Tips for a productive conversation

Planning is key!

Establish the basic message and goal of the meeting and designate a leader for your group. Anyone joining the meeting with you should have a brief meeting together beforehand to discuss roles, the "ask," and talking points. The group leader should know what each person is planning to say. The participants should try to reduce redundancy, and speak from the heart about their personal experiences or observations. Have an agenda – you may not follow it exactly, but you should be prepared.

Get a framework for your lobby meeting:

It is important that your meeting be ACCURATE, BRIEF & COURTEOUS.

ACCURATE

It is important to provide only the information that you know to be true. Knowing your facts helps establish you as a credible resource, but it is better to state that you don’t know the answer to a question than to take a guess. If you’re unsure, just let the member/staffer know that someone else from IJM will follow up with the answers, and make sure to reflect that in your meeting report form.

BRIEF

Members and their staff are very busy, so you want to clearly articulate the reason for the visit and avoid bringing up extraneous issues. While we all have a number of issues that we care about, remember that you are there to build support for this one particular issue. Avoid diffusing the message.

Choose your facts, figures and stories carefully. Only use them to underscore a point. Cover the basics and make sure that the member/staffer understands your message. Try to make your case in no more than 3-5 minutes (this can take practice). Keep in mind that your meeting may be interrupted, so be sure to get to the point early on in the meeting.

COURTEOUS

Your meeting with the member/staff is part of a long-term effort to build support for a strong U.S. commitment to ending modern-day slavery and protecting the poor from everyday violence. You should see your role as beginning or continuing an on-going conversation. Successful advocacy involves building long-term relationships with policymakers and this meeting is just one step in the process. This meeting is a stepping stone for other meetings/requests, so you always want to be respectful and actively listen (and you can learn a lot about your members’ views and priorities by listening well).

More tips for a successful meeting: DO this

• Be prompt. Members of Congress and their staff have busy very busy schedules.
• Consider how to frame the issue you care about from the Member's perspective. Think about what motivates him/her. Does he/she serve on any relevant committees?
  • Examples of frequently relevant committees to IJM advocates:
    • Senate Foreign Relations Committee/House Foreign Affairs Committee;
    • House/Senate Judiciary Committee;
    • and the House/Senate Appropriations Committees.
• Try to demonstrate a connection to the interests of your district/state.
• Who else cares about this issue?
• Is this issue important to your church?
• To learn more about your members of Congress, visit their websites at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
• If the member does what you’ve asked, be sure to say thank you and, if possible, commend them publicly.

More tips for a successful meeting: DON’T do this

• Stretch the truth or make anything up.
• Get into partisan political conversations. The goal is to get the support of members of Congress from across the political spectrum to support U.S. polices to confront injustice. Make the issue attractive to them, regardless of what your own personal views might be on their political party or voting record.