Articles

Staging a Lobby Day at the State Capitol

By Robert E. McLean, CAE

Managing a small staff association is always challenging, especially when producing a special event. A particularly challenging project is staging a lobby day with your state legislators. This article is a collection of lessons learned from several small-staff colleagues. With their help you can produce a successful event to help grow your grassroots program and accomplish your legislative goals.

Before the Conference

As you plan your event there are several options to consider when choosing speakers and designing handouts. Get the board's support. If your leaders aren't walking the halls with your members, the message they send is clear: This event is low on priority. So plan your event far enough in advance to ensure that the board will be there.

Consider producing a joint event with another association. This technique is always helpful when your budget is limited. But even if it's not, more people talking to more legislators often yields better results.

Charge a registration fee. A fee ensures that your members will take their involvement seriously, and it will help cover costs for food, printing and speakers.

Remind your members why they are coming to the state capitol. Be sure they understand and can explain your legislative goals during their brief visits, so they can determine afterward if they were successful.

Begin your training even before the lobby day with newsletter articles and materials sent by mail to teach them about the legislative process and their legislators. Many of your grassroots lobbyists won't know the names of their state representatives and senators, so don't expect them to appreciate the pace of legislative reform.

Explain that educating legislators is their first priority, and that passing bills can take years to accomplish.

Choose your dates carefully. Your lobby day should be early in the session, but not so early committees have yet to organize.

Consider who should schedule appointments. Because this process is so time-consuming, it's always better to ask your members make their own appointments. And your activists benefit because they make a valuable, easy and low-pressure first contact with the offices where they're headed. But if you lack a lobby day tradition and your members are particularly inexperienced, you may have to help them. You also may need to coordinate some calls to avoid members scheduling duplicate appointments.

During the Conference

Themes can be helpful when developing marketing materials, but your lobby day must be designed around issues, not catchy phrases. Your training must enable your grassroots lobbyists to clearly identify your legislative goals and understand what they are expected to do to achieve them.

Develop a legislative agenda—if you have more than one issue. Be sure your members know which issues mater most, and why.

Prepare clear, concise fact sheets. These are important for the legislators and their staffers, but also for your members who are new to grassroots lobbying.

Prepare a list of visit do's and don'ts. Cover the basics, from appropriate attire to appropriate comments.

Conduct a role-playing exercise. Even experienced lobbyists need practice articulating their issues and positions. This exercise remains the single most valuable training session you can offer.

When a group visits a member, elect a spokesperson. Teach your lobbyists that in the most effective visits one person does most of the talking. Others can offer help—when the designated speaker needs it.

Teach them to ask for specific action. Do you want the legislator to introduce a bill? Cosponsor an existing one? Oppose one already introduced?

After the Conference

You've started a new tradition with your legislative activists. Keep the conversations going with follow-up articles and letters, and start your own list of lessons learned so that next year's lobby day is even better. Survey your members and report the results—good and bad, preferably on paper. You need to know two things when your lobbyists return from the capitol. First, were they well-trained for the experience? Second, did the legislators respond favorably?

Revise your plans based on the survey results. And if you change anything, tell your members what you changed and why during the opening session of next year's event.

Announce the next event early and often. Your marketing for the next event must begin before you even finish the current one, so have your hotel contracts signed and dates secured.

These are just a few essential suggestions for producing an effective lobby day. To learn more, talk with your ASAE small-staff colleagues. Remember, too, that you can ask questions through the small staff listserver.

Robert E. McLean, CAE, is president of REM Association Services, an association management company located in Arlington, VA (near the nation's Capitol). He is a former member of the leadership of the AMC Institute and is currently in a leadership role with the American Society of Association Executives. McLean is a registered lobbyist who trains more than 5,000 grassroots lobbyists annually. REM manages numerous nonprofits, including national associations, societies, and foundations. The AMC also has several consulting clients, frequently facilitating strategic planning programs.