OK, I think I've got it although I don't really know why. The base mxml component and all of its children are in a package/directory called "sections" so the code needs to be in EACH child as follows:
<sections:_section xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"; xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" xmlns:com="components.*" xmlns:sections="sections.*" xmlns:mds="mds.*" creationComplete="_section1_creationCompleteHandler(event)" > <sections:states> <s:State id="Oct2010" name="Oct2010"/> <s:State id="Oct2011" name="Oct2011"/> <s:State id="Apr2012" name="Apr2012"/> <s:State id="Everything" name="Everything"/> </sections:states> FYI, I have different versions of this app that must be supported simultaneously and based on a few fields in the app, the actual version can change in mid stream. "Everything" is just there to help me with initial debugging.
