Your Protect NM Dashboard (Home Page)
Scroll down for detailed instructions about how to use this feature
The Dashboard or Home page is your base of operations. After you have completed the registration process, each time you log in to Protect NM, you will find yourself on this page. From here, you can:
In the center of the screen, you will see information on upcoming events that may be of interest to you. There is also a calendar that displays scheduled legislative hearings on conservation-related bills, tailored to your preferences.
If you have selected "Whole Calendar" as the default setting on your Preferences (Prefs) panel, the calendar will list information on hearings for all conservation-related bills in the Protect NM system. If you have selected "My Calendar" as the default setting on your Preferences panel, then the calendar will only list information on hearings for bills that you are actively tracking through your personalized bill tracking system (My Bills).
From the main page, you can change the Calendar settings by clicking the desired setting on the lower-right hand section of the page (Change Calendar). This will temporarily change the view on the main page; however, when you next log in, the Calendar will default to the setting from your Preferences panel. At any time, you can edit your default Calendar by clicking on the Prefs link on the top menu bar, and changing the setting.
Search Bills
On the lower left-hand side of your screen, you will see the Find a Bill section. Here, you can search Protect NM for particular bills, using a variety of search criteria:
Protect NM is an entirely personalized bill tracking and management system.
New Bills
Each time you log into Protect NM, you will see a long list of New Bills on the upper left-hand section of your screen. These bills are color-coded into categories that reflect their relative level of impact on our environment - but more on the color-coding system later.
The New Bills list is designed so that you will see every conservation-related bill that is introduced during the 2008 Legislative Session. As new bills are introduced, they will continually be added to the New Bills list.
If you click on the title of a bill, you can view more detailed information about that bill in a new window - information like which legislator is sponsoring the bill, what issue areas the bill covers, and a summary of the content of the bill. You can also download all related documents - including the full text of the bill, the fiscal impact report prepared by legislative staff, and more.
From the New Bills list, it's up to you what you want to do with each of these bills. You have three options:
The color-coding system is intended to help you and all of our users sort through hundreds of bills quicker and easier, to determine whether or not you want to add them to your personal bill tracker ("My Bills").
These are the color codes and their categories:
On the upper right-hand corner of your page, there is a section entitled "My Bills" - this is your personalized bill tracker. Initially, it will be blank - it is up to you to fill this section with the bills that you want to personally track. For example, when you click the "A" ("Add") button next to a bill on the New Bills list, it will automatically transfer over to your My Bills list.
My Bills has a separate (but simpler!) color-coding scheme: three colors differentiate the bills by their importance level to you:
On your My Bills list, the High importance bills will always be listed first, followed by those of Moderate importance. The Low importance bills will always be listed last. This should make it easier to quickly find the bills you care about the most.
Automated Alerts
For all of the bills on your personalized bill tracker, you can opt to receive automated email alerts every time the Legislature takes action on the bill or something significant changes. These alerts can come individually for each bill ("Auto"), or - if you're tracking many different bills - you can choose to receive a Daily Digest e-mail listing all of the bills on your list that have changed that day ("Daily"). You will find these settings on your Preferences panel (for more information, see Preferences/Control Panel).
- review new bills that have been introduced,
- add new bills to your personalized bill tracker,
- search for particular bills,
- view upcoming events and legislative hearings,
- track the bills in your personalized tracking system,
- find information on individual legislators, media outlets, and legislative committees,
- learn about legislative and site terminology in the glossary section,
- find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, and
- change your personal settings and preferences.
In the center of the screen, you will see information on upcoming events that may be of interest to you. There is also a calendar that displays scheduled legislative hearings on conservation-related bills, tailored to your preferences.
If you have selected "Whole Calendar" as the default setting on your Preferences (Prefs) panel, the calendar will list information on hearings for all conservation-related bills in the Protect NM system. If you have selected "My Calendar" as the default setting on your Preferences panel, then the calendar will only list information on hearings for bills that you are actively tracking through your personalized bill tracking system (My Bills).
