It'll take more to move an agenda than just hit "send"

What can we glean from a survey about the best way to communicate with Congress?

Yes, I just double-checked on the calendar and no, it's not November yet. I know that until November, we are supposed to be doing, thinking, and breathing nothing but campaigns and elections. But here at Wellstone Action HQ we are trying to do something a little unusual this election year - plan for the day after.

Regardless of who sits in the oval office next year, and who walks the halls of Congress, we as citizens are going to have to work hard to pass forward-thinking progressive public policy. In short order, we are going to have to address the myriad challenges facing our nation at this flashpoint in our history. No one leader will be able to do this alone.

We are keenly aware that while Wellstone Action is known as the place to go to learn how to win your election while building your base and bringing more people into the political process, 2009 will bring a new set of needs for training and leadership development in the progressive movement. To address those, we are doing a lot of thinking about how to move an agenda, how to win on your issue.

That's why we were excited to find the recent draft report from the Congressional Management Foundation called "Communicating with Congress: Recommendations for Improving the Democratic Dialogue". This report is still in draft stage and is available for public comment. They surveyed over 350 congressional staffers as well as over 10,000 (!) citizens and asked them about their perceptions and practices with constituent communication. Some of their initial findings will be very helpful in crafting strategy for effective advocacy and grassroots organizing.

Among the critical issues they identified: the fact that the sheer volume of citizen communication is becoming overwhelming for Congressional offices; Congressional staff mistrust "formulaic" communications that are obviously automatically generated; and that citizens are showing an increasing interest in communicating not just with their representative, but with committee and leadership offices as well.

On the one hand, all of these findings point to something good - a combination of factors (technology, a divided electorate, etc) have led to a dramatic increase in citizen involvement in the process of government. However, it doesn't appear that an increase in engagement has led to more getting done in Congress and more effective citizen lobbying.

One hint lies in the second finding above - the volume of communication has increased but not its personal nature. We need to find a way to demonstrate the power of a large, organized group of people without taking away the impact of direct, individual constituent contact. And we need to find a way to target the influential committee members and leadership, even when all the communication isn't coming from direct constituents.

While this study is only about Congress, these principles may apply to smaller-scale advocacy as well. What have been your experiences (good and bad) with communicating with Congress? What questions or ideas do you have about moving a progressive issue agenda in 2009? Leave a comment here and help us plan for 2009.

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Some Congress people are

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 18, 2008 - 12:54pm.

Some Congress people are very easy to communicate with. Their websites are easy to find, well-organized and clear in their directions. Some are not. It is very helpful when groups or individuals asking you to contact your congressperson provide a link for doing so.

Beyond Pushing Send

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 18, 2008 - 1:06pm.

Let me recommend a new book that helps us rethink the meaning of democracy and our role in shaping it. Take a look at THE CITIZEN SOLUTION: HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE by Harry Boyte (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008) http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfomhspress.cfm?Product_ID=1687

Communicating with Electeds

Submitted by Katie (not verified) on July 18, 2008 - 1:14pm.

In my experience, email advocacy is only one part of a successful strategy. Generic emails to legislators can help demonstrate the size of a concerned constituency, but you'll still need the personal calls, letters, and visits from that constituency to make an impact. It's like advocacy soup: you need all the ingredients (online/offline grassroots organizing, community power building, effective lobbying, clear messaging, and aggressive media work, to name a few) to think about winning!

Use money and creativity

Submitted by Charles Lenchner (not verified) on July 18, 2008 - 1:38pm.

Many c3's are using citizen lobbying tactics as a shortcut to listbuilding and attracting new first time donors. They are not putting citizens at the center of their Congressional engagement strategy. Here are some tips for changing that which have a great feature: folks that are serious about good lobbying will support them, while c3's more concerned with building their organization will not. - Help members arrange meetings at district offices - Use opensecret.org to target top donors of politicians for messaging - Network with like-minded groups in a way that encourages members of YOUR list to meet with and work with members of a someone else's list - Direct political donations to a candidate or C4 in an open, transparent way. - Solicit creative ideas from your base, and direct staff resources to implement them.

Communicating with elected officials

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 18, 2008 - 2:20pm.

Formulaic communications may be okay for some things, especially if they include an option for editing and you use it to add your own slant to the topic. But usually I wait till the spirit moves me and write a wholly individual email, which may be quirky or even sometimes a little off base from an organizer's standpoint but is clearly from an outraged passionate citizen raising hell. Staff may not love seeing these come in, but they sure know who wrote them! Organizers who want to generate more diverse communications with elected officials need to make sure they send out enough information, maybe including links to recent strong articles on the topic, and make sure they include the edit option in their boilerplate. Even if only 2% of respondents take advantage of the information, that still changes the mix.

Looks like the schools

Submitted by Gayathri (not verified) on July 19, 2008 - 7:23am.

