OUR MISSION

To become a resource for current and future California Legislative Leaders and Members in their efforts to sustain collaborative success through developing working collaborations based on trust and common purpose while furthering a sense of collegiality in California's Capitol.

UPDATES

Over the past year, we have hosted and will continue to host going forward, intimate dinners to connect our bipartisan team of former legislators with first-term Assembly Members. The CalFLAG members share key lessons they learned during their tenure that they wish they had known when they arrived and first-term Members have the opportunity to share ideas about future activities they believe will be useful to their development as Legislators. All participants have the opportunity to gain a greater sense of the issues and challenges he or she might expect in this challenging environment, as well as build stronger bonds and personal connections to colleagues across party lines and political ideologies.

CalFLAG is currently planning to participate in the orientation of individual legislative Caucuses by providing bipartisan panels of former Legislators to offer some perspective about strategies for success and pitfalls to watch for. We have also begun to identify one-on-one mentorship opportunities between CalFLAG members and first-term Assembly Members to more effectively harness the potential of these relationships, and to facilitate the transfer of valuable institutional memory and policy expertise.

Future plans include organizing bipartisan teams of former chairs and vice-chairs to conduct day-long dialogues and orientation sessions with new incoming chairs and vice-chairs in the Assembly. We are also exploring foundation funding to conduct intensive orientation, skill building and bonding workshops for newly elected legislators. The proposal includes featuring of diverse former legislators, as well executive skill building coaches and facilitators in a series of multi-day events for new Members after their election in November and before they take office in January.

Click here to read more about the Capitol Collaboration Project and how we support our term-limited Legislature in developing models for tackling California's major challenges expeditiously.

OUR GOAL

Recognizing the growing complexity of challenges facing the people and State of California in these times of profound change, globalization, and competition, we created the Al Alquist/Ed Davis California Capitol Collaboration Project to assist the Legislature and Governor in their efforts to deepen and sustain the spirit of collaboration as they seek to assure the quality of legislative process in this era of term limits.

Named for two legendary California legislators noted for their capacity for collaboration despite their deep personal political convictions, the project has already been endorsed by the Legislative Leadership and recognized by the Governor of California.

OUR ROLE

• Creating the California Former Legislators Alumni Group (CalFLAG) - a bipartisan network of former California State Legislators to serve as resource for the current Legislators.
  
  
• Participating with the Legislature in its orientation program for newly elected Legislators, especially regarding building a sense of collegiality and the ways and means of partnership and productivity.
  
  
• Hosting social gatherings for current members of the Legislature to provide opportunities to build a more deeply experienced sense of collegiality.
  
  
• Offering individual mentoring upon request, especially to newly arrived members of the Legislature.
  
  
• Providing bipartisan intensive topical briefings for incoming Chairs and Vice-Chairs.
  
  
• Providing bipartisan process/collaboration briefings to individual Caucuses, upon request.
  
  
• Developing a tool box of for developing and practicing collaborative processes.
  
  
• Creating a booklet relating real life success stories of collaborative efforts of past Legislators.
  
  
• Brainstorming with current Legislative Leaders and Members in search of new opportunities for fostering partnerships and collaborative efforts within the Legislature.

Click here for a list of members in the California Former Legislators Alumni Group (Cal-FLAG).

For more information, and to find out ways in which you can get involved, please contact Executive Director Jason Spencer at jason@politicsoftrust.net.