Want to Have a Webinar? Here s How to Get Started! A Guide for Legislative Staff What exactly is a webinar anyway? It s an informational or training session you watch on your computer. Webinars provide a means of sharing information among professionals who have similar responsibilities in different states. Some are video presentations, but for the ones we ll be talking about, you listen to the presenter on your phone while watching their PowerPoint slides. Webinars are usually recorded and archived so that the session is available for later viewing. Archived webinars can reach a much broader audience. Check out these webinar examples on www.ncsl.org: Courteous and Effective Communication: Social Media and E-mail (26102) Authoritative Informational Resources in an Age of Social Media (25256) Drafting Criminal Law (23107) To search, type the webinar number into the search box. What if we don t know anything about putting a webinar together? Just follow this guide! It walks you through the big decisions you need to make. And you're not alone: putting together a webinar is a collaborative effort between you/your Staff Section, Network or Committee leadership, your NCSL liaison, and the NCSL Communications Division. Your NCSL liaison is a terrific resource so you'll want to involve him or her early in the process.
How far in advance should we start planning? It s best to start three to four months before you want to hold your webinar. It takes time to identify quality presenters, thoroughly develop the presentations, advertise sufficiently, and account for any additional considerations like extra steps needed if you want the webinar to qualify for Continuing Legal Education credits (CLEs). That said, if you have a great idea but not much time, NCSL will try to work with you. Communication with your NCSL liaison will be key in that situation. How do we pick a topic? If you already have an idea, great! If not, here are hints for coming up with one. Share what you like: Was there a session at your last professional development seminar, the NCSL Legislative Summit, or another meeting that would be interesting for people who couldn t be there? Fill a need: Do your staff section members need to earn continuing education hours? (Some program evaluators need these, as well as attorneys.) What about technical training? Is there a common question or problem that many offices are dealing with right now? Network: Do you have an idea that another staff group or standing committee might also be interested in? If so, contact a staffer you know who s involved in the other group(s) or ask your NCSL liaison to explore the possibility. Co-sponsoring has many benefits, including that you can apply for additional grant funds and will reach a bigger audience. Who does what? Your NCSL liaison will handle a lot of the technical details, but you will need to find a legislative staffer to work with the liaison and moderate the presentation. The extent of the moderator s involvement will vary. If the presenter is experienced at doing webinars like Anna Post s communication webinar the moderator will have a minimal role in developing the content. On the other hand, the moderator will have a much bigger role if the presenter(s) are developing the material specifically for the webinar. In the latter case, the moderator will need time to work with the presenters to develop, refine and rehearse the presentation. Your webinar will be more successful if your moderator understands and agrees to the necessary time commitment. 2
How do we pick a presenter? Sometimes you ll know a great presenter on the topic you re interested in and sometimes not. If not, ask around! You can use your listserv to gather suggestions or ask your NCSL liaison to get ideas from other NCSL staff. When picking a presenter, consider: Is it important that the audience see the presenter for the webinar to be engaging? If so, he or she may not be the best fit. Although the webinar will be a live event, the software NCSL uses allows only PowerPoint slides for the visual part of the webinar the audience doesn t see the presenter. For some presenters, loss of the visual component may seriously detract from the quality of the presentation. How much time will the presenter need? Typically, webinars are about 60 minutes. If the speaker is used to giving two-hour talks, that may not be a good fit. (There s no law against holding a longer webinar but consider whether your audience will be willing to commit the extra time, and remember that your cost will go up.) Is there a minimum number of attendees required? No! LSCC and NCSL strongly encourage staff to develop webinar ideas even for relatively small audiences especially if others may be interested in the archived presentation. Practically speaking though, if you think only 5 to 10 people will be interested in the subject matter, it might make more sense to have a conference call. 3
