CAUTION: The following advice may be based on a rule that has been revised since the opinion was first issued. Consequently, the analysis reflected in the opinion may be outdated.
No. 88-04 State Ethics Commission Official Advisory Opinion September 21, 1988
Summary
Solicitation
SEC recommended that the HPB and PLA contact the Department of Commerce and other organizations for help in arranging for the public functions and payment of them without participating in the actual solicitation and management of funds for CLEAR’s annual conference to be held in Indianapolis.
Fact Situation
The National Clearing house on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR) an affiliate of the Council of State Governments, is an organization composed of state officials and administrators involved with occupational licensing and regulation issues. CLEAR sponsors several conferences on licensure and regulatory issues each year. The ninth annual conference is scheduled to be held in Indianapolis in 1989. The host state agencies are the Health Professions Bureau and the Professional Licensing Agency. Since CLEAR is a not-for-profit organization, the National Conference must be self-supporting. In recent years, many activities have been underwritten by sponsors such as associations and corporations.
Question
As host state, sponsors must be found for the conference activities. How can we legally and ethically solicit funds from sponsors.
Opinion
In this case we recommend that the state agency contact the Department of Commerce in state government, and any other organizations like the Chamber of Commerce or the Visitors' Bureau for help in arranging for the public functions and the payment of them without their agency participating in the actual solicitation and management of funds. In the event that none of the above mentioned agencies want to take on this assignment, then the Bureau should contact no one in their related fields for support and anyone asking to help from the related fields should be referred to CLEAR.