How to Schedule and Meet with Your Elected Officials

1) Form a Committee of Interested Members

• Announce the creation of your committee to your members.

  • As easy as an email or as complicated as a kickoff party. Let your group know how important it is to be involved in advocacy efforts and how easy it can be. Perhaps some members might discover a new found love for lobbying and advocacy!

• Develop advocacy agenda for chapter.

  • Start with the national advocacy agenda and then build. Are there specific pieces you'd like to spend more time on? Are there issues specific to your group or area? Feel free to contact the Alums Advocacy Committee with help on developing your plan.

2) Schedule Your Visit

• Find your Representative's contact information.

  • There are multitudes of different ways you can find the contact information for your elected officials, from your state government to the federal government. Check out Congress.org, House.gov, Senate.gov or USA.gov to find your representative's contact information.

• Schedule your appointment!

  • It's intimidating but surprisingly easy to do! Staffers are usually very nice and want to schedule an appointment and work with you and your groups on concerns you may have or ideas you'd like to see implemented. Calling is usually best at first and then follow the instructions the staffer gives you! Just give them a call!

3) Prepare for Your Visit

• Research the Elected Official

  • Find out where he/she went to school or grew up. What's their trade or passion in life? What's their story? Advocacy is about having a conversation with the other individual and it's important to know who you're talking to both to find common ground and thin ice.

• Go over talking points with members attending the meeting.

  • Appoint someone to be the delegation lead. Everyone should talk but this individual will be in charge of keeping the group on track during the discussion (i.e. if the discussion starts to wander, this person will attempt to redirect it back to the original purpose).
  • Make sure everyone is on the same page and has a good idea of what the agenda is
  • It's perfectly fine to have printed sheets of talking points for the members attending to have and use during the meeting

• Prepare a statement of position to leave with the representative.

  • This statement of position just outlines your main points on whatever subject you're advocating and contains other important information such as contact information and basic statistics as well as other supporting materials. You can find a sample statement of position in the “Resources” section of this toolkit.
  • If nothing else, the statement of position is a physical trail that you went and spoke with the representative or a staff member and can be used to build legitimacy throughout your efforts. In a nutshell, the more you can show you've been reaching out, the more likely it is you'll get a positive response.

4) Visit with the Representative

• Stick to your talking points

  • It's always nice to have a conversation with whomever you're visiting with and it's definitely encouraged to create a relationship with your Representatives' office. Just make sure you get your points across in the meeting.

• Log your visit and what was discussed

  • We have created an online submission form for your visits. Please visit [insert web address] to fill out and send in the form. This will help us keep track of who is being spoken to and what is being said.