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Advocacy Tipsheet Archives |
Winter Holidays & New Year's Resolutions
Holiday Wish List -- December 17, 2003
Five New Year's Resolutions for Effective Advocates -- January 6, 2003
EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY TIP: HOLIDAY WISH LIST FOR ADVOCATES
Racking your brain for that perfect present for your favorite advocate? If another power tie is simply out of the question, I’ve got a few ideas that should impress even the most fickle advocates. Following is a list of free and not-so-free items that will thrill citizen advocates everywhere. No matter what the cause, or who is advocating, there should be something on this list for everyone. If you're low on cash, think about how you might combine some of the free options into an effective advocate toolkit – and happy advocating!
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Keep them in the Know: One of my key points for effective advocacy, as you all know, is to have a clear idea of what you want from your elected officials. One way to make sure you’re asking for something relevant is to keep track of what’s happening in DC. A subscription to Roll Call (www.rollcall.com ), the newsletter of Capitol Hill, can provide news and information on all the Washington, DC “goings-on.” This is a little pricey (about $150 per six months) so, for a free option, consider going to www.congress.gov and printing out information on all the legislation on a topic of interest to the recipient. Or, ask your elected officials for reports from the Congressional Research Service. CRS has ready-made reports and info packets on pretty much every topic under the sun. You can access a number of procedural reports directly at http://www.house.gov/rules/crs_reports.htm. Another great freebie is a subscription to the Politics Online e-newsletter, available at www.politicsonline.com. And, of course, a subscription to the Advocacy Tipsheet will always warm their hearts.
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Give them the Dirt: Effective advocates also need to know a little bit about what makes their elected officials tick. One great way to find out biographical and general interest information is through the The Almanac of American Politics, 2004 (available at Amazon.com for $41.97) or Cq's Politics in America 2004: The 108th Congress (also available from Amazon.com for $88.75.) For the free option, consider going to bioguide.congress.gov and printing out information on their favorite elected officials. You can also sign them up for free daily e-mails from www.yourcongress.com, which tells them how their elected officials voted during the last legislative day. Or, to really impress them, contact those elected officials and ask for an autographed picture.
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Donate to the Cause: We all know that elected officials need money to get re-elected and special interest groups need money to get their message out there. Why not make your favorite advocate happy by contributing to a politician or cause that they support? You can find political campaigns through Vote Smart and www.vote-smart.org , or learn more about different interest groups through a Google search (www.google.com). For the free option, consider printing out all the “down and dirty” campaign financing information on a politician that really irritates that special someone at www.opensecrets.org.
- Provide the Forum: Have you ever noticed how people who really care about an issue like to talk about it? At length? To anyone who will listen whether they want to or not? Well, help them engage in that conversation (thankfully with others) by making a contribution to www.e-thepeople.org and introducing them to the site. At this site, participants can engage in political discussions with like-minded and not-so-like-minded fellow enthusiasts. You don't HAVE to pay to participate, so it's a good free option as well. Or, consider posting a question or letter on www.congress.org on an issue that your advocate cares about.
- Amuse and Confuse: Amuse your citizen advocate with a flag that's been flown over the U.S. Capitol. These are available from your Congressional office for $17 to $30. You can also mix them up a batch of the famous White House hot chocolate: download the recipe and don't worry, chocolate is bipartisan.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a couple things that you can find here at AdVanced Consulting. Of course, there’s my book, “Government by the People: How to Communicate with Congress” ($7.95). I'll even sign it if you ask me to! Or, for the free option, print out the tutorial pages from my website and offer it to your favorite advocate. You can also purchase your favorite advocate a course at our online Advocacy Classroom.
GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONAL TIP
Listen up all you Government Relations Directors, Grassroots Program Managers, and general instigators of citizen participation in government. With the holidays right around the corner, it’s awfully tempting to put up your feet and relax. While you absolutely should do some of that, try also to think about how you can use this time to better prepare for next year. Here are some quick ideas.
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Ask your advocates to find time to meet with elected officials: Many local groups have events around the holidays already planned. Ask them to include their elected officials in a Holiday Cookie Bake Sale, Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot or evening of good old fashioned Christmas Caroling. Don’t reinvent the wheel – just make figure out how to make it squeakier.
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Identify holes and plug them: How many times in the last year have you said “if we only had our advocate information organized by congressional district” or “if we only had information on Committee assignments included in our database” or, “Darn it, our legislative information is all outdated – we’re still referring to 107th Congress bills.” OK, so maybe you haven’t said those exact things, but you might have said something similar: try to use this downtime to identify those holes, establish some priorities and get moving.
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the strategy process now: Start thinking now about what you’re
going to ask for, how you’re going to ask for it, and how you’re
going to involve the grassroots next year. And if you need to take some
steps ahead of time to give them better resources, better training or
better motivation, do it!
