 Okay, we're just a minute past three o'clock, but we'd like to welcome you all to today's webinar. This is the forum webinar series and my name is Shaw Spray. I am the Vice President of Government Relations at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I am very pleased to welcome everybody here to our webinar, which is going to focus on a summer federal advocacy with a focus on conducting in district site visits. We have some great info to relay from a really outstanding panel, I think you're going to enjoy today's conversation. Before we get started, however, there are a few notes about the presentation today. First, we'll take questions from the audience during the webinar, but please do send those questions via the Q&A function, not through the chat. Q&A is preferable. You can submit those at any point, but we will take up the questions at the end of the presentations. So feel free to submit those and in the meantime, please do use the chat function to communicate with participants. The closed captioning function is also enabled for this webinar. You can enable it and disable it either through the controls at the bottom of your Zoom screen or through your audio settings. And following the program, we will be sending out the recording of today's webinar as well as the shared resources directly to the email that you use to register. And finally, all the preservation leadership forum webinars are archived in our forum webinar library, so make sure to take advantage of that resource going forward. Next slide please. So as a roadmap for today, we're going to hear from five speakers. And after that you'll have an opportunity to ask them questions to the Q&A. We'll first give a quick update on legislative in Washington and the quick roadmap ahead. We'll cover in-district tours, communicating with congressional staff, an example of site visits from the field, and we're excited to be able to share congressional viewpoints on site visits and their importance from Hill staff. In terms of the roadmap, we're now 133 days from the midterm elections, and there is a lot in flux in Washington. So against the backdrop of midterm elections, which tends to favor the party not in power, we're seeing Washington grapple with major Supreme Court rulings. The January 6 committee, the war in Ukraine, record setting inflation, and ongoing global pandemic. So all of which have the potential to become a driving issue come November. So a very dynamic situation. So what we're starting to see now is Washington switch its focus from major, advancing major policy initiatives to more focus on winning elections. The window for major legislative movement will slow until after the elections when we when we enter that lame duck session, which really is a bit unpredictable as to what the dynamic might be in a lame duck session but that presents probably a potential flurry of legislative activity before the end of the 117th Congress. The opportunity though we have today, we look forward to getting to our panel is that the historic preservation field has a number of opportunities through to advance policy priorities like securing strong funding for the historic preservation fund and advancing legislation to improve the historic tax credit through the August recess period, which is the in district period when members are back home. We look forward to having a conversation about how to take advantage of that and what you can do to set in motion good good visits that will be particularly impactful as we credit position our historic preservation priorities for for the legislative opportunities for the remainder of this Congress. An in person visit to historic site, a main street or a stack historic tax credit project is one of the most effective ways to convey the importance and impact of our work. And it's my pleasure now to turn it over to my colleague Renee Coleman, Renee is the senior director of outreach and support at the National Trust. So without further ado, Renee. I really appreciate that. One of the things that I usually say is that if a picture is worth 1000 words, then a site visit is worth 10,000. So I think this is one of the most effective ways that you can advocate for your preservation priorities so we're excited to share some tips with you today. Next slide. I have a couple of great examples up here that I wanted to share with you all. This is the former mayor on the right of Boston, and they had a program called Mayor on Main Street. And this is where the mayor would get on a trolley with his cabinet department heads they would depart city hall, and they would visit about 12 award recipients from the Boston Main Street program. And they would have these stops over three days. So it gave them an opportunity to showcase to the mayor, exactly the work of the main streets and the advocacy asks that they had, they, as you can see, they're right next to the mayor and heads of department, as well as his cabinet so it was a great opportunity for them to directly advocate about their priorities at the local level. And then on the left, you'll see a great example of an advocate who we awarded the John H chaffee award for public policy because heritage Ohio has done such outstanding work, both at the local level as well as at the state level and federal level in terms of advocacy and here you see the former director and other heritage Ohio board members and staff with representative David Joyce advocating for the historic tax credit. So, these are just a couple of examples of how you can use this great tool. Next slide. I'll go back one. We are attaching a handout for you that will give you a couple of specific things that you need to do. And these are some tips that we've learned the hard way and things that will help you. First of all, you need to