Pillars of the statehouse: legislative clerks and secretaries enforce the rules, record proceedings, and this year, celebrate the 70th anniversary of their professional staff network.

• Author: Andrews, Angela
• Position: LEGISLATIVE STAFF

Chief clerks and secretaries may be few in number, but they're mighty in stature. They were the first type of legislative staff and are the backbone of a legislative chamber. They serve as parliamentarians, chief administrative officers and record-keepers. They oversee the legislative process and ensure its rules, traditions and practices are followed.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries (ASLCS), the professional organization for these legislative staff members. As their jobs have grown in complexity and expanded in responsibilities, it's clear the organization has not only provided great professional development opportunities, but personal support as well.

Karen Wadsworth, clerk of the New Hampshire House of Representatives since 1994, says the organization is like family with coast-to coast connections. "When most people see that your job title is clerk, they think it's someone ringing up an order at 7-Eleven. It's nice to be part of a group that understands exactly what I do and that has the knowledge to answer my parliamentary questions," she says.

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Scott Kaiser, assistant secretary of the Illinois Senate, adds that it can boost one's confidence to know, from talking with other clerks and secretaries, that the frustrations, challenges and struggles he faces as part of his job in Illinois, "are no different elsewhere."

The American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries is an "incredible network of clerks and secretaries from across the country that you can call in a moment's notice to get professional advice," says Patsy Spaw, secretary of the Texas Senate and immediate past staff chair of NCSL. "I've had the opportunity to be mentored by, and rub shoulders with, the best of the best who care about your professional development."

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But, beyond the professional development and support, ask any member what the society means to them and the answer is always the same: friendship. "I've met wonderful friends that I've been able to share life experiences with and, if given the opportunity, I'd do a lot for them in a heartbeat," says Patrick O'Donnell, clerk of the Nebraska Legislature and former NCSL staff chair. "We are all in a similar position, and we all have passion for our work and respect for the legislative institution."

The organization was founded in 1943, but clerks and secretaries date as far back as 1619, when the first-known U.S. clerk, John Twine, oversaw the House of Burgess in the Colony of Virginia.

Not surprising, the duties of the job have expanded greatly since then. Today's clerks and secretaries are also responsible for oversight of public and media relations, chamber technology, purchasing, printing, and fiscal and human resource operations of the legislature. Spaw, for example, oversees 15 departments, both administrative and legislative. She manages 300 staff during the legislative session and 250 during the interim. During sessions, they call roll, tally votes to ensure quorums, read bills into the record and maintain decorum during debates.

But a lot of their work is behind the scene. "Reading of the bills, taking the roll call ... that's a small part, but the most visible part, of our job," says Kaiser. Seventy percent of a clerk's work is administrative and takes place off the floor, he says.

A key part of that administrative work is preparing the chamber's journal, the official record of legislative action, a task that remains from when Twine was required to "attend at the table and take notes of the orders and proceedings," writes parliamentary scholar Luther Cushing in "Cushing's Manual of Parliamentary Practice: Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies."

"At the end of the session, it is the business of the clerk to see that the journal of the session is properly prepared, and fairly transcribed from the minute books, the printed votes, and the original papers that have been laid before the house," he writes.

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For most clerks, secretaries and their staff, their interest in policymaking walks them through the doors of the capitol, but their love of the institution and of the legislative process is what keeps them there. Although the job requires many skills, there is no...