INTERESTING WEBSITES
Interested in reading a website about a tree? In this case it’s a very special tree, specifically the Capitol Christmas Tree which hails this year from the great state of Iowa. More information at http://www.capitolholidaytree2003.org/
INTERESTING EVENTS
January 20th, 2004: Congress Reconvenes – and (hopefully) passes the appropriations bills for the fiscal year that ended (gulp) September 30th!
January 23rd, 2004: Advocacy Classroom session on “A New Year, A New Session, A New Perspective”. Come get some ideas on how to shake up your advocacy efforts in 2004!
EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY TIP: FIVE NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE ADVOCATES
Yes, folks, it's that time of year. Instead of the traditional "I will lose 15 pounds" or "I will exercise every day" or "I will achieve peace in the Middle East," why not make some New Years' Resolutions about good citizenship that you might actually keep? Everyone repeat after me:
"In 2003, I resolve to"
Purge my misconceptions: Maybe it's just the massive effort my husband and I undertook this weekend to purge our house of unused junk (anyone out there need an old espresso maker?), but I think the first step for any effective advocate is to purge your mind of misconceptions about our system of government. You know the ones I mean: those negative thoughts like "elected officials will never listen to me," "my vote doesn't matter," or "campaign contributions are all anyone pays attention to." In my experience, these thoughts generally come from those individuals who haven't actually tried to communicate EFFECTIVELY with their elected officials. To learn more about talking to elected officials so they'll listen, check out the AdVanced Consulting tutorial at www.advocacyguru.com/demo_page.htm.
Know my legislators: Whether or not you have something specific to talk to your legislators about right away, be sure you know something about who represents you at the local, state and federal level. Some of the things I think everyone should know include:
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The names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of local, state and federal elected officials that represent the areas where you work and live. Much of this can be found at www.congress.org
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Committee assignments of said elected officials
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Their legislative interests and record on issues you care deeply about
- Their general political philosophy (where are they on the Liberal / Conservative scale?)
For extra advocacy points, find out:
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Basic biographical information, such as where they went to school and what kind of career they had before becoming an elected official
- What issues the elected official really cares about
You can find a sample legislative database at: www.advocacyguru.com/legislatordatabase.xls Download it (in Excel) and use it to create your own list!
Keep up with Current Events (and How My Legislators Can Impact Those Events): Concerned about the potential of war with Iraq? War with North Korea? War with your stock broker over 2002's less-than-stellar stock performance? If you really, truly care about these issues, be sure to keep up-to-date through newspapers, news magazines, television and the Internet. And perhaps more important, be sure to have a sense of how legislators can actually impact these events. Remember that one individual member of the US House of Representatives cannot stop a war in Iraq (or start one, for that matter). He or she can, however, speak out in support or opposition, talk to other legislators and groups in the community, and vote for or against funds for the military. Be sure to share you views about what specifically you think your legislators should do, but be realistic about what they actually can achieve.
Communicate with my Legislators: Everyone everywhere should care enough about one policy issue strongly enough to communicate with an elected official about that issue. So figure out what that issue is, how local, state or federal elected officials are involved, and how you can most effectively express your views. If it's animal rights, look up animal rights legislation online at www.congress.gov, and ask your representatives to cosponsor important legislation. If it's the pothole in front of your house, contact your local government and keep contacting them until they fix it. If it's the fact that you can watch your favorite football game because it's been blacked-out, contact the Federal Communications Commission for more information on the "Syndicated Exclusivity" rules. The point is, our system of "Government by the People" requires the people (yes, that means you, not those "other" people) to participate.
Vote: If you don't vote, you don't get to whine about the outcome. 'Nuff said.
INTERESTING WEBSITES
If you're like me, you turn to the Internet to answer practically any question you might have. Well, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, we're in good company. A recent report (you can access it at: http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=80) notes that many Americans now turn to the Internet first for basic information. Yellow Pages? What Yellow Pages?
And speaking of the Internet, if you're interested in its impact on the 2002 elections, check out Phil Noble's report at: http://www.politicsonline.com/pol2000/specialreports/campaign_analysis_2002/. No one is claiming that is was the "Year of the Internet" or anything like that. But the Noble report does point out some interesting facts, such as 70% of candidates for "major" races (i.e., Congressional and above) had websites. Of course, no word yet on how many of those sites were actually useful!
The US Government is trying to get into the act: I guess they've realized the Internet is here to stay. At any rate, the "E-Government Act" recently became law. You can read more at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021217-5.html. At the same time, some have criticized the lack of citizen focus in the US E-government efforts. You can download a report on this subject from the GAO at: http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/1216/egov_report.pdf.
INTERESTING EVENTS
January 7th -- Congress reconvene
Note: The House of Representatives has put up its entire schedule for the year at: http://www.house.gov/house/2003_House_Calendar.htm. Take a look and note when elected officials will be back in their districts -- those are ideal opportunities to connect with them in a more relaxed setting.