decide which preservation project in your area offers the most bang for buck. For example, there are some sites that you might have under rehabilitation that you want to show construction underway, you might have projects that you're hoping that if you did get federal dollars that you could rehabilitate. You might have other needs at the state like say you're going to try to get a state historic tax credit, and you want to try to show the benefit of what a potential project would do if they had state dollars. So, you need to come together as a group and decide which are the sites that you're going to, to prioritize as showing your, your official. The other one is, it helps to have a large body of people and I know that my colleague, Mike Phillips is going to talk about that in addition. The other one is to have a wide range of dates because what we've learned is that actually scheduling these is the hardest thing to get accomplished. So, having a wide variety of dates in addition to a wide variety of partners is important. And then also to be able to ask, what is it vote early and vote often the same thing is that you want to continue asking in terms of making sure that you get, get the answer that you want. And to not be discouraged if you get a staff member, and not the actual official because staff can then convey that information and then hopefully in the future arrange a site visit. One of the things that I think is most important is to actually make the ask, you have to have an ask it's just like in fundraising. It's great to have all the supporting materials and I think when you do have the materials you need to show both statistics, as well as the stories of the humans that are actually being impacted by this policy. And actually you have to have somebody there, making a request of the official so it's not just a time when you're out of the office and everybody's having a great time, but that someone actually does make a request. And you don't have to have all the answers. I do that everything in my job I don't have a lot of the answers, but you always need to promise when you follow up and thank them for the visit with any information that you that you promise them. So Mike, I think is our next person up, and Mike and I have actually done a lot of these visits together so thanks Mike. Thank you Renee and it's good to be on this webinar, we've done quite a few site visits and we have learned what has gone well what kind of worked and what really didn't work so there's a wealth of knowledge. Over the years of doing this I mainly advocate for the historic tax credit so we've done a number of these and we did a lot of these when tax reform was going on. And with National Trust Community Investment Corporation, we are the for profit subsidiary of the National Trust for historic preservation. And just when you're thinking about doing site visits, I think, you know, obviously you have some sort of leadership of someone making the scheduling requests so someone has taken that on. So if you want to ask yourself, who needs to be involved in order to make this successful, who are the one or two people that can be your core group that can pull this thing off. And so the team shows up and it's just the member of Congress, who can put together the right environment to make the ask the legislative aspect that you have. And so when organizing the team that might be a developer obviously you've got to get into a building somehow. It could be, you know, a main street director might have a relationship with the developer, but you've got to determine who, who are the core people that could get involved to pull it off. And then once you have that core group established, you can add on to that. And when you add on to that you think about who are the locals stakeholders, you know that might be a nonprofit that uses within the case of historic tax credit is looking at rehabbing a historic building for their office or for our purpose of their programs. There might be developers that might be accountants architects historic architects are good one preservation consultants. Who are the stakeholders for your issue locally, and can you add them into where they can be a good voice and honestly expertise with the particular subject. If you look at the historic tax credit growth and opportunity act there are various provisions within that bill. You know some that were really exciting to developers and then some that are, you know, kind of wonky accounting provisions that accountants could really talk about about projects penciling out and financing gaps and then coupling that with a developer, and how hard and projects are and challenges and the loss of value of the credit over a number of years can be really compelling because they're experts in the field they're invested. They're putting their own blood sweat and tears into these projects. They're trying to make them move forward. So you got to determine that core group and then who are who it who are the folks that can be the chorus that can make compelling points. If they go up, if they're not there. It's not, it's not the end of the world, the visit can survive. Within that core group you need to determine who is speaking and how that will go. I would suggest that you know 60 or 70 or even 80% of the speaking comes from the core group. And there is an opportunity for those other folks to speak either at the end, at the beginning maybe to introduce themselves and then at the end to discuss just their role and the provisions that you might be seeking. And then Renee mentioned this but the ask that's the most important thing. The cardinal sin of lobbying is to walk out the door and not give your ask you got to ask the member of Congress. You know what you want them to do, building relationship is key but