I am back from accompanying Fiona’s class on a field trip to the State Capitol. This post will gather a few different snippets of the trip and later, I can hopefully find time to share some reflections.

First, came the bus ride up:

When we arrived at the capitol, we gathered in one of the conference rooms. As we were waiting for various speakers to arrive, the students suggested having a meeting, similar to the meetings that they have in school.

Committee Room, originally uploaded by Aldon.

To give them a sense of how things worked, I acted as chair, and recognized various speakers, entertained a few motions which were voted on. As the meeting progressed, several guests arrived and spoke. Representative Gary Holder-Winfield did a great job of engaging the students in discussions about the legislative process. Rep. John Geragosian joined the discussion, as did Tom Swan, Executive Director of CCAG. House Majority Leader Denise Merrill addressed the students as did Representative Themis Klarides, who represents the district most of the kids were from.

I ‘Twittered’ much of the discussion. For those not used to Twitter, and for the general sake of readability, I changed the order of the messages, so that the first message below is the first message I sent. In addition, I regularly refer to @CT94dem, which is Rep. Holder-Winfield’s userid on Twitter.

At BRS getting ready to head up to Hartford for Fiona's class lobbying trip
@CT94Dem Addresses is addressing the class at BRS MAG Class about lobbying.
@Ct94Dem Rep. Holder-Winfield is talking about the importance of lobbyists in informing Reps and citizens
@CT94Dem is now talking about SB 182 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHED LAND. which the students are interested in.
@ct94dem is joined by Rep. Geragosian to talk about lobbying, SB 182, and many other issues that the students have.
A New Haven student, who comes to Woodbridge asks @ct94dem about how to improve the New Haven Schools.
Rep. Geragosian talks about the constitutional responsibility to provide an equal educational opportunity to all students and Sheff v O’Neil
One of the students asks @ct94Dem about what the appropriations committee does. Another asks if Gary is a Rep. or Senator
@ct94dem is asked how long he has been doing the job and if he likes it. Yes, he likes the job, but hasn't been doing it very long.
@ct94dem talks about the importance of using the internet to help make government more transparent, such as Twitter and Facebook.
@ct94dem If Reps care about what people think, then they should encourage people to communicate with them.
A person asks @ct94dem if in the short period he has been working has he changed anything, Gary chuckles and says, this is government.
@ct94dem talks about using social networks to change the discussion, and in that sense, he thinks he has changed the discussion.
@tomswan is now talking about how he works lobbying for important bills that need to be passed, and those that they want to try and block
@tomswan talks about the long hard battle it was to pass the citizen election program.
@tomswan Been doing his job for 16 years, and you make a lot of enemies and a lot of friends.
A student asked if being a lobbyist is a good job. @tomswan responds "Yes!"
Rep. Merrill House Majority Leader address the class
Rep. Merrill is talking about how laws affect our daily lives, such as food safety.
Rep. Klarides is getting a great reception by the BRS Students.
Rep. Klarides talks about the importance of every person voting and how kids from school can also help shape laws as they get made
The kids just finished lobbying and are eating lunch.

You can also see various other pictures of the trip in the Flickr Set that I uploaded. Of note are pictures of some of the students in the ‘Wishing Chair’ made from the Charter Oak, and a couple State Representatives as they were being lobbied on SB 182.

It was a great day, and thanks go out to the students for doing so well, for the other chaperones, the teachers, the lobbyists, the legislative aides, the legislators, and anyone else I over looked who did such wonderful jobs in really bringing the legislative process alive.