Looks like the schools introducing new things. ......................... GAYATHRI Addiction Recovery New Mexico

congressional correspondence

Submitted by Jon Morgan (not verified) on July 19, 2008 - 1:49pm.

The explosion of communication, mostly email, to Congress has really caught them off guard and unable to cope. This has even been in the Washington Post. Even in Paul's office in 2001-02, we saw the volume of mail quadruple in a year or so. Such trends have only continued and even sped up since then. How would you handle 10,000 emails a week? With only 4-5 people? And we were considered to have one of the top mail operations on the Hill! Many offices are really winging it; they've never gotten assistance or training in answering the mail. One of my elected reps replies so rarely that I've asked what their Legislative Correspondents do all day. Congressional offices get limited resources, and rarely is it a high priority to people to put too much into answering the mail--you need policy advisors, press people, administrators, a scheduler, receptionists, caseworkers...and really, no one goes to DC to answer mail. We did it as a learning step toward a more substantive position. Offices aren't getting any more resources to answer many times more correspondence than they used to get, and they aren't allocating more of what they do get on mail. Often, the mail jobs are considered unimportant and unprestigious. They don't pay well (under $30,000 a year with DC's high cost of living), and often give little chance for advancement, so they don't keep people long or inspire them to do the best possible job. It's a quandry I don't have a solution to. I'm on lots of activist email lists and do think it's necessary to send emails or sign petitions, etc. sometimes. But I try not to write the same office too often. Catching politicians even for a brief moment at public events can be enough to make them remember something. Lobby visits with DC or state/district staff are helpful too--those staffers are smart and informed on their issues, and make recommendations and reports to their bosses, so don't overlook them or take them for granted! Press coverage of group activities is good too. There's a mountain of stuff on our plates for the next few years (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/opinion/18brooks.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=da...). I don't envy those on the other end of all our emails.

Communicating

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 20, 2008 - 9:00am.

As with everything else, a personal relationship with your representative counts more and more in this great impersonnal world. Work on their campaigns, get to know their staff. I know that's easier in Nevada than in California, but it worked to some degree even there. (Better than a shower of e-mails if they trust your judgement!)

save money

Submitted by johni (not verified) on July 20, 2008 - 11:52pm.

The fable talked of how an ant that labours through the summer preparing for winter ends up a winner instead of the grasshopper who does nothing to prepare for the harsh months ahead. In Maugham's short story, Tom, the carefree but proverbial black sheep of his family, constantly gets into trouble only to be bailed out by his hardworking brother George. ====================================== johni Addiction Recovery North Carolina Addiction Recovery North Carolina

Personalize

Submitted by Judy Gibson (not verified) on July 21, 2008 - 7:00am.

I alway try, where possible, to put a sentence of my own at the beginning of any e-mail I send. Things like 'I know I can count on you to support...' where my legistature has a record of favoring such actions before. I also eliminate the 15 or so paragraphs of examples and justification and leave it at the just support or vote against. I figure there will be enough of the full text sent to educate if that is needed with out my adding to the deluge.

Focus on In-District Grassroots Lobbying

Submitted by Jeff Blodgett (not verified) on July 21, 2008 - 10:47am.

What this report says to me more than anything else is the best way to reach Members of Congress is when they are outside of Washington nd back in their states and districts. This way you can maximize contact between the Member and real people, and you can usually have more substantive and more impactful conversations. These visits are great leadership development opportunities for participants as well. In addition to setting up scheduled meetings, going to where the Member of Congress is--their town meetings nd other events--and making sure they are hearing a similar message from many people as they move around their District or State during recess periods.

Discrimination of the Mentally Ill by esteemed Health Plan

Submitted by Penny Stenger (not verified) on July 23, 2008 - 6:34am.

My story may be of help in working together to insure the mentally ill receive the care they need. In 2005 Coventry Health Care Inc., a Fortune 500 health insurance company, knowing that I live with bipolar illness, falsely accused me of fraud. They desired to terminate me. My experience demonstrates that it is not enough to have health insurance as HMOs routinely deny rightful services. Subscribers do give up and go away. Since HMOs hide behind Erisa, it gets worse. The type of behavior I describe in my blog, Tuesdays Tirades and Tales (tuesdaytiradesandtales.blogspot.com), does not happen in a vacuum. After three years of investigating my health insurance company, Carelink Health Plans Inc. of West Virginia and its parent company, Coventry Health Care of Bethesda MD., I have discovered much abusive behavior and write an account of a bizarre journey. Whether due to stigma or politics, it has been difficult releasing my story. It would be helpful to both our causes, I believe, if you were to link my blog to insure Coventry’s horrendous behavior does not go unnoticed. Thank you for all the work you are doing to support the mentally ill, people who in many ways are the poorest of the poor. Sincerely, Penny Stenger

As with everything else, a

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 22, 2008 - 9:44pm.

As with everything else, a personal relationship with your representative counts more and more in this great impersonal world. __________ KANE Social Media Marketing