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JFAC staff demonstrate SharePoint access, daily schedule and work‑group process to new members
Summary
Budget staff walked new Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee members through the session SharePoint repository, downloading and annotation workflow, and the committee’s hearing and work‑group schedule for January–March hearings.
BOISE — Keith Bybee, manager of the legislative Budget and Policy Analysis Team, demonstrated the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee’s SharePoint repository and the legislature’s session record on Jan. 8, walking members through how to download, annotate and save agency budget materials.
Bybee told the committee the SharePoint structure mirrors OneDrive and that committee members should download files (rather than open them in read‑only mode) to enable note‑taking and annotations. He said analysts have adopted a naming convention to reduce duplicate downloads and make it easier for members to find agency documents and analyst slide decks.
Why it matters
JFAC’s work depends on reviewing large volumes of budget documents each day. The SharePoint and session record process is the staff toolset for distributing agency materials, video and motion sheets; proper use reduces duplication, speeds member preparation and helps staff manage the daily flow of hearings.
What staff showed
- How to access files: Bybee demonstrated selecting files and downloading them to a local JFAC folder (noting that opening directly on SharePoint leaves the document in read‑only mode).
- Naming convention: Agency files and presentations will include a five‑digit code and suffixes (for example, One‑049A for an analyst presentation and One‑049B for an agency presentation) to keep related items together.
- Session record: Bybee showed the public “session record by agency” hub on legislature.idaho.gov where the public can view presentations, video and audio from committee meetings; he reminded members that materials on SharePoint mirror publicly available documents.
Committee schedule and work groups
Bybee summarized the JFAC hearing schedule used for the session: committee business generally will run in JFAC from about 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., followed by work‑group sessions that review agency budgets in detail. He said week 1 would continue orientation and front‑end reports, week 2 would begin agency presentations (starting with Health and Welfare and secondary education), and week 3 would begin budget enhancement setting. The schedule anticipates completion of JFAC business around mid‑March.
New features in this session
Bybee and committee leadership also noted a new “replacement items” hearing session to cover agencies that requested maintenance budgets but have replacement‑item requests (IT, vehicles, equipment) that should receive review. Members were told the committee plans to set program maintenance budgets on Friday, Jan. 17, as a checkpoint before enhancement deliberations.
Support and training
Bybee said staff will provide one‑on‑one assistance for members who need help linking SharePoint to local devices or using iPads/Surface Pros with annotation tools. Committee members may request printed copies of the legislative budget book; staff also maintains a limited supply of devices configured for markup.
Ending
Staff asked members to consult their assigned analysts and to use the naming convention so work groups can operate efficiently. Bybee invited members to request additional individual training sessions.