How do we pay for the webinar? Work with your NCSL liaison to develop a proposal for a grant from the E-Learning Fund provided by the NCSL Foundation for State Legislatures. For the last few years, the Foundation has made this money available and we need to use it! Staff Sections, Networks and Standing Committees are eligible for e-learning grants. Grants for most staff webinars have been for $1,000 or less. Remember, you can increase your request amount if you apply jointly with another Staff Section, Network or Standing Committee! You can apply for a grant any time, but you ll need to have a good estimate of what you expect the webinar to cost. How do we estimate the cost? You can rely on your NCSL liaison for help with this, but the basic webinar cost consists of set technology fees and phone line costs. Each phone line can be for one person or a group encouraging staff to watch as a group can help keep the webinar cost down. There may be additional costs, like the fees associated with Continuing Legal Education credits. The following figures from 2012 staff-sponsored webinars can give you an idea of how many lines you might need as well as how may people may view the archived webinar. Title (Sponsors) Phone Lines Archive Visits Social Media: Policies for State Legislatures (LSCC) Social Media: Where Is Everyone Going? (LSCC) Becoming and Effective Negotiator (LSCC) Authoritative Informational Resources in an Age of Social Media (LRL/RACSS) The Impact of Federal Deficit Reduction (NALFO/ Budget & Revenue Standing Committee) Copyright Issues for a Legislative Audience (LRL/LSSS) New Staff Section Officer Orientation (LSCC) LRL - Legislative Research Librarians LSCC - Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee LSSS - Legal Services Staff Section 141 757 117 451 71 266 70 252 64 166 54 37 12 39 NALFO - National Association of Legislative Fiscal Offices RACSS - Research and Committee Staff Section 4
Estimating the Basic Webinar Cost 1. Assume about $450 to cover set technology fees, including archiving the presentation. 2. Calculate a per-minute, per-line cost. Start by deciding how long the webinar will be most are 60 minutes and how many phone lines you'll need. You will need one phone line for each presenter location and one for NCSL. You will also need one line for each location where people will participate each line may be for a single person or a group. The current per-minute, per-line cost is 12 cents. So once you have your minutes and line estimates, you just do the math. For example, a one-hour webinar with 50 lines has an estimated per-minute, per-line cost of $360 (60 minutes x 50 lines x $0.12) remember that the actual cost will depend on how many lines are used on the day of the webinar. If you think you'll need 100 lines, this cost jumps to $720. So the basic cost of a one-hour webinar with 50 lines is $810 (set costs plus perminute, per-line cost); or $1,170 with 100 lines. 3. Consider other costs. For example, most states require an application fee in order to certify a webinar so that participants can earn Continuing If you are interested in offering CLEs, you Legal Education credits. Another should contact Kae Warnock, NCSL liaison for potential, but uncommon, cost is a the Legal Services Staff Section. fee for your presenter. Generally a presenter fee is included in the (303) 856-1553 or kae.warnock@ncsl.org webinar budget only when using an outside expert, as opposed to an NCSL staff or legislative staff expert. (Hey, we live to serve, right?) If you want to pay your presenter a fee, you must have the expense pre-approved by your Staff Section Executive Committee (or comparable entity for Networks and Standing Committees) and include the fee in the cost estimate. 5
Webinar Planning Timeline Start discussing possible topics, presenters, and a moderator. Touch base with the NCSL liaison for your Staff Section/ Network or Standing Committee, especially regarding your webinar date. Find out if there are any factors that will add time to your planning process, like applying for CLE authorization. 3-6 Months Before Webinar 2-3 Months Before Webinar Work with your NCSL liaison to apply for E-Learning grant funds and get other technical aspects under way. Finalize date, topic, presenters, and moderator. Start advertising. The moderator and presenter(s) develop the webinar script and the related PowerPoint slides. Plan on at least 2 to 3 conference calls to review and revise the material that will be covered. Your NCSL liaison will set up at least one full dry run, with everyone who will be participating, using the actual phones they ll be using the day of the webinar. Your NCSL liaison will prepare handouts (based on your combined work to this point) and design a webinar evaluation. 1-2 Months Before Webinar Developed by the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures, July 2013. Among other things, the LSCC promotes professional development of legislative staff and reviews and evaluates NCSL services to legislative staff. Special thanks to NCSL s Kae Warnock for her contributions to the text and to the Unicameral Information Office of the Nebraska Legislature s Clerk s Office for design assistance.