WITA started the new session off with a huge bang not only thanks to our members but also thanks to our Member Coordinator, Shellie Burnham, who did a stellar job of taking care of all the details. On January 21st and 22nd WITA members were in town to meet with legislators, have a board meeting and kick off the new session with a Holiday Gathering. While other lobbying groups were struggling to get appointments on what turned out to be two of the busiest days of session, Shellie kept us busy with so many meetings that we often had to split the group with Dan Coyne going off in one direction and another group heading in another direction with me. Mike Oblizalo ended up handling one meeting by himself, something we try to avoid but we knew Mike was up for it. By the end of those two days we’d met with 25 legislators including almost every member of the House Committee on Innovation, Technology and Economic Development (ITEC).
Shellie’s other duties include coordinating all our conferences, trainings and quarterly meetings. She does our banking, tracks membership dues, files all our reports with the Public Disclosure Commission, and handles our WITA Scholarship process from pulling the committee together in the spring to processing applications to putting the winners on our website. As we saw last week, she also schedules our meetings and ensures we have everything we need to make those meetings successful. As the former Executive Assistant to the Director of the Department of Revenue Shellie has compiled a black binder full of contact information for everyone even remotely connected to state government. That means whenever I need to find someone or something, Shellie has me covered.
Shellie is a contract employee working for a few lucky lobbyists including her former boss at the Department of Revenue. Shellie and her husband live in Tenino where she went to school with Stefanie Peterson. All of this is just a happy coincidence as I connected with Shellie through a job listing I’d sent out on a lobbyist listserv.
Shellie has worked with WITA for over three years now and in that time her job has evolved as I discover more and more of her talents.
WITA Scholarship Applications Open!
Do you have a dependent student currently enrolled or going to be enrolled in college?
Do you work full-time for a WITA member company or Associate Member company in WA State?
If you answered, yes, have your student apply today. WITSA gives away thousands of dollars every year in scholarships!
For more information, criteria eligibility, and application go to our scholarship page.