From the main page, you can change the Calendar settings by clicking the desired setting on the lower-right hand section of the page (Change Calendar). This will temporarily change the view on the main page; however, when you next log in, the Calendar will default to the setting from your Preferences panel. At any time, you can edit your default Calendar by clicking on the Prefs link on the top menu bar, and changing the setting.
Search Bills
On the lower left-hand side of your screen, you will see the Find a Bill section. Here, you can search Protect NM for particular bills, using a variety of search criteria:
- bill number (e.g. HB 12 or SJR 23)
- environmental issue area (e.g. environmental justice or wildlife)
- legislative bill sponsor
- location - where the bill currently is in the legislative process (e.g. the House floor, a particular Senate committee, or already signed by the Governor)
- committee assignments - all bills assigned to that particular committee, whether or not the bill has passed that committee, is still there, or hasn't reached it yet (e.g. HJC, or House Judiciary Committee)
- keyword - will return results if the keyword appears in one of the bill titles, or in the Summary of the bill written by Protect NM's analysis team
Protect NM is an entirely personalized bill tracking and management system.
New Bills
Each time you log into Protect NM, you will see a long list of New Bills on the upper left-hand section of your screen. These bills are color-coded into categories that reflect their relative level of impact on our environment - but more on the color-coding system later.
The New Bills list is designed so that you will see every conservation-related bill that is introduced during the 2008 Legislative Session. As new bills are introduced, they will continually be added to the New Bills list.
If you click on the title of a bill, you can view more detailed information about that bill in a new window - information like which legislator is sponsoring the bill, what issue areas the bill covers, and a summary of the content of the bill. You can also download all related documents - including the full text of the bill, the fiscal impact report prepared by legislative staff, and more.
From the New Bills list, it's up to you what you want to do with each of these bills. You have three options:
Option #1:Color Codes
Ignore - the little box to the left of the bill name contains an "I" for "Ignore". If you click on the "Ignore" box, the bill will disappear from the New Bills list, and you won't see it again on this list. The bill remains in the Protect NM system, of course, so you can find it again by using the Find a Bill function - but you won't be able to see it again under New Bills. Use this function if you're not particularly interested in the bill, and don't want to be kept updated on the bill as it moves through the process.
Option #2:
Add - the little box to the right of the bill name contains an "A" for "Add". If you click on the "Add" box, the bill will move from the New Bills list to your "My Bills" list in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Click the "Add" button if you are very interested in that particular bill, and would like to have easy access to it and be kept updated as it moves through the Legislature. My Bills lists all the bills in your personalized bill tracking and management system.
Option #3:
If you don't click on either the "Ignore" or "Add" buttons, the bill will stay on the New Bills list. Note that hundreds of conservation-related measures are introduced each legislative session, so your New Bills list will get very long if you don't regularly sort through and "Ignore" the bills that are not of interest to you.
The color-coding system is intended to help you and all of our users sort through hundreds of bills quicker and easier, to determine whether or not you want to add them to your personal bill tracker ("My Bills").
These are the color codes and their categories:
Personalized Bill TrackerNOT ENOUGH INFORMATION
A grey background indicates that our analysis team does not yet have enough information to accurately categorize the bill. You can either click on the bill to review it yourself, or you can wait until our analysts have more information. The bill will stay in your New Bills list until you choose to add it to your My Bills system, or Ignore it.APPROPRIATIONS ONLY
A green background indicates that the bill is a basic appropriations bill. Although other bills might also contain an appropriation, a basic appropriations bill is very short (usually 20 words or less) and simply appropriates money to a particular program or project. In the end, all basic appropriations bills are ultimately tabled (held) in one of the finance committees, and may or may not be incorporated into the general budget. Whether a basic appropriations bill is successful is dependent on whether or not it is incorporated into the state budget, which makes it very different from substantive, or policy, bills.NO CONSERVATION IMPACT
A pale blue background means that a bill that might otherwise appear to have some conservation impact has been reviewed by our analysis team and determined to have no discernible impact. The reason these bills are included in the system is because users may find a bill outside Protect NM that they worry might have some environmental consequences. If so, they can search the Protect NM site and know that the bill was in fact evaluated by our analysis team, and determined not to have a conservation impact.
