Short answers, pulled from the story.
The National Conference of State Legislatures was established in 1975. It maintains offices in Denver, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., and describes itself as a nonpartisan public officials' association of sitting state legislators.
The NCSL's presidency alternates between a Republican and a Democrat every year. This built-in rotation prevents either party from controlling the organization's direction over time.
Former Congresswoman Karen McCarthy became the first female president of the NCSL in 1994, twenty years after the organization was founded. The first African-American president, Representative Dan Blue, followed in the 1998-99 term.
The NCSL supports the Main Street Fairness Act, which would require all sellers, including online merchants, to collect sales and use taxes. The organization estimates this change would generate billions of dollars for state governments.
The NCSL supports the SAFE Banking Act, which would give businesses in the legalized cannabis industry access to mainstream banking and financial services. Federal law currently makes those services difficult for the cannabis industry to obtain.
The American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries was founded in 1943 and joined with other state legislative groups in 1974 to help create the NCSL. It operates today as one of nine professional staff associations within the NCSL, with more than four hundred active members.