HOW TO HOLD AN EFFECTIVE MEETING WITH YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
Also known as a lobby visit, these meetings are the single most effective way to educate your elected representative about plastic pollution and encourage them to take action to address the plastic pollution crisis by introducing or co-sponsoring meaningful legislation (hint: The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act is an excellent federal bill, or, if you’re working on a local or state level, check out our sample Beyond Plastics Bill.)
Please note that although constituents may travel to Washington, DC or meet in one of the representative’s in-district offices in normal times, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all constituent meetings are conveniently virtual.
Below are some tips on how to organize an effective meeting with your member of Congress or other elected official.
Get to Know Your Legislator
Before scheduling your visit, take a little bit of time to find out what your legislator's point of view and voting record on this issue is. You can check out the legislator's website, social media, and other public statements to get a read on their opinions and priorities. If you can tell that she or he is very focused on slowing climate change, you can tailor your talking points to focus on the connection between plastic production, usage and disposal and the climate crisis. If your legislator appears to care about the fishing industry or recreational anglers and hunters, you can make sure to include statistics about the impact of plastic pollution on pelagic or fresh water species of fish or on sea birds and waterfowl. Anything you can find out in advance may be useful to help you craft the best possible argument to sway your legislator.
Request Your Meeting
Make your request via email (click here for a sample request email you can modify) and follow up with a call to the Appointment Secretary/Scheduler. Make sure to:
Suggest specific times and dates for your meeting.
Let them know what issue and legislation (including the bill number, if you have one) you wish to discuss.
Make sure they know that you are a constituent and include your mailing address, etc.
Be prepared to follow up multiple times! Members of Congress are very busy and so are their schedulers. If you don't hear back within a couple of days, follow up via email and or by giving the office a call. Ask to speak to the scheduler — you'll likely be prompted to leave a message. Continue emailing and calling until the scheduler responds. Note: make sure that you call only during office hours.
Assemble Your A-Team
Decide who will attend the meeting. Keep it small, but try to choose people who represent different groups that have an interest in the issue or legislation like doctors, scientists, fishermen, religious leaders, environmental advocates, etc., as well as who represent different parts of your district or state. Attendance will be limited to a small group and you will need to provide the names and contact information of anyone involved to the scheduler ahead of time. Focus on people who are well-spoken, can stay on message and can be counted on to show up.
Gather Your Materials
Check our website for materials as we have information to help you draft your talking points, as well as additional materials that you can share with your team and send to your elected official before the meeting. In addition to the resources on our Learn page, you may want to check out our fracked plastic facts.
Do a Prep Meeting With Your Team
Decide what you want achieve. What is it you want your elected official to do—vote for or against the bill? Make a commitment to introduce or co-sponsor legislation? Making a very specific request gives you a way to measure how successful your visit has been.
Agree on your talking points. It's tough to make a strong case for your position when you are disagreeing in the meeting! If a point is causing tension in the group, leave it out. Keep in mind that, although facts are important, personal stories have been shown to be very effective in these meetings. For example, someone might talk about the way seeing local beaches or lake shores littered with plastic trash motivated them to get involved. If you live in a fenceline community, personal stories should abound of negative health impacts, flaring incidents, shelter in place orders, and more.
Plan your meeting. People can get nervous in a meeting, and time is very limited (remember, you’ll have just 10 or 20 minutes and that time has to include introductions, etc.) Sketch out the meeting beforehand, including who will start the conversation and which points you’d like each participant to cover, in how much time (keep it super brief). Have everyone practice their comments on the call to provide feedback on what is working and what is not and help determine if they need to trim their remarks, etc.
Send Your Materials Before The Meeting
Share a packet of information with the elected officials office a week or so in advance of your meeting date. This should include things like a summary of any bills you’ll be discussing (and bill numbers), press materials, petition signatures you may have gathered, etc. Sharing these things in advance makes it harder for the representative to plead ignorance of the issue/legislation during the meeting.
Make The Meeting Count
Be on time! Tell your group to arrive/log on early and be patient—it is not unusual for elected officials to run late or to have your meeting interrupted by other business.
Be courteous. Start the meeting by introducing yourselves (mentioning your professional affiliations as well as any personal connections people in your group may have to the representative) and thanking the representative for any support of relevant legislation (or related issues such as climate change, clean air and clean water), and for taking the time to meet with you.
Stay on topic. Stick to your talking points and gently move people along if their remarks go long. Remember to provide personal and local examples of the impact of plastic pollution and/or of the legislation you’re pushing for or against. This is the most important thing you can do in a lobby visit.
Be truthful. If you don’t know the answer to a question, you should say, "I don't know" and tell your legislator that you will get that information for him or her shortly. This lets you get your best argument on record and into their files and gives you a handy excuse to follow up with them again about your issue. Do NOT make up an answer which could damage your credibility.
Set a deadline for a response/decision. Often, if an elected official hasn't taken a position on legislation, they will not commit to one in the middle of a meeting. If they need to think about it, or if you are meeting with a staff member, ask when you should check back in to find out what your legislator intends to do regarding your request. If you need to get information to your legislator, set a clear timeline for when this will happen. That way, you won’t be left hanging indefinitely.
Follow Up After The Meeting
Once the meeting ends, compare notes with your group to make sure you’re on the same page regarding what the elected official committed to do and what follow up information you need to send and who will do it.
Say thank you. Each person who participated in the meeting should promptly send a personal thank you email to the elected official or staffer thanking them for their time and reiterating the request and timeline from the meeting.
Share follow up materials in a timely fashion with the staffer or elected official.
If the elected official or staff member doesn't meet the deadline for action you agreed to during the meeting, ask him or her to set another deadline. Be persistent and flexible!
Ask everyone who participated in the meeting to write a Letter To the Editor (tips here) of a local newspaper about the visit, thanking the elected official and reiterating your hopes for co-sponsorship or other action to address plastic pollution. Elected officials monitor any mentions of them in the news closely so this can go along way.
In the ensuing weeks and months, follow your representative's actions on the issue you spoke about. If he/she votes favorably in the future, continue to send thank you notes and to share your appreciation via social media. It's very important to show our support when our elected officials get things right.
Keep Us In The Loop!
If you’re meeting with a member of Congress or their staffer, let us know - you can email our National Field Organizer here. Knowing what arguments your Congress member used, what issues are important to him or her, and what positions he or she took will help us make our federal efforts more effective.