January 3rd I started a new position at the Minnesota Capitol as a committee administrator in the House of Representatives. I administer the State Government Finance sub-committee, which is a division of the full Finance Committee
These last couple weeks at work have been a blast. There are close to 20 new committee administrators and we have almost had ten trainings. It’s often felt like drinking water out of a fire hydrant, but I haven’t had any major mistakes yet, so I guess I’m learning.
One really cool thing about my job is my office. I actually have a window! The first of the following two pictures was taken while sitting at my desk. The other is the view when you lean over and look out towards the capitol.
This week started with the Governor’s State of the State address and included two successful committee hearings that taught me lessons about what I should do prior to a hearing. After three hearings I think I’m now getting a sense for the rhythm of scheduling committee hearings. We have yet to hear a bill, which will add a new wrinkle to the rhythm, but that will happen soon enough.
Wednesday’s State of the State was really fun. Rep. Kahn, the chair of my committee, had an extra floor pass and she offered it to me. As you can see, the chamber for the MN House of Representatives is beautiful.
And in case you need further proof that I was really there, I had a co-worker take this!
