Advocacy Days: Planning, Participating, and Following Up

By: Owen Kavanagh, BOMA Georgia

Advocacy days are key events that allow individuals and shared interest groups to lobby legislators directly. Associations, nonprofits, businesses, and concerned citizens use them to let their representatives hear their voice and learn their constituents’ positions. Advocacy days involve careful planning, patient execution, and an attentive follow up.

Setting Up an Event Space

Before your advocacy/lobby day can begin, it must be planned. You cannot arrive at your local legislature with a large group and demand a meeting. The process is different state by state, but all of them involve research, communication, and patience.

Check your local legislature’s website to find any information on hosting events at the capitol building. Some states have this information available online, such as Ohio, Texas, and Georgia, who have event information available through their building administration websites. Arizona goes a step further. They use a web-form to screen prospective events, and this process can be expedited depending on the event’s needs. Some states have different requirements for hosting events, such as California, which requires a legislative member to sponsor your event before it is approved.

Setting up an event at your state legislature may require nominal fees in renting the event space, AV equipment, tables, podiums, and other associated materials. These events may also require security, such as state troopers or local police officers, whose fees are based on group size. Make sure to find all rules and regulations regarding events and consider calling the Clerk of the House for your state legislature to find more information and resources.

Preparing Your Advocates

Bringing and preparing a group to speak to legislators is a great way to get your issues at the forefront of an elected official’s mind. Preparing your advocates on what to speak about, and how, can be the difference between the success and failure of your lobby day.

Ready talking points for your advocates. Make sure your group knows them well. Too much information can muddle an issue and keeping a tight focus will help get your point across and advocate to legislators. Be sure to explain the typical environment at the capitol to participants. Many of them may be nervous, and this can be mitigated by communicating how the legislature works and your group’s role in it to participants.

Talking points and fact sheets will enable your advocates to speak with the backing of strong statistics and information. If you are a trade organization, these could be the economic impact of your members. If you are a business, this could be the impact you have on the local economy, your environmental savings, or even what you are doing to help the legislators constituency.

Have everything your participants will need to engage with their legislators. This will help participants feel prepared and ready to speak with their elected officials and give them the tools to advocate not only for themselves, but for your organization as well.

Other Preparations

Preparation is one of the keys to a successful advocacy day, but the day does not rest solely on speakers and meetings. Planning the logistics of your lobby day is extremely important, down to the smallest details.

How will your participants get to the capitol building? What will they eat during the day? What will the schedule be? Who will speak at the event? Who will your group speak with? How will you follow up? All these questions and more go into the planning and preparation of an advocacy day and answering them will give participants the tools to advocate at the capitol. A few other considerations are:

• Consider your primary goal. Are you networking? Raising group awareness? Actively lobbying?

• Develop a budget for the event space (equipment rental, security, etc.)

• How often will you have an advocacy day? A prolonged government affairs strategy is always better than only addressing emerging legislation that affects your group.

• Help your members become comfortable. Brief them on everything they may need for the day, such as event proceedings, decorum, attire, talking points, and how to navigate building security.

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• Make time to take pictures. This can be for marketing material, memorialization for the members, and more. Going to the capitol is an exciting event, and this may be participants first experience in the legislature!

• When will your event occur? Time your visit to when legislators have space for meetings, but make sure the legislature is in session. It is hard to advocate in an empty building.

• Encourage participants to wear something uniting them visually, such as pins or clothing specific to the industry (like cowboy hats for an agricultural group or blue tops for realty groups). This will help in finding people and giving the impression of a large, well organized organization.

• Do you have a lobbyist group already? If so, include them in the planning and development of your advocacy day.

Formats

What is the format of your lobby day? Is it online or in person? This distinction did not exist a few years ago, but it has come about in the face of COVID-19 restrictions, and online advocacy days may be here to stay.

The greatest advantages offered by an online lobby day are mobility and accessibility. Rather than physically going to a capitol building and reserving space or the other logistical needs of the event, you can run the advocacy day from the comfort of your home or office, and this extends to participants as well. Travel becomes a non-issue, and breakout rooms can enhance discussions between participants and speakers immensely. However, there are downsides.

Paying attention and remaining engaged can be difficult online, and this is especially true in a home office or other distracting areas. Another consideration is to make sure your speakers have experience with an online platform. Even the most electrifying presenters can struggle in a new setting.

Are your members tech-savvy enough to navigate a web-based advocacy day? Are physical aids a major part of your presentation? An important consideration is whether your messaging can be presented in an online setting. Peanut planters regularly give Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches at lobby days to showcase their crops, but this changes when moving to an online advocacy day. Special considerations are needed to translate this into an online format, such as sending PB&J kits to legislators, and this must be addressed when planning.

