As holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah approach many people cannot help but start to think about being with families, celebrating the end of the year and having a good time. This is all part of good practice in political advocacy efforts. It is important to recharge and reboot. We highly advise, however, to not forget about engaging with legislative representatives during this brief break in the legislative session.
Roughly speaking legislation will start to trickle in on January 15th, particularly this year due to the national election. With this major difference in the legislative process, an organization may be wondering how this changes our holiday engagement? What should we be thinking about? Is there anything we should be doing differently?
The answer to these questions is both yes and no. We understand this beginning sentence may seem a little confusing but let us clarify. Your organization should always be thinking about your new goals, new aspirations for the new legislative session. There are a Couple of key factors that change when there is a major election year involved. Here’s what those changes Could possibly be:
- New appointments to certain legislative offices due to the elected representatives.
- An entire new legislative staff if a new senator or assembly person is elected.
- Changes to possible general regulations based on national and statewide policy.
What do these changes mean to an organization? The first basic steps never change
- Introduce Or reintroduce Your organization to your local legislative representatives by attending events.
- Enjoy the event. Do not be thinking about your organization’s goals and aspirations at that time.
- Purpose of attendance is to. Be able to exchange basic information with a legislative representative. To later schedule a meeting.
What does change?
How you will frame your organization’s goals and aspirations for the upcoming year. After that first meeting. Where you have introduced your organization to legislative staff members, you will learn about that Senators or Assemblymen’s approach to the upcoming legislative session. The best way to do this is to keep an open mind and open ear.
Once you have a rough idea of where the mindset of the Assemblyman and Senators office is underneath the current legislative regime, your organization will have a better idea of. Whether to work Conservatively or liberally? Underneath, The new senators, Assembly people and various legislative representatives.
Important factors to keep in mind. The first meeting you take with either an assembly person or a senator’s office is to learn about that office. Get to know the people in it. If they want to talk about their priorities, it is important for you to listen. This will help you build an effective relationship with that office. This is always the case, but it becomes even more important in an election year where many people are getting into office, possibly for the first time, and new staffers are being introduced. Our closing remark for this article is to keep an open ear and open mind when walking into these meetings. By having this type of approach, your organization will have a better chance of having success. Regardless of the political climate.
