Gathering the Troops

  • Who will be attending?
  • What districts are they connected to?
  • Do they know any legislators or staff?

Preparing Your Advocates

  • Have they advocated before? How comfortable are they with it?
  • Do they understand the basic skills (know what they want, who they’re talking to, how to talk to them and how to follow-up)?
  • How will you be sure they gain those skills if needed?
  • How will you gather the information you need to know about your legislators?
  • How will you share that information with your advocates (Conference call? Meeting?)

Creating the Stories and Messages

  • Have you asked advocates for compelling local anecdotes (helping people get a dream home, for example)?
  • Have you consolidated local statistics and stories?
    • How many people have they worked with?
    • How many people do they employ?
    • How much money does the firm make (even rough numbers)
    • What charitable organizations in the district are they connected to?

On Site Coordination

  • Have you reviewed the list of legislators and developed a specific message for each?
  • Have you coordinated your group to be sure the right people are talking at the rights times during the meetings?
  • Have you cross-matched specific advocates with specific legislators?
  • Do you understand the stories people are prepared to tell and their relevancy to specific legislators?
  • Have you prepared your group to be flexible (meetings in the hallways, for example)?

Follow-Up

  • Have you developed a follow-up plan for each office (site visits, townhalls, local meetings)?
  • Are you prepared to implement that plan?
  • Have you set aside a time to write thank you notes?
  • Have you established a system for feeding the information back to your team in DC?