An in-person advocacy day may be more challenging logistically, but it is a tried-and-true method for lobbying your legislators. Elected officials are more likely to meet with their constituents, especially a large group of them. In 2015, 94 percent of congressional staff said that “in-person visits from constituents” would have “some” to “a lot” of influence on an undecided lawmaker1. Meeting in person allows legislators to associate your participants face, voice, and frame to the well-researched information presented to them.

Executing the Event

There are many questions to ask in preparation for an advocacy day. Is it themed? Are there any pieces of legislation you will speak on? These questions need to be answered beforehand, but executing an advocacy day takes preparation and knowledge, and the knowledge must be put to good use.

Make sure participants have their lobbying packets, which can include talking points, scripts, data sheets, and more. These advocacy packets should be given out early and gone over in detail. Answer all questions from attendees.

Consider your lobby day goal. Is the purpose networking, building brand recognition, or lobbying on a specific issue or legislation? When forming a relationship, leverage your participants expertise to aid elected officials and their staff.

“Lobbying provide members of Congress, state legislatures, and city council people with the information they need to make the best decisions for their constituencies”2.

Get your stance and expertise known, and legislators may call you up the next time an issue in your wheelhouse rolls along.

Building brand recognition is integral in a long-term advocacy plan. Appearing as a well-organized group and speaking intelligently and coherently will go a long way. Wearing similar clothing or a specific piece of clothing (such as a button) can help, and remember to take pictures for marketing and social media!

Advocating specific issues requires similar preparation to networking, but your organization should craft a specific position and be prepared to ask legislators where they stand on that issue. Ask for a specific action such as voting one way or the other, meeting with your group later, or sponsoring a bill or ordinance.

Be direct in what is asked, and honest when answering any questions. Honest, useful answers will go a long way in building trust between your group and officials. Whether it is building brand recognition, networking, or advocating for an issue, there is much to remember.

Here are a few tips to help your lobby day at the capitol:

• Be direct and honest when speaking; clearly state your position.

Your trustworthiness and expertise are some of the greatest tools in lobbying, use them.

• Use your advocacy materials. Refer to prepared facts and statistics and use anecdotes to aid your conversation. This will help officials understand the personal ramifications of the bills or issues you are addressing.

• Ask for explanations when needed, and have the officials clarify their position.

• If they ask a question, answer honestly and completely. Give them all the facts you can, and if you don’t have an answer, offer to find one.

• Thank them for meeting with you and be cordial.

Immediately After

There are a few things to remember immediately after an advocacy day. First, be sure to pay all bills for space usage, catering and other event fees. Second, follow-up with each participant. Third, evaluate and reflect on your lobby day and plan ways to improve for next year.

Make sure to follow-up with each participant. From legislators and officials to your participating members, your follow-up can give both unexpected gains and begin fostering important relationships.

Following up with participants can involve many things, such as surveys on the day, or asking them to log their interactions with legislators. If there is a particular issue or bill your group advocated for or against, finding out how legislators interacted with that issue can help tailor further communications and advocacy days.

Did the legislator support one part of the bill and not another? Were they apathetic or engaged? What response did the lobby day elicit from them? What about their staff? These are all important questions that you can ask your participants, asking for feedback before the advocacy day begins can help them formulate answers as they participate.

Further Contact

Keep in touch with the people you meet at an advocacy day. Elected officials and their staff are your greatest chance to affect policy change. Send thank you notes and invitations for further contact. Legislators and their staff can be invited to conferences, receptions, industry meetings, and more. Event attendance is an excellent way to introduce legislators and their staff to industries and organizations, and it can help officials understand the groups they impact better. So long as the event is widely attended (>25 people expected to attend), a legislator can be invited and given free admittance. Both the U.S. House and Senate have rules on gift giving, but be sure to consult with your local laws or your lawyer on what can and cannot be given to legislators.

Remain a resource to legislators. Don’t just ask for aid or policy positions, help them stay informed and be friendly. Don’t be the person they dread calls from. This will encourage them or their staff to pick up when you call, or even call you when a piece of legislation under your expertise hits their desk. Being honest and upfront about the issues, and explaining as best you are able, will encourage Legislators and their staff to return the next time this legislation is on the agenda.

Your Advocacy Day

Advocacy days do not come from nothing. They are built on plans, research, and communications. They are executed with commitment and calmness. They are followed by careful reflection and relationship building. Advocacy days are the best way for citizens and shared interest groups to lobby their elected officials, but they take preparation, execution, and follow-up. Building an advocacy day takes time, and the best time to start is always yesterday. Consider completing a lobby day this year. You may find it more effective and rewarding than you expect.

Sources

1. Fitch, Goldschmit, and Cooper, Citizen-Centric Advocacy: The Untapped Power of Constituent Engagement

2. National Association of Social Work, Lobby Day Tool Kit

3. Jerald A. Jacobs, Association Law Handbook, 2007

Contributions

Insight from Katie Roberts, Fiveash-Stanley