Reflection Paper #1

Nicholas Salvatoriello Reynolds, PSC 277 Reflection Paper #1: Getting to Know the Workplace: This week began the second week of my internship on floor five of the Legislative Office Building in the Albany State Assembly. I have been working a three day a week schedule where I will come in 11:30 to 5pm on Monday, 11:30 to 4:30 on Tuesdays and picking up extra research assignments on my main project (researching talking points for the Assemblyman’s bill taking on the aggressive marketing practices of the pharmaceuticals industry or “Big Pharma” as they’re called around the office. These times were arranged so that I would meet my 120-hour requirement on time. To begin, Stephanie and I attended day one together, with Kathleen McCarty giving us both a brief overview (as well as copious hand-outs) on the program, terminology, dress code, and building lay out. Kathleen decided than because of my experience working in the past, I was to be given a more advanced and demanding assignment. It was for that reason that I was assigned to the humming and brisk atmosphere of Kevin Cahill’s Albany office. I am yet to speak more than a sentence or two with the assembly member. Conner Bambrick, his legislative assistant, reviewed my objectives and chuckled, “Good luck with the lunch with Kevin, I’ve been here for years and I can count the number of times I’ve done that on one hand!” This truly is going to be a learning experience for this Union College socialite. Kevin Cahill is a democrat who has been in office for several years now. Kathy, his office manager and my direct supervisor has been working with him just as long. A native of Kingston, NY, she is knowledgeable of his constituency and uses it to build personal connections with every guest and 1

caller. She is the personality and the heart of the office. She is the stationary that frames the character of the operation. Connor is, as Kathy has jokingly described him, “the walking encyclopedia” he knows the legislature in and out, the bills, the contacts, the issues ECT. He knows how to deal with fellow politicians and bearcats, and saves the small talk for Kathy. He has been very patient and informative with me. Both He and Kathy are extremely flexible in how I carry out my work, but they are all business none-the-less. They’re business about their kindness to their guests, they’re business about their workflow, and they’re business in they’re “business” in their professional kindness and consideration of “the new guy,” Me. Needless to say, a suit and tie to match the quiet, subdued ambiance of the office are pretty standard for me Monday and Wednesday. My first day of work began on “Lobby Day” which had the entire office building filled with members of a great variety of organizations. These ranged from small groups such as a mom and daughter team who came to see Kevin regarding their local “anti-teen smoking” group, followed by a finalist of the local Boys and Girls Club high school scholarship program. Later on, our office was filled with several nurses from a large national nursing group. Kathy makes each one feel like guests of honor, and Kevin emerges from his back office and receives them with a big smile, some jokes, and photo opportunities. Kevin is the chair of the Ethics committee (which is really hush-hush in it’s proceedings apparently) and is a member and actively involved with health and higher education issues. Connor confessed to me after answering another serious of inquiries from me that Kevin’s aspiration would be to one-day chair the Health Care committee, but a senior member who has no plans of stepping down soon chairs it currently. Ambition will have to wait for members of this office, it seems, as all members, the assembly member himself included, embark on a daily mission to keep just barely ahead of the mountains of requests, paperwork, correspondence, visitors, events, and meetings that bombard them 2

continuously. As Kathy finally said to me after one of our warm exchanges as we parted ways for the week, “you could work ‘till 10pm tonight and there would still be more work to do.” Indeed, the fax machine was humming with more memoranda coming in to be “marked up” and filed even as she finished the sentence. As that day passed along with Wednesday, I really began to fit into the office team. Connor reported to me following a phone call from Kathy who was working in the District office that day that “she was impressed and I made a good first impression.” I hope so. In a nutshell, my internship experience can be described by the conversation Kathy and I first had minutes after my arrival at the office. She told me that Kevin was very busy, they really needed help, and they had more overflow work than I could ever need. I responded back that if I can do a diverse enough range of tasks to keep the day interesting, experience a professional legislative work environment and pick up some basic work skills and basic political competency when I can, than I’ll have completed my task. I decided right from the get-go to try to meet and exceed their expectations in what they required of me, which has brought requests for me to fill small tasks from every direction. It’s no problem if I focus on them one at a time and I take notes on how to do all the things that need to be done. Since that time, I’ve been answering phones, writing visitor acknowledgement letters, delivering mail, delivering messages to different assembly-members informing them of Kevin’s desire to co-sponsor and multisponsor bills, photocopying, getting to know the small office staff, listening to Assembly proceedings piped-in over the radio, faxing and printing memorandums, preparing Kevin’s binders and agendas for his committee meetings and filing and recording where relevant lobbying groups and organizations stand on the bills before his committees. Time is a precious commodity during the legislative process with committee meetings moving 3

at a lightening pace and every special interest working feverishly to get their bill sponsored through committee, into the assembly, past the senate and onto the Governor’s desk in two short years before the time runs out and they have to start all over again. More than 10,000 are in the process right now and I’ve managed to interact with many of the issues through directing phone calls, reading memoranda’s, receiving constituents and visiting other assembly offices on errands. I’ve jumped right into the middle of this machine. I’m always busy but I’m learning a lot and grateful for the experience.

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