2011 Legislature: And they're off.

You gotta be here to appreciate the excitement.

Take the House Environment and Water Committee, chaired by the hunky (ok, that's enough of the America's-sexiest-teacher stuff) Ben Cannon. In less than ten minutes: introduce all the committee members, adopt committee rules, crank through a work session in which Rep Jefferson Smith "passionately" introduced two bills for the committee to address, Rep Bob Jenson commented that he is against bills that did not pass muster in the 2009 regular session being brought back up here — and gavel the sucker closed in under ten minutes.

Government efficiency in action.

Or perhaps, as Rep Deborah Boone suggested, don't stand between a committee chair and his lunch.

That's pretty much par for the course today. Committee introductions, rules adoption, preliminary set of bills to be worked on, adios. With twenty work days for the entire session, very little time for the niceties. Way too much to do in way too little time.

One thing I am quickly learning: be prepared. Know when the committee meetings are, know the room, be there and be ready. If you're going to testify, come early and turn your written testimony in ahead of time. The best preparation, of course, is to be in a position to get a heads-up from a legislator or staff; that's not very simple. They are all busy and there are a ton of people waiting to pounce at any moment. But by being here and by being politely aggressive — take any available opening, any gap in schedule or sycophants — you can say hello, have a quick work on a topic, get a chance to learn what you need.

What's great is that most of the electeds and staff want to help. Rep Brian Clem, without any prompting, let me know what his Ag Committee is addressing (Thursday 8am, rural-urban reserves; a big damn deal). I was able in my first hour to speak with Speaker Hunt, Rep Greg Matthew and Veterans Committee Chair Jean Cowan about the National Guard — and I got warm and positive feedback from all. If some of the good things we progressives would like to see advance do not, I do not believe it will be from either disregard for these issues or a negative attitude towards constituents and advocates; in this session, it's about having approximately 200 hours to get all this stuff done.

Stay tuned.