Legislative Advice

A good time to make general contact with your legislators, is when they hold a constituent day in your area (Town Meeting). Meetings in their District Office should be sought only to lobby a specific Bill that is ready to be acted on in the near future, or to get their support for an upcoming Bill.

Preparation for any meeting with State or Federal Legislators is very important. This means having the right studies or statistics on this so all of our arguments and efforts will be uniform throughout the State. It also helps to have a dry run or a dress rehearsal before the meeting with other people that are going to attend and keep the crowd small (2 or 3).

ABATE of NY, like any other Organization will realize it's peak potential when we have Chapters in every Legislative District in NY that have done their work and continue to stay alert so in a matter of days or even hours we can move all in one direction, like a tide, when we need to.

Some Good Legislative Habits

As Legislative Coordinator make sure that you have a fast way to get legislative material that is mailed to the Chapter post office box. A week or two before that happens is just too long. Devise a way that only a day or two goes by before you get the material.

Keep records of what you send to legislators and the replies you get back from them.

Try to devise a way within your chapter to get a phone tree going or some other way of contact to get quick action of phone calls or letters for or against some piece of legislation that we may have to act on quickly. Again, weeks are too long for this sort of thing. The effectiveness of any organization is judged by how fast they can mobilize it's membership.

Take form letters to every ride or event that happens throughout the year. There is no better way to reach a lot of people in a short time. Have envelopes and address labels ready also. It is up to you as a Legislative Coordinator to decide which matter needs attention the most, as sometimes there is more than one directive to act on at one time.

Make a commitment to stay at the post of Legislative Coordinator for more than just one year. It is hard to get to know and get on good terms with your area Legislators in just one year. But if they see a well put together presentation year after year, the odds are that they will look on your legislative agenda more favorably. You may even get to be friends with them or their staff. The staff are very important to any legislative program.

This was a handout from Brent Garcia, Cortland-Chenango Chapter, when he was State Legislative Coordinator.