New Officers Announced

NASS Administrative Rules Organization Elects National Officers Arizonan Scott Cancelosi to Lead National Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) Section

Washington, D.C. – The Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) today announced the election of its new slate of national officers for a two-year cycle. Arizona Public Services Division Director Scott Cancelosi will serve as president of the group, which includes administrative rules professionals from the federal government and all fifty U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa.
“I am extremely honored to be leading such an experienced, committed group of state professionals,” remarked Cancelosi, who leads the state division under Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, and has served under four different Arizona Secretaries of State since he began his tenure with the office in 1996. “In addition to showcasing ACR’s collective expertise in rulemaking processes, I am committed to engaging our membership in efforts that will further support the strategic mission of our organization.”
Cancelosi was elected along with other ACR officers in July at the NASS summer conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ACR members elected Washington State Register Editor Kerry Radcliff to serve as vice-president of the organization. Kentucky Assistant Administrative Regulations Compiler Emily Caudill was selected to serve as secretary-treasurer. As the organization’s national officers, Radcliff and Caudill will work with Cancelosi to direct ACR activities, including annual conferences and a biennial survey of state rulemaking processes.
The NASS Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) Section, formed more than thirty years ago, brings together federal and state professionals—often employed by secretary of state offices—who are responsible for reviewing and compiling government rules and regulations that have been adopted and are in effect. Some members also oversee the production of “blue books,” which are the official government directory and fact book for each state.
ACR members are committed to fostering the development of better rule-writing skills and rule review techniques and developing more effective management of the rule promulgation process, particularly in the publication of administrative codes and registers. They are also focused on increasing public access to the rulemaking process.
In July 2012, NASS recognized the Office of the Nebraska Secretary of State with the NASS IDEAS Award for innovation and achievement in recognition of its creation of a state tracking and email notification system for proposed rules/regulations, a cross-agency application that has yielded significant savings in many areas.
ACR’s new national officers will serve a two-year term from July 2012 to July 2014.

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Founded in 1904, the National Association of Secretaries of State is the oldest professional, non-partisan organization of public officials in the United States. Association members include the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, visit www.nass.org.

Alternative to Attending Summer Conference Announced

A number of you have mentioned that you are not able to attend the 2012 Summer Conference in person, but would be interested in attending online; therefore, arrangements have been made for all the sessions to be broadcast online through a conferencing system called WebEx.  There  will be full video and audio capabilities, online chat and additional features we have not had with other systems in the past.  Online attendees will be able to participate in the sessions almost as though they were in person at the conference. There will be a charge of $50 to attend the conference online which can be paid through the NASS website, similar to an in-person registration. The charge will help cover the cost of the online conferencing.  The link to register is https://www.regonline.com/?eventID=1071305&rTypeID=246351; please note that this link is the only way to reach the registration page for online attendance.
I hope all of you who cannot attend in person will take advantage of this opportunity to attend online.  Please contact me if you have questions.

News about the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act

Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act as adopted at conference is released.

From Jeff Hague, Registrar of Regulations, Legislative Council, State of Delaware ~ The Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act establishes an outcomes-based, technology-neutral framework for providing online legal material with the same level of trustworthiness traditionally provided by publication in a law book. The Act requires that official electronic legal material be: (1) authenticated, by providing a method to determine that it is unaltered; (2) preserved, either in electronic or print form; and (3) accessible, for use by the public on a permanent basis.
A COPY of the Act
A PRESS RELEASE about the Act

Updates for ACR Members from President Julie Yamaka

Several announcements and acknowledgments in advance of the upcoming summer conference:
● ACR Vice President John Martinez (NM) is hard at work updating the State and Federal Survey with the new details and figures you all have provided to him. Please contact John right away at john.martinez4@state.nm.us if you haven’t yet provided your state’s updates, or if you only completed one of the two
surveys. Thomson Reuters West has once again generously offered to do the printing for the biennial Survey. They and John are working to meet the deadline to have the new 2010-2011 Survey printed in time to distribute at the Summer Conference.
● Don’t forget to get your Colborn Award nominations in. Use the Nomination Packet and Nomination Form found online at:
http://www.administrativerules.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93:acr-colborn-award&catid=43:acr-colborn-award&Itemid=56
The 2010 Awards Committee, Jane Chaffin, Chair (VA), Molly Masich (NC) and Scott Eaton (NH) are accepting nominations through Friday, June 11.
● Secretary Al Jaeger (ND), NASS’ liaison to ACR this year, has written a lovely letter to the Secretaries of State and Division Directors who oversee the states’ administrative rule filing, publishing and review functions, encouraging them to send their staff to the NASS/ACR Summer Conference. Those letters went out in April.
Here’s a link to a copy of it:
http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/transfer/jaeger.pdf Thank you to Secretary Jaeger for doing this on our behalf.
The Program Committee, Emily Caudill, Chair (KY), Elizabeth Palen (VA) and Debbie Ritzko (NY) assembled an action-packed agenda for ACR’s summer conference in Providence, R.I. Please view it at:
http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/transfer/acragenda.pdf or on the ACR Website at: http://www.administrativerules.org/
Thank you for the time and effort that went into putting together this agenda for us.
● Go on-line to the NASS website at: http://nass.orgto register by June 16 in order to get the early registration price and to reserve a hotel room at the NASS Conference rate.
● Wolters Kluwer Lois Law will be sponsoring ACR’s A/V and Internet set-up, and our afternoon breaks in Providence. Thank you to Wolters Kluwer and to Sue Rogers for arranging this with NASS and the ACR Program Committee.
● LexisNexis is sponsoring a dinner for ACR attendees on Saturday evening, July 17 at 7:30, following the NASS Welcoming Reception. Thank you to LexisNexis and to Leslie Ostrander of LexisNexis for putting thistogether. Please watch the listserv for additionaldetails, and to respond to Leslie when she requests attendance numbers.
Please don’t hesitate to give me a call if you have any questions.