Personal
visits are a highly effective way of helping legislators understand your
position or program. Legislators welcome visits from constituents.
They want you involved, even though they are busy people.
Flexibility
is always important when making appointments with legislators.
Be as flexible as possible when scheduling your meeting. Be prepared for
schedule changes; do not take these changes personally, this is just how it is.
Please remember that time is a valuable commodity to legislators.
So with all contacts, be brief, be specific and be polite!
Tips
for planning your Meeting:
·
Be flexible! Try to make it
easy for your legislator to meet with you. Negotiate a time and location that works for well for them.
By being flexible on time and location you will seem reasonable and have
a better chance of getting a meeting.
·
Make your appointment in advance.
·
Be prepared for delays or cancellations.
At
the Meeting --
·
Be on time for your appointment. Be
prepared, dress neatly, be polite and be brief.
·
At the beginning of the meeting, state who you are, whom you represent,
what you want to discuss, and what you want your legislator to do.
·
Do not be surprised if your legislator does not know about your issue or
program. Legislators have to know
about many issues and may specialize in areas unrelated to your work.
Avoid overwhelming the legislator with information and detail.
·
If you do not know the answer to a specific question, offer to find the
answer and then forward the information to the legislator.
·
Try to find out where your legislator stands on your issue.
·
Leave a one-page fact sheet summarizing your points; include your name,
address and telephone number. (A tip sheet on doing fact sheets is available from the
Alliance.) More detailed information should be included in attachments.
Again, be careful about overwhelming the legislator with information.
·
Perhaps
the most critical part of your visit
--- Ask your legislator for some sort of commitment, some way that they would
like to help you.
You
will have to gauge their interest at that moment:
Are
they being polite, but non-committal? How about asking them if they would be
willing to read additional information about your issue?
Somewhat interested? How about asking them to come out to the program on a site visit?
Seem interested in getting more information on the issue? You could invite them to sit down informally with a few other folks who know the issue well (consumers, practitioners, policy analysts) and talk in more depth about the issue.
Already on board with the issue? You might ask them if they would be willing to share this information with other members of their caucus.
No
matter what the next step is, you must be sure to follow-up! Ask your
legislator when you can call him or her to follow-up (e.g. see if they have
questions about materials you want them to read, make arrangements for a
site visit, see if the other members of their caucus had any questions about
the issue, etc.)
·
If your legislator needs more information, make arrangements to give them
information AND ask them when you should follow-up with them.
·
Try to leave the meeting knowing what your next steps should be (e.g.
calling their office to set up a site visit, organizing that small informal
meeting, providing additional information, etc.)
·
Follow up the meeting with a thank you note, thanking the legislator for
his or her time. Be sure to
re-state your position in this note.
·
If the legislator asks for more information, please get this information
to them. If you need help
responding to questions, call California Food Policy Advocates.