Iowa is a great state, and for a lot of great reasons.

We’ve got bowl-game-winning football teams, basketball teams in NCAA tournaments, the butter cow at the State Fair, and plenty more.

We also have some fantastic open meetings and open records laws — sometimes called “Sunshine laws” —in Iowa. They can be found in Chapters 21 and 22 of Iowa Code, with the headings “Official Meetings Open to Public” and “Examination of Public Records.”

Those laws make it possible for us, as an editorial board, to do our job — but more importantly, they make it possible for all of us, as Iowans, to be active participants in government.

And on Friday, March 26, the Iowa legislature took an important step in making those Sunshine laws even better.

You see, on that day, the Iowa Senate approved a measure that would create an open meetings, public records and privacy advisory committee.

This measure was presented by Democrat Sen. Pam Jochum of Dubuque, as an amendment to a spending bill that the legislature must eventually pass.

According to the measure, the advisory committee would serve a public audience by acting as a “resource for public access to government information in light of the policy of this state to provide as much public access to government information and proceedings as is consistent with the public interest and the need to protect individuals against undue invasions of personal privacy.”

Whether you’re aware of it or not, you have the right to access a huge amount of government information — as much government information as is consistent with the public interest, in fact.

And, given the amount of decisions made by the government that directly influence our lives, it seems to us that it’s in the public’s interest to have access to a whole hell of a lot of information.

Pardon the language, we’re just so excited about the idea of a transparent government structure..

It is because of these laws that Board of Regents meetings are open to the public, so every student can witness firsthand the discussion and decision to increase tuition, and that’s just one example.

These laws allow us to know the size of a college’s budget cut and the documents that were part of the decision to make that cut as well — and we’re lucky there, because Iowa State is a public institution falling under the authority of Iowa’s open meetings and open records laws.

We, as journalists at the Iowa State Daily, take advantage of the access granted to us by these laws in order to provide the ISU community with information about the decisions that affect it. But these provisions aren’t just for us.

We encourage everyone to learn about these laws, and take advantage of these opportunities.

Seriously. That means you.

This committee will be a great resource to help educate everyone in the state about why “Sunshine laws” are important, what kind of information is public, and how to take action if government officials are trying to avoid sharing the information they are required to provide.

Iowa’s Sunshine laws are valuable tools — and this advisory committee will help teach all of us how to use them to best serve the public.

Don’t waste the opportunity, and we’ll do our best to do the same.