should be open to anyone in the online legislative service industry, but that it would also be restrictive and new members could be accepted through a majority vote of existing associates.
Though no specific follow-up was planned, a second meeting in Chicago occurred the following year, and Roger Potts (Arkansas), Lane Philips (Minnesota), and Brad Forrester (Tennessee) joined the original group.
During that time, Ned suggested the name National Online Legislative Associates, and the acronym NOLA was born out and settled upon. From then on, the stage was set for future organization accomplishments such as:
- TELRAN inter-company access to legislative information in multiple statesAnother key development for NOLA occurred in 1996 when Michael Segal (Massachusetts) introduced outside speakers, state-by-state service analysis, and serious discussion topics to the Annual NOLA Conference held in Boston that year.
Throughout the years, NOLA has had members covering the Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas legislatures.
Click here to view the list of current NOLA members
Interested in joining? Click here to contact NOLA
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