State Senator Beverly Gard spoke to Kiwanis about her past
twenty-four years of service in the Indiana State Legislature. Sen. Gard has represents District 28 in the
Indiana State Senate since 1988. She held
leadership positions on the Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee, Indiana
Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, Environmental Committee,
and Environmental Quality Service Council.
Sen. Gard is not seeking re-election this fall.
Sen. Gard observed that technology has changed dramatically
since she began her tenure in 1988. The
legislative bill draft process was almost entirely paper in the beginning and
is now done almost exclusively on computers.
Communications with constituents consisted of letters, telephone calls
and personal meetings in 1988 and is almost entirely e-mail today. Committee and sessions activity was held in
public meetings in 1988 but only members of the public who saw it were the ones
who were present. Today committee
meetings and legislative sessions are streamed live on the internet and
archived for review later. Sen. Gard believes
this has made the process much more open and transparent than when she first
started serving.
Sen. Gard was an active member of the National Council of
State Legislatures allowing her to meet with policymakers from other states and
nations. She described many of those
interactions and felt that it had contributed to her effectiveness as a
Senator.
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