Last week, I attended the National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) annual meeting in Boston Massachusetts. It is a large gathering with over 9,000 people in attendance. This included many legislators, their staff, members of press and people attempting to influence state legislatures.

The State Government Affairs Council (SGAC) was there. They describe themselves as the premier national association for multi-state government affairs professionals of more than 150 major U.S. corporations, trade associations and service providers.

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) was there. They say their “mission is to elect more Republicans at the state level, including Attorneys General, Lieutenant Governors and State Legislators.” I saw many State Representatives from Connecticut there.

Some of the first sessions I attended were discussions of communications policy sponsored by CTIA, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry. The wireless industry was well represented, but not the grassroots activists fighting for net neutrality.

It made me think, where was DFA? Well, to me, DFA isn’t the small group of people working up in Burlington, it is all of us who fight for fiscally conservative, socially liberal policies. I was there, as a member of DFA. I imagine there may have been others as well. But just because you weren’t there, doesn’t mean you can’t have an effect.

Here in Connecticut, there has been an effort to get people to take their State Reps to see Michael Moore’s Sicko. Have you contacted your State Rep and asked if they’ve seen Sicko? If they haven’t, have you invited them to go see it?

How about this: Call up your State Representative. Ask them if they attended NCSL. If they did, ask to get together with them and find out what sessions they attended. Find out what issues were important to them. If they are coming up with good issues, tell them you support them on those issues. If not, tell them why you disagree. Spend some time getting up to speed on the issues so that you can give them a perspective that might be different from SGAC, RSLC or CTIA.

Read through some of my posts about NCSL on Orient Lodge ahead of time to get a flavor for the meeting, and let me know what happens.

Let’s all get more involved in our state legislatures.