keep that ask in front of them asked them to actually do something for you and what you are advocating for. And so that's important to work that out of who is going to make the ask, and then I always have what I call a cleanup person. And so they're the safety valve that somehow and talking the ask was not presented. They're ready to step in and discuss that. And these visits, you know, for six, eight is usually ideal for six, eight people are usually ideal beyond eight 1012 that can get to be a little bit large. And then when you're going around the group that can kind of take a take a while sometimes so I would keep it around eight people, you know between four and eight is ideal. Beyond probably 10 or 12 folks. Just it's a large group going through a building and and not everybody is having an opportunity to talk maybe you have some sort of reception afterwards, where a larger group comes in. But just the having a more intimate conversation is probably ideal at some point and then letting the member of Congress address kind of a larger group. You know going through a building with 2030 people is is pretty tough so I'm just talking about strictly the actual touring of the site. You know when it comes to conversations you can work that out according to your group size and what you have involved. Lots of times these are matched up with grand opening of projects around breaking it's always good to connect members of Congress from the very beginning to share with them the plans I mean is very compelling for a member of Congress to see a better day that is seen better days that is underutilized that is probably maybe vacant maybe boarded up and then they two were that as a groundbreaking and then they see the site under construction and then they're at the ribbon cutting, and they've been there from the beginning of the rehab of this building they're invested. And honestly they feel connected to the to the project and feel like that they are making a difference in their community and they are if they are helping move provisions forward. The last thing I'll talk about well first of all just, you know, work out who communicates who's going to speak, how you're going to go through the flow. Usually introductions are fine do the tour and then discuss challenges and the provisions and the ask and let everybody introduce and discuss their connection with the legislation that that you are you're talking about. I will say though that you need to have contingency plans. If, if something, you know, someone does not show up if the member of Congress cannot make it lots of, you know, many times I won't say lots of times with many times busy schedules, make it to where a member of Congress is not able to to show up and they have to cancel. If it is a groundbreaking or ribbon cutting or something like that or some kind of function for the large Republic the show needs to be able to go on without the member of Congress. So you need to make sure you have the program set to where the event can survive, even if the member does not show now if it's, you know, four to six people and they're doing a tour with a member and they cancel. You can work on rescheduling a tour but if it's associated with a larger events, you need to make sure that that event can be successful even if the member is not able to show. And I think Lauren will discuss scheduling, but all of that is part of the, you know, planning of everything so work out with that core team I think that's the most important part. Get your materials ready for what you're going to present to the member of Congress doesn't have to be a lot of handouts one piece of paper is fine. It's for to hand to a staff person, but get the core group together and add experts to have a conversation that is compelling to drive what you're advocating for and to drive the ask. So thanks. I think we have Lauren next. Hi, everyone, my name is Lauren Cohen I'm the associate director of government relations at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I'm thrilled to be with you today to talk about this about getting people to come to your in district meetings getting elected officials to come to those in district meetings. I know a lot of the references that Renee and Mike and I have made so far are directed at federal elected officials like your member of Congress, or your US senators. But this can be applied to state and local elected elected officials to so just kind of keep that in mind. But you know I come to you with the background of a former congressional staffer so I know what it's like to get these requests to come into the office, either in Washington or the district office or to have a site visit. So, you know I'd like to just kind of go through a little bit about what you should do before during and after an in district meeting or in district site visit. So we can just go to the next slide please. So, work with the scheduler and district director, get to know these individuals and let them know your priorities well in advance of when you'd like the elected official to visit your site. They can advocate for you to the member of Congress to get a visit on their very very busy schedule. So, you know, keep in mind that there's a lot of demand on the time of these members of Congress though when they're in the district they want to make sure that they are making the most of their schedule the most of their time. So, you know if you get to know the scheduler or the district director, you know, they can work to make sure that you are on that schedule and not get bumped by another interest group or another, another organization looking to get some of their time and to that end be flexible. So, have an understanding of when congressional recesses are like the upcoming month long, August recess, and offer