CARE - Hosting Elected Officials At Section Meetings

Looking for a hook to draw members to your meetings?

Looking for a way to influence legislators in Washington or your state’s capital?

The Rock River Valley chapter was - and they did.  At a recent section meeting, the north Illinois section invited their Congressman, Rep. Donald Manzullo, to dinner.  Section members ate with the Congressman and then spoke with him for over an hour.  Not only was attendance great, but the event gave section members an ideal opportunity to discuss their concerns about job losses with the Chair of the U.S. House of Representative’s Small Business Committee.  As a result, section members were energized and interest in IEEE increased throughout the engineering community. 

If you think the Rock River Valley section had great political contacts, think again.  No one in the section had met with Congressman Manzullo prior to their dinner, and the section had never interacted with a politician before this event.  And no, the section didn’t give the Congressman any campaign contributions.  They gave him something better – time with his voters.  There is no reason your section can’t do the same thing.

Organizing an event with elected officials is easier and happens more frequently than you might think.  Most politicians are eager to speak with their constituents, and will jump at the chance to do so.  Section meetings offer a perfect setting for politicians to reach out to their voters – and a perfect setting for IEEE members to reach out to their elected officials.  Plus, these meetings make great recruitment tools for broadening your section’s membership.

Organizing an event with a politician is fairly easy, but it does take a bit of planning.  The following are suggestions to get you started. 

1. Inviting Your Legislator.  Send their office a one-page invitation letter describing both the event and your section.  Follow-up with a phone call a few days later.  You will want to speak with the office Scheduler.
    

2. Be Patient.  Once you have a dialog with your legislator’s office, it will take some time to find a suitable date.  The Rock River Valley section sent their invitation in November for a February meeting.  You may have to follow-up with your legislator’s office several times before a meeting can be scheduled.  Be polite – but also persistent.
    

3. Planning the event.  Politicians are very busy.  They don’t have time to listen to section business.  Either set aside an entire meeting for the legislator or carve out an hour or so for the Legislator at the beginning of your meeting, and then let him or her leave.  Allow time for the legislator to speak to the group, and answer questions if they wish.  Dinners and lunches work great.  Before they will agree to attend, your legislators will want an idea of what your members want to talk about.  Consider building the event around a policy problem that affects your local community, such as employment or R&D funding, to give the meeting structure and to allow your legislator to better prepare.
    

4. Publicizing the Event.  Invite all of your section members, but reach out to the greater engineering community as well.  One of the benefits of IEEE is government representation, so use your event to recruit new members.  You may also want to notify the local press about your event.  Stories in your local paper will raise the profile of your section and further excite your members.  Be sure to tell your legislator prior to the event if you have invited the press.
    

5. Seizing the opportunity.  Once your event begins, take advantage of the opportunity to explain your views on issues of concern to you and your members.  That’s why your legislator came – to hear what his/her voters think.  So speak up.

Your legislator’s office can be very helpful in working with you to plan a successful event.  They do dozens of these meetings every month, and so are very good at working with community groups.   When thinking about your event, consider the following:

• Don’t surprise your legislator.  Politicians like events to be predictable, and there is no reason yours should not be.  His or her office should be aware of everything that will happen at your event well before the event begins.
   
• Don’t attack your legislator.  Use this opportunity to build a friendly working relationship with a person who is in a position to be of great help to your members.  Polite criticism is fine, but this is should be a positive event for everyone, including your legislators.
   
• Consider contacting other engineering groups in your community to co-sponsor your event.  Not only will this save money, but it will help attract more engineers.  Politicians think in terms of votes, so the more votes you gather the more likely they are to attend.
   
• Don’t schedule your event just before an election.  Not only are candidates very busy between September and November in election years, but campaign finance laws make meetings more complicated during these months.  If you do invite a candidate to speak right before an election, you must also invite his or her opponent to speak at the same event or one similar.  It is easier to wait until after the election and then invite the winner.
   
• The best times to hold meetings with federal legislators are during August and their winter recesses (late October or early November through mid-January).  Congress’ busiest times are generally February through May and September through October.  It will be difficult to schedule meetings during these months.
   
• Consider applying for PACE funds to help pay for your event.  Consult your PACE representative for details.

The process, as you can see, is fairly simple and hundreds of different civic groups arrange these meetings every year.  There is no reason your section can’t be among them.  Visits from politicians can excite your members and generate attention for you, your section and the IEEE in your local community.  It can also help build a relationship with legislators who will be voting on legislation that affects the engineering profession.  These meetings can be very successful with any elected official, from your local mayor or Town Council up to your Senators.  All elected officials do things than can influence engineers, so all will make interesting speakers.

IEEE-USA can help you organize one of these events.  Contact Russ Harrison at (202) 785-0017 or r.t.harrison@ieee.org for more advice and assistance.

Updated:  02 June 2010
Contact: Russ Harrison, r.t.harrison@ieee.org