Thank you signing up to participate in the APA/ASLA 2005 Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. We hope you are looking forward to communicating with your elected officials on the importance of planning to quality communities.

This page is designed to provide you with some preliminary resources before you head to Washington, DC.

• Plan on attending the advocacy and issue trainings: Before you head up to your meetings, please make plans to attend the advocacy training at the conference to review the major issues and asks as well as to get some communication tips and techniques to help you make an impact with your elected officials (and to win some fabulous prizes!). Make note of the following times:

  • Wednesday, May 11th
    • Intensive Advocacy Training, 3:45-5:00pm
  • Thursday, May 12th
  • Breakfast, 8:30am
  • Issue Briefing, 10-11:45am
  • Advocacy Training Luncheon, 12-1pm

• Check your meeting schedule:

  We have also established an online format for checking the meeting times we have scheduled for you.

A couple things to consider while checking the meeting calendar:

• These meeting time are not set in stone. Congress is a crazy place and things change every minute, so the times that are listed could be changed as late as the day before the meeting. At the conference, you'll receive a packet that will include:

  (a) complete schedules for your individual meetings,

  (b) information on who is participating in these meetings,

  (c) details on who you'll be meeting with,

(c) and schedules for other meetings happening in your state

• Also, keep in mind that many House offices do not set up meetings until one-week to just a few days in advance of the proposed meeting time. Although we have faxed, e-mailed and called all of the offices, it is likely that many meetings will not be established until Friday, May 7 or even Monday, May 9. Meetings can also be changed as late as the day before or even the day of the meeting, so please check back frequently for updates and most importantly, make sure to get your final schedules from APA and ASLA staff at the conference.

• We have organized the meeting listings by either State (for the Senate) or Congressional District (for the U.S. House). Please note that we have set up the meetings based on the address on record with the APA or ASLA. To check your District, please click here to visit APA's online legislative center.

IMPORTANT:

If you are sure you can't make your meeting or if you need to make changes before you arrive in DC, please do not attempt to make changes yourself because it may impact other participants who are expecting to join you in that meeting. Instead, please contact Cindy Klein at advocacyday@planning.org or 202-244-4866.

Also, please do not assume that because other APA/ASLA members are scheduled to attend your meetings that you do not need to attend. If you are unable to make a meeting, please alert an APA/ASLA staff member as soon as possible. Thanks!

Click here to connect to the Calendar Page. You'll need to scroll ahead to the week of 5/9 to see the meetings. (Please note, final scheduling information will not be available until Wednesday, 5/11.)

Looking for some advocacy tips to read on the plane? Click here to visit APA's Effective Advocacy Toolbox or click here to visit ASLA's page, How to Lobby.