NOTE:
The assessment of the relative impact level of various pieces of legislation is clearly subjective and challenging. However, in recognition of the great disparity in the impacts of various pieces of legislation, our analysis team will do their best to sort out which of the hundreds of measures introduced will have the greatest impact on our environment over the long-term. To make it easier for users to distinguish the absolute best and worst bills in the Legislature, the analysis team will strive to ensure that the category of "High" impact is reserved for a very small percentage of bills overall.
The assignment of an impact rating is not intended in any way to suggest whether the impact is positive or negative - just whether that impact (good or bad) is anticipated to be mild, moderate or high.MILD IMPACT
As mentioned above, it is clearly challenging to evaluate the disparate impacts of very different pieces of legislation. However, generally speaking, the Protect NM analysis team will assign the rating of "Mild Impact" to measures that meet one of the following criteria:
- not statutory/non-binding: memorials and resolutions are frequently introduced that are clearly related to the environment, but do not create new laws or amend existing laws; as a result, their impact tends to be limited. In rare circumstances, memorials or resolutions may appear to have potentially damaging consequences and will receive a higher impact rating. In such cases, the rationale for the higher rating will be noted in the Summary field on the individual page for that measure.
- limited in geographic scope: sometimes, bills will be very limited in their impact geographically (e.g. a single municipality or rural water system). There may be cases when a geographically-specific bill may have a precedent-setting impact or a broader regional effect; if so, it may receive a higher rating, the rationale for which will be noted in the Summary field.
- short-term: many bills are introduced that are intended to fix a short-term problem. If a bill is unlikely to have consequences far beyond the next several years, it will likely receive a "Mild" impact rating.
- modest in approach: often, bills simply take a very modest or incremental approach to an issue. Good or bad, these bills - even if applied statewide and in perpetuity - will have somewhat limited effects, at least relative to more ambitious bills in the other categories.
MODERATE IMPACT
The Protect NM analysis team will generally assign a rating of "Moderate" impact to bills that are somewhat limited in their geographic impact, have consequences that will be felt over the short to medium-term, or are significant but not transformative. Essentially, the "Moderate" impact rating will be assigned to bills that don't meet the criteria for "High" impact, but exceed the restrictions on the "Mild" category.HIGH IMPACT
The assignment of a "High" impact rating is reserved for those bills that are likely transformative in their effects on environmental policy in New Mexico. These bills are sweeping and/or precedent-setting. Within their particular issue area, they represent - good or bad - the most ambitious of policy changes. For all bills assigned to this category, a brief explanation will be offered in the Summary field.
On the upper right-hand corner of your page, there is a section entitled "My Bills" - this is your personalized bill tracker. Initially, it will be blank - it is up to you to fill this section with the bills that you want to personally track. For example, when you click the "A" ("Add") button next to a bill on the New Bills list, it will automatically transfer over to your My Bills list.
My Bills has a separate (but simpler!) color-coding scheme: three colors differentiate the bills by their importance level to you:
- Red means the bill is of High Importance to you
- Yellow means the bill is of Moderate Importance to you
- Green means the bill is of Low Importance to you
On your My Bills list, the High importance bills will always be listed first, followed by those of Moderate importance. The Low importance bills will always be listed last. This should make it easier to quickly find the bills you care about the most.
Automated Alerts
For all of the bills on your personalized bill tracker, you can opt to receive automated email alerts every time the Legislature takes action on the bill or something significant changes. These alerts can come individually for each bill ("Auto"), or - if you're tracking many different bills - you can choose to receive a Daily Digest e-mail listing all of the bills on your list that have changed that day ("Daily"). You will find these settings on your Preferences panel (for more information, see Preferences/Control Panel).