options for a visit during those recess periods. So, for instance, you know if you're looking at the congressional calendar. Don't ask for a visit when you know that they're voting in Washington DC asked for visits when they're home for their district work periods is what you often see it called or their state work periods. This is, you know, those recesses are times for them to be in the in the home state in the home district for them to connect with constituents to, you know, hold town halls or public forums. And, and to, you know, make site visits like this so just be flexible have some dates in mind. Know when they're likely to be home sometimes they often are sometimes members of Congress will travel abroad during congressional recesses so just know, you know, when those recesses maybe and be flexible with several options of a date. And also follow up with the names and affiliations of all of the individuals who will attend the event. This will make the schedulers job a lot easier because the member of Congress will always want to know who's going to be attending the event. As Mike said, you know, try to keep those groups. If it's all if it's a if it's a tour if it's like a big, you know, ribbon cutting or public event. You obviously, you know, don't know all of the people are who are going to be at that public event but definitely let the congressional staff know who that core group is the names, their titles affiliations that'll be really really helpful for them. Also work with the communications director or press secretary in the office. Let the staffers know the visit is confirmed and give them details ahead of time so they're ready with press releases, or social media posts, and other kinds of communications they may want to do. And also a really smart courtesy to give them notice on any op eds that you or your group might want might want to submit or any press releases that you'll be writing so that they're prepared to be able to share that as well. Remember you're working with these offices toward a goal, you're not opposing these offices so you're trying to work hand in hand with these offices to make this a really good visit for both parties for you and for the elected official. And giving them a lot of advanced notice is going to be really really helpful and very appreciated. Also before the visit sign up for office communications and social media this will make it really easy for, you know, while you're on the visit if you want to quickly share a photo or tag, you know, the members social media account. It will make it really easy for you to do that and also any office communications you know they may announce, you know, I'll be at this ribbon cutting this weekend or something like that so you're able to share that on your channels as well. Lastly before the visit do your homework. You know what committees the member of Congress serves on. So do they serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee, talk about how the site or project serves veterans in the community. Do they serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, point out public transit stops near your site, or, you know, does the member of Congress have a child who's active in the theater department at school. You can make that connection with them when you're at a historic theater or an arts venue that you're talking about knowing it details about the member of Congress will really really help you make that personal connection. And really what these office of these in district site visits are all about is continuing to create a relationship with these decision makers, so that when you do have an ask. To listen to you to take you very very seriously to know that you are a trusted entity in their district in their community and as a constituent. So this is all about building that relationship with both the elected official and with their staff. We can move on to talk about during the visit. So be sure to take photos and use social media as I mentioned before members of Congress love having photos taken out in the wild so to speak. So be sure to take and post photos of your team with the member during the visit. Have a good mix of candid and posed photos you'll see some later you've already seen a few that Renee shared. So everyone sees it and sees that it was a great visit and then they can repost it. These photos will also be excellent for you know future newsletters or board communications you may have or any future interactions you might have with that member of Congress as well. During the visit, tell authentic stories. This can be your dedicated time to tell compelling and authentic stories about the site about the community impact, and about what's at stake, because you're going to come in with an ask shortly so tell those authentic stories. Also use reliable data. Mike just mentioned this but be prepared with important information like job creation or tax revenue or any other pertinent figures. Again this will reinforce the legitimacy of your advocacy ask and show that you are someone who can be trusted as someone who can be trusted to make an ask like you're making. And that that will mean that that member of Congress and their staff will want to go back to you again and again if they have questions about, you know, historic tax credits or the historic preservation fund or anything else that about the work that you're doing in the community that you serve, because you're their constituents. Also, make the advocacy ask. I can't stress this enough and you've already heard Renee and Mike stress this too but third time's a charm I'll say it again. So many people planned wonderful meetings and visits with members of Congress and they do all the right things, and they never make the ask, always make an ask. So if you have an appropriate appropriations funding for sort of preservation fund or cosponsoring of the historic tax credit legislation, whatever it is, do not let the visit end without making that ask. So, as Mike mentioned have that point person that's going to be the one that always remembers to come in with that ask. And something I also really like to tell advocates is, don't stop until you get a yes. Now this, of course means respectfully. If, if a member of Congress or the staff is reluctant to commit to the ask that you've made have a backup way for them to support you. So if they're not ready to commit to cosponsoring legislation, perhaps that was your ask. They're not ready to commit to that. Ask bill sign a dear colleague letter that you're going to tell them about that may be floating around at that time. If they're not ready to sign on to a dear colleague letter, ask them to join the historic preservation caucus in the house. You know, if they're not willing to do that, continue on asking for other things that they may say yes to you could ask them if you can follow up with the office and, you know, two or three months to update them on what you and your team have been doing. There's no way they're not going to say yes to that. So, ending a meeting with some kind of yes, even if it's an easy yes, leaves a positive impression in their mind and shows that you're willing to work with them and meet them where they are. Maybe they just need more information, maybe they need a little bit more evidence to support the ask that you're making. It also shows that you're persistent and you'll work to turn them into a champion for your advocacy goals. And then the last slide after the visit. Always send a thank you note handwritten thank yous go a long way, especially in this deeply deeply digital world we live in. So consider sending one specifically to the member of Congress at their district office. Remember that physical mail takes two to three weeks extra to be delivered to members of Congress, because it has to be screened for security purposes so just know that but a handwritten note. They're increasingly rare so that's a nice thing to send, but definitely send email thank yous to all the staff that you worked with as well remember, as I said before you're building relationships with the staff to include follow up materials and photos that you've taken during the visit. There are always really nice things both both in physical mail and definitely in in email as well. And keep the staff up to date on any activities that you talked about during your visit. You know if you mentioned something's going to open in a month or this project, you know is going to, we're going to have a walkthrough for this other project in three months. Keep them up to date about that if you've talked about legislation and you told them that you would let them know if other co sponsors join that legislation, definitely let them know because that might encourage them to get their boss on to that piece of legislation. And then lastly check in to see if they've taken action on any of your advocacy goals. Again, this is really, really easy just to do a quick email check in with that staff. And the more they see your name in their inbox. Again, in a respectful way. You know the more that they're going to remember. Oh, I remember talking to Mike, a month ago and here's Mike emailing again he's checking in on this let me try to give him some more information, whatever that is. So now I'd like to bring in Christina cannon she's the executive director of Scout Hegan Main Street and Scout Hegan main for her hands on experience with in person elected official visits. Thanks Lauren, and I have a bit of a cold so I hope you all can hear me okay. So Lauren said I'm the executive director of Main Street Scout Hegan. We are one of Maine's 10 nationally accredited Main Street communities here in Maine, and Scout Hegan is located in central Maine and we have about 8200 people. So and I often get requests to give tours for legislators. And I typically will lead tours, regardless, or I always will lead tours regardless of party affiliation. So a particular specific example that I want to share. It comes from the fall of 2020. And I was contacted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Main Street Center, as well as our main coordinating program to give a tour for a senator students Susan Collins. Senator Collins is our senator and district to up in the northern part of Maine. And she's also a senior member of the appropriations committee. So, when I was asked to do this, I said yes. Even though it fell during a particularly busy time for me, we were actually in the midst of COVID of course and I was trying to figure out how we were going to continue to fundraise without actually having events. And so we were putting together a brew bag with some craft beer in it and we were selling them and I was supposed to be delivering or handing out brew bags on the day of the tour. Yes, because that's one of my mottos in my position as a main street director say yes to things to opportunities that come your way because you never know what's going to happen. So I said yes, and we met as a team via zoom, the folks from the National Trust and National Main Street Center, and we talked about the specific goals of the process. And what with the whole point of giving the tour to Senator Collins was about the goals at that time where share specifics about historic preservation projects in our downtown and the importance of those projects, and obviously the importance of the main street program as well. So, as part of this tour I was also asked to share information about some of the projects that we're working on in scavenging as well. So after we met as a team via zoom. I was put in touch with one of Senator Collins staffers, and he came up to visit scavenging and we did a dry run of the tour we actually walked the whole tour I went over my talking points. And we timed it out to see if it was going to fit into the time that we had, I had already been given the amount of time so I kind of timed it accordingly. So we did the walkthrough. And then we stayed in touch after that until the day of the actual tour. So, if there is any questions I was able to answer them and that sort of thing. And then the day of the tour. It was really just a conversation with Senator Collins and I, she had a bunch of people with her and of course there were several community leaders and others who attended as well as Shaw from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And so, but it was just really us having a conversation and I was able to share with her all of the talking points and all of the projects that we're working on in our downtown. In addition to the tour we actually also did a little meet and greet at the end at a local restaurant, a little patio outside where we were able to share where she was able to meet some other community leaders. So, one of the things that I was excited about sharing with her was a couple of goals for our strategic plan, or from our strategic plan, and the vision for the future of Skauhegan. So we are actually working on building a river park in our downtown. And so if you've ever been to Salida, Colorado, or Boise, Idaho, for instance, these communities have these great river parks where you actually can surf or kayak right on a constructed river park in either a community or in a river somewhere near a community. And so we are this is a picture here of a rendering of what our future river park will look like. And we will have you can see there's a wave feature at the top that's going to be a static way for kayaking and then the second riffle below is actually going to be an adjustable wave feature for river surfing. In addition to the river park, you can see to the right there is going to be a riverfront promenade with viewing areas. And we're also planning for an estimated 50 miles of trails that will be adjacent to the river park inaccessible via our downtown. I was able to share all of this we actually walked out onto the walking bridge. And, and then the, the group that we met with at the end of the tour talked about this project they talked about the great collaboration happening in Skauhegan, our strong partnerships our partnerships with the town and the miss the municipality. And we were really able to tell the story of Skauhegan and the work that's happening and the importance of our main street and importance of the store preservation but also other projects that we're leading. And so after the tour, we stayed into I stayed in touch with her staffer mark winter. And we built a relationship, and we still talk today, whenever we see each other out. But there was an opportunity that came up about six to eight months later, the earmark, the new opportunity to apply for an earmark or congressionally designated spending fund. And so we actually submitted to Senator Collins, a request for a $2 million earmark to fund to help fund our river park project. And we were very lucky because we actually got that $2 million. We just learned about it back in March, it was a nearly a full year of waiting to hear back. And so the earmark would call me and let me know where we're at with the process with the appropriations bill, and, and how it was moving forward. And so we submitted actually to Senator Collins and Senator King or other senator in Maine, and both of them work to push it through but I really stayed in touch locally or like mostly with Senator Collins and they were really champions for the project. And so actually Senator Collins gave me a personal phone call to let me know about the about the $2 million earmark so it was a hugely important step towards completion of this project, and we wouldn't be as far along without this, of course, $2 million earmark. I was really excited about it. And it just goes to show what happens when you say yes to an opportunity. You, you put your best foot forward when you give a tour to anyone that you're giving a tour to but particularly legislators, and saying yes to things. It's really important to take opportunities when you can, when, when you have them fall on your lap, actually. So, so yeah it was a, it was a great opportunity and so yeah that's, that's my story. Christiana that's that's great thank you for that and congratulations. Again, having the vision for the project and taking advantage of those opportunities. Next, we'll, we'll see if Maggie Ward is on the webinar with us she is the legislative director for representative Turner from Ohio. Representative Turner is the chair co chair of the historic preservation caucus and the house and long time supportive historic preservation so we certainly appreciate all he's done through his many years of leadership. And we're very pleased to have Maggie, hopefully with us today we can, we can speak to the, from the staffing point of view of the importance of these these site visits so let me pause there and see if Maggie has been able to join us. Yep. I'm on ink shot. Great. So, yeah, as Shaw said I am Congressman Turner's legislative director, Congressman Turner is the co chair of the house historic preservation caucus and in his capacity as his legislative director I oversee all of his domestic policy portfolio with historic preservation being included. And so I have not only staffed him for our historic preservation related visits in Dayton, but also in DC. I thought Christina really hit the nail on the head and making these visits effective when she talked about how she was prepping with staff beforehand, and then talked about how she was able to get an earmark out of it. I think what's really important to do is staff I mean generally across all offices prep their boss before they do these types of visits. And so that looks like you know telling them like what they're planning to talk about. So, letting us know like if there's any legislative nexus between the visit and any goals that that your group has is super important so we can flag it for our boss ahead of time and then they can bring it up to you. And so that's what they're doing while they're visiting. And it gives them a really good opportunity not only to have context when they're speaking with you about this but then afterwards when there's a related piece of legislation on the floor we can say oh hey wait we had a conversation with a group about this let's go talk to them again. So that I always think is wildly important. And when the legislator is there at the visit, bringing up those legislative asks, even if it's you know, additional funding if it's sponsoring a bill if it's a reauthorization of a heritage area. All of those are really important to bring up because members and their staff are paying attention to a thousand different issues all at once so making sure that you're in their ear about it and I think the members out visiting your site. They're more than halfway there right like they're interested in the topic, they're interested in your group, and really displaying that nexus between your group, and what they as legislators specifically for us at the federal level can do is really important. Because it makes it easier for the member and the staff when you just lay it out. And you guys are the experts right like, you know the most about all of this stuff so I think those are the two most helpful things. And making those site visits effective and then also follow up so if and when you have your legislative ask and then three months later you see that it's on the floor or that it's moving through committee, follow up with the staff and the member. Because it shows that one you really did care about this visit, it keeps the relationship going that it also just helps us out. Like I'm even thinking like last week, a couple of groups flagged different policies for us that the congressman had supported but that I hadn't been totally paying attention to because there was something else huge happening last week right so and doing that dialogue even after the site visit I think is also effective in making sure that whatever goals or ideas you talked to the member or the senator or their staff about really follow through with them. It's super helpful. And it definitely builds that level of trust and dialogue and shows us that you remember we talked about and that, and that, you know, when you got good job tracking that it's it's always super helpful for us because there's like, you know, so many different things going on. But yeah I think those are like the three biggest things is, you know, making those goals clear the follow up and then preemptively letting staff know what sort of legislative nexus exists between the site visit, and the member is super helpful. Thank you. Thank you, thank you so much for making time and providing some really good insights, always so helpful to for folks to understand how busy legislative staff are and and some of the tips for for maintaining that relationship going going forward and how quickly. So how many constituents are meeting with on a daily basis and how how many issues are popping up so you really can't expect staff to remember and so it's incumbent on you to keep that issue visible for for staff so Maggie thanks for for emphasizing that point. So now we're going to turn to the Q&A portion. We've got a few questions teed up but I thought, perhaps I'd start with one for Maggie. We were focused on district staff a little bit here Christina was working with district staff. And of course it's great to connect with district staff they are the eyes and ears on the ground and do provide legislative staff with with, you know, updates and priorities from from in district. So Maggie maybe you can speak to a little bit of the dynamic between between district staff and led staff and how you get legislative staff out to to site visits if the members not available. How often, how often do led staff get get to take it to her in district. Okay, that's a great question it definitely varies from office to office. So I personally were very closely with our district staff and a lot of, you know, some of our legislative ideas manifest out of meetings that our district staff takes and they're saying hey we keep hearing this or hey like, we've had so many like case work issues with this, and then it kind of takes itself into a legislative aspect of getting led staff out to a district state to visit. Normally, what I do is, I feel like I'm back in Dayton maybe once a quarter, if not more and I just keep a running list of meetings I've taken or places that I know I need to go so honestly like half of it I feel like sometimes is just inviting the people that are out, or making it a point to say like you, you need to see this in person like in order for you to understand everything I like really really conceptualize everything I've just told you. So that's, that's at least what I do and I notice the practice in our offices, I would assume most other offices are pretty similar. But I definitely can't attest to it and I know, and I don't know if the dynamic between district staff and let staff in all offices is the same. I would definitely say ours is pretty good we work very closely with each other. Thank you. That's great. We have a question that's come in. I think this could be answered by by multiple folks on the panel. What talking points do you find the most impactful between data, economic stats, jobs, etc, versus human driven stories. And, you know, does it depend on which elected official you're speaking with. I will, I will frame it and then give somebody a chance to jump in here. I think both both those talking points are important. I think each visit should probably have both prepared to be most effective. But let me pause there and just see if some of the experts want to want to jump in to help answer. I think we all could probably jump in and, you know, yes, yes, and yes, I think the economics to which you can explain our positive the jobs numbers everybody's looking for jobs number job numbers. So the human driven stories bring a, you know, a personal connection to the visit so I would say all the above sometimes not all of those can be produced but what you can produce and you're, I like the way you're thinking and you're thinking the right way and amplify all of those to whatever extent you can, but I'm Renee and Lauren probably have some thoughts too. Yeah, no, I think that's exactly right try to try to blend those elements as well as you can. It does depend, you know, it can it can depend on the member of Congress the elected official the staffer that you're meeting with. It's hard you need to lean on one or the other, but having a blend is is always the, you know, the right formula I think it also depends on the ask you're making as well so you know if your ask really is. Can you join this or preservation caucus. That's not going to need as much like hard hard data for that kind of ask if you're talking about, you know, signing on to a piece of legislation or something like that that might need a heavier hand on the, on the data. But I never ever think you should skim on those authentic human stories about how this work contributes to your communities. I just want to say as a preservationist, I think we have the, the bonanza of having pictures that are pretty amazing the before and after I've been in offices where people go, oh my gosh, you know. And I've also seen people say, I didn't realize that that place that I go to all the time was rehabilitated with either state or federal tax credits that I didn't realize what made that rehab possible so I think pictures are a great way to then engage in conversation. I am particularly nervous about numbers I get really shut down when I see a lot of numbers but I have also seen people's eyes just light up when they're shown these amazing statistics. And even I can understand graphs and understand where the projection is going so I do think if you do do numbers that having a graph is also particularly helpful for those of us who might not be as comfortable in that field. I would also encourage people because of our preservation background. A lot of us are focused on the building, but it's also important to include pictures with people in them actually using a building so it's a, it's a shocker I know but but having the building and uses is important. Thank you today. We have a question, perhaps for Maggie, and I don't know if you're familiar with this legislation, but we had a question about the status of the revitalizing small and local business business act. Maggie if that's something you worked on maybe you can share any updates. So I don't know that bill and I don't think the congressman is a co-sponsor but I am interested in knowing the bill number so I can look at it now. But no and I don't know if that if that the name of the bill sounds like it would go through small business but I don't I don't know if their committee has had any markups recently it is a committee work week so that could be something they have cooking this week I just don't know. No, that's perfectly fine see that is how the communication chain works somebody asked a question and the legislative director for congressman Turner now wants to look up this piece of legislation so thank you for that question. Gail has a question about local board and town officials and communicating at that local level. Okay, do you do you have some thoughts for best practices on on maintaining and building a relationship at that at that local level. Sure, and I'll then turn it over to Christina. The most effective main street managers actually won the great American main street award, and had the pleasure of going around with him up on the hill, and he carried his heavy metal must have been 20 pound award all around Congress. He told a great story about local advocacy which I've always remembered and that is the power of having a few people with different perspectives weighing in. So he was trying to get money for his main street program. They had canceled the money that was coming from the local program from the city. And so he had people communicate their interest about maintaining this funding. And he had I think he had only like seven people, but it was different representing different interests right the business owners and the people who had the hotels and all the different aspects. And he got a call from the town made manager saying lay off there's so many people laying in. So, even that was only seven individuals to the person that was receiving him it felt like a lot. So I think that's the power of having different perspectives represent. Thanks for that. Christina, yeah. I've been in this role now for our for six and a half years. And I have probably learned that the most important thing that I can do as a main street manager. Or really I feel like any in any role where you work in the community is to really put yourself out there and be present in the community. People need to see you doing the work. I tend to go through the board meetings on a regular basis, even if I don't always have something that I need to get pushed through the board. I attend to