So, you received an invitation to see a stakeholder page. Or maybe you clicked through a link from a website, or twitter, or email, and found yourself on BillTrack50 looking at a list of bills. There’s a few little tricks that can help you make the best use of the page.
Establishing an Account
If you received an invitation, you’ll need to make an account to be able to use the page. Don’t worry, it’s quick and painless, and free. If you clicked through and found yourself on a public stakeholder page, then you can skip to the next section about using the grid.
Your invitation email will have a link to the Stakeholder Page, when you click through you’ll be greeted with the login screen. You can log in and continue to your account page, or if you don’t have an account yet, click the link to create one – we just ask for your name and email.
Once you are in your account you’ll see a list of the Stakeholder Pages you’ve been invited to view.
Click on view in the action column of the stakeholder page you’d like to see and you’ll be taken to the grid.
Using the Grid
The top part of the stakeholder page is what we call the bill sheet grid. The grid is simply a listing of the bills someone wanted to share with you, along with whatever bill data and extra information they have chosen to add.
Sorting Bills
You can sort any column in the grid by simply clicking on the column heading. Sorting can be particularly useful for the action date column, so you can see which bills have had activity most recently. You can also use it when you are trying to find a specific bill number, but you aren’t quite sure of the format. Filtering (see below) can also be a good way to find a specific bill.
Filtering Bills
You can filter bills using the filter button at the bottom of the grid. The filter button opens up a blank row at the top of the bill sheet. In the blank field enter the text you want to filter on – a state code, for example, or a bill number, or a word to filter by in the name or keyword columns. This will narrow the bills to just those containing the text you entered. To undo the filter, erase the text you entered.
Reading a Bill
If a bill has caught your interest, and you would like to read more about it, click the bill icon in the first column. This will open a new tab in your browser, with all of the bill details. Notice the tabs that let you see the Summary, Bill Text, Action History, and Associated Documents.
Researching a Legislator
If you would like to know more about the sponsor of the bill, you can click on their name on the bill summary tab. You can also click on any legislator name from the vote history tab. The names will lead to a summary of the contact information, list of other sponsored bills (which you can click on), committees, staff, and bio. In the committee tab you can click on a committee to see who else is on that committee — and then click on those names too.
Leaving Comments
The creator of the Stakeholder Page decides who can see the comments section, and who can create topics and threads. If you have the appropriate permissions, you’ll a list of discussions below the bill grid.
Topics
This is a listing of comments that have been started. You can see the threads people have started, and some basic information, like the most recent post, to help keep you up to date. If the person who started the topic attached bills, you’ll also be able to see (and click on) the related bills. If there are a lot of comments, and you have something in mind you are looking for, you can use the search box to find what you are looking for.
If you have permission you’ll see a new thread button to start a new thread. The tools to create a post are normal. One thing I want to point out is the box to add associated bills. This box works the same way as the search by bill number box on the query tab. Type the two letter state abbreviation (US for federal), and then a space, and then pause and let the drop down box populate. Choose the bill you would like to attach to this topic. You can repeat the process and add as many bills as you like.
Posts
After you click on a topic you’ll be redirected to the forum page for that topic. This is a typical internet forum. You can choose if you want to see the posts in chronological order (newest on top) or threaded. Also at the top will be a list of bills associated with this topic. Just click the bill number to read the bill.
If you have permission, you’ll see a new post button at the top of the screen to post to this topic, and reply option when you hover over a post to reply to someone else’s comment.
You can always reach out to us in email, on our contact form, or give us a call if you’d like some help or are have suggestions for how to make the Stakeholder Page more useful. There’s also more information in this instructional video about all of the pay features.
About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 is a user friendly free service that provides legislation research in all 50 states and federally. BillTrack50 also offers legislation and regulation tracking across the nation with tools to help organization stay on top of changes (bill sheets and alerts) and share legislation they are tracking with key stakeholders (legislator scorecards, widgets and stakeholder pages). If you are interested in learning more about how BillTrack50 saves organizations time and money, sign up for a demo and try it out BillTrack50 Pro for a month, for free.