The 2010 Educational Seminar will be held on March 29 and 30, 2010, in Jefferson City. It is imperative that Supervisors make themselves available to discuss issues with their legislators not only at the seminar, but any chance the opportunity arises.
The objective of the seminar is to get to know the members of the Missouri General Assembly and inform them of the important and effective job soil districts are doing in using the sales tax funds through the soil and water conservation programs. The legislators do not always understand the priorities required by soil and water conservation as well as the intended use by voters of the sales tax. More education of the legislators is essential.
The Seminar will begin at 7:00 p.m. Monday, March 29, 2010, at the Capitol Plaza Hotel, 415 W. McCarty, in Jefferson City. There will be presentations on bills in the House and Senate concerning conservation, and the Parks & Soils Sales Tax budget currently in the legislature. The morning of March 30th will be visits with Legislators. There will be donuts and coffee in the Capitol Rotunda on the Third Floor starting at 7:30 a.m. As we have done in the past, this provides an area for our group to visit with legislators and also allows time for individual visits with legislators in their offices.
Districts should let your legislators know that you will be there and set up a time for a personal visit. Each legislator will be sent a letter around the first of March, informing them that we will be at the Capitol Building doing visits, however, my letter does not request a time for a personal visit by a representative of a District since all Districts have not attended in the past and I do not have enough information to schedule these appointments. Each District should schedule these appointments themselves. Information containing addresses and phone numbers of the legislators and current bills of concern or interest can be accessed from the MASWCD web page at www.maswcd.net and the state of Missouri web site at
www.house.mo.gov. The registration fee for the seminar will be $10 per person attending. This helps cover the cost for the meeting room and coffee and donuts. Please return registration form with the registration fee by March 15th to Peggy Lemons, MASWCD, 1209 Biscayne Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65109.A block of rooms has been reserved at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City for the night of March 29th for this meeting. The room rate is $78 plus tax. Each district is responsible for making their own hotel reservations, please reference Missouri Soil and Water when calling for a reservation. For reservations call 800-338-8088 or 573-635-1234. Rooms need to be reserved as soon as possible; cut-off date for the reservation block is March 1st. After that date it is on a room-available basis. If you are interested in direct billing for your rooms, you will need to speak with the sales staff at the Capitol Plaza Hotel to set up the direct billing. If you have questions concerning the 2010 Educational Seminar, please contact Peggy at 573-893-5188 ext. 3, or by e-mail at
peggy.lemons@swcd.mo.gov. Hotel rooms are very tight in Jefferson City during January, February and March due to the Legislative Session. If you are interested in information on other hotels in Jefferson City, call Peggy. The MASWCD Board of Directors will hold their board meeting on March 29th from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City.In closing, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this seminar to all of Missouri's Soil and Water Conservation Districts. With so many new legislators now, it is imperative that we let them know who we are and what we do. We must continue to remind the public and our elected officials about the importance of soil and water conservation and the purpose of the sales tax funds. Remember, expenses for attending this seminar must be from local funds, they are not eligible for reimbursement from state funds (Personnel or Administrative Grant).