It

Alright dudes, I caught up on the readings, a missed lecture and I finished the final paper. Now I have some time to recount what all went down last week at the ALEC conference.

A bunch of stuff. Fasten thy seat belts, this may be a long one.

Last Tuesday, my time at the CGK Foundation wrapped up. We got a little certificate of completion even. After that, since I had packed all my stuff for the week, I went straight to the ALEC office to collect stuff and help out with some final prep for the Tax Academy we were having the next day. Once we arrived at the crazy hotel (huge place, super nice), we met some state legislators and speakers for dinner at a very nice steakhouse in the hotel. Since I had just gotten over some stomach issues, I was reluctant to get the $40 fillet, but hey I thought, when else am I going to have this paid for? Eating across the table from the Utah state senate majority leader was intimidating. At first I had the feeling of lowliness. But worry not, they are just regular people after all. Regular people who think they know it all, mainly because they have to. Still very nice. Others at the table included a state senator from Indiana and our very intelligent speakers who are influential in their own right. After that dinner, we went to work preparing for the next day and finally finished with that around 2 AM.

3:30 hour nap.

The Tax Academy was a whirlwind of speakers, lunch, speakers and then dinner at the City Tavern Club. This club was built in 1796 and played host to the Adams' before they moved into the White House as well as other historical things. Also, for night number 2, I had a perfect fillet. The highlight of that day and night was getting to talk with different state legislators. Most were really friendly and down to earth and it was sweet hearing about how they got involved in politics. At dinner, the former president of the Dallas Federal Reserve spoke. But during his speech, a state senator was passing notes to some women at our table and they were laughing uncontrollably the whole time. The legislator on my left leaned over to me and said "See? High school never ends." Ah hah!

More sleep than the night before.

Thursday marked the beginning of the real conference, where everyone comes. We may have had around 600 in attendance, people from the public and private sector. The Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force hosted a few meetings this day. Lunch was steak, quality below the ones I'd had the nights before, but good. So much steak. So much politics. Beautiful.
My tasks for this week were typically passing out materials, making copies, courier, sit at the front table or guard doors into the ballroom at mealtime so people did not enter prematurely. In between times I was able to talk with cool people.
In the evening, there were a couple of receptions. The first was for the state chairs of ALEC and my friend and I met the one from Rhode Island. He told us that Rhode Island has the most coastline in the nation. Figure that one out.
After that reception, there was another one for everyone and their friend. This one blew our minds. Multiple open bars (couldn't drink though), beef tenderloin stations, pasta stations, turkey slice stations, salmon, veggies, desserts, coffee, live jazz (you couldn't eat those guys).

Friday morning Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels spoke at the breakfast on state reform. If there is anyone to talk on that, it is he. Afterwards I went up to say hey and was able to talk with him for a couple of minutes. Good guy. More meetings this day, although not nearly as busy as the days before, so I had some time to chill. That day for lunch Amity Shlaes and Newt Gingrich spoke. I was able to get Amity's book signed by her. It was cool hearing from them.

Saturday was intense with our task force meeting in the afternoon. We expected some intense debate since there was a controversial model bill being voted on regarding taxation equality for cable and satellite broadcasting. There were various interests involved with representatives from each industry there as well as public sector members with their constituent's interests to protect. All the other model bills passed easily, one was voted down, but this one was intense. A huge amendment was proposed, made and then the issue was tabled until the spring. The meeting went way longer than it was supposed to due to that one. At 6 PM that night, after saying goodbyes to all my intern friends, I was out the door, ready to just mellow.

In sum, that conference was revelatory because I had spent much of my time at ALEC preparing for it. I was also able to meet a lot of legislators and business leaders, hear their perspective on key issues as well as get a little advice. Walking and talking with them took some getting used to at first, but after a day, I was no longer intimidated. Being in public office is a fascinating life.