Arranging A
Successful Site Visit
Bringing a Member of Congress home to visit is an excellent way to
cultivate access, build relationships with your lawmakers, and create
opportunities to communicate issues of concern (either your own or
IEEE-USA's). Consider inviting your representatives to visit your
laboratory, company, educational institution or other local site. Or
ask them to participate in a local event such as a student design
competition or National Engineers Week.
Site visits offer several specific advantages:
- A site visit demonstrates that IEEE/IEEE-USA has a presence at the
district level and makes the lawmaker aware that there are potential
voters and campaign contributors who are concerned about issues
that have a stake in your issues).
- Site visits avoid the difficulties and costs of convincing
grassroots advocates to travel to Washington, DC or the state capital.
- A well promoted site visit is more likely to attract local media
coverage than a visit in Washington.
- Tours and the opportunity to see technology in action provide a more
compelling d on your issues than any briefing document could.
- Local representatives typically have more flexibility to spend time
with constituents in the district than in Washington; hence are more
likely to accept your invitation.
The logistics of making the invitation and arrangements for
participation are pretty straight forward and typically require personal
interaction with the lawmaker's personal staff. The key, however, is
making an invitation that provides the lawmaker with a strong incentive to
participate. There are always more requests for a lawmaker's time
than there is time available, so it is important that your prospective
guest sees some mutual benefit in participating.
Here are some suggestions:
- Make sure your guest is the center of attention. As part of
the visit, there should be a forum where the lawmaker can be publicly
introduced and given the opportunity to make remarks;
- Provide an audience of voting constituents, as large as possibl;
- Arrange for local media coverage and make sure the legislator's
scheduler is aware of any expected media participation. If you
are organizing a local event that is newsworthy, consider inviting
your lawmakers to share the limelight.
- Cover the event in your local IEEE publication to provide exposure
for the lawmaker among constituents in the district.
- Consider presenting an award, plaque or event photograph that the
lawmaker can display back in the office and/or put on his/her web
site.
- Consider offering personal campaign contributions or other support
(but not as an IEEE representative or on behalf of IEEE, which is
prohibited from engaging in partisan politics as a non-profit
501(c)(3) corporation).
By giving the lawmaker a reason to attend your event other than a sense
of obligation or personal curiosity, you will greatly increase the
likelihood that your invitation will be accepted.
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Last Updated: 10 Oct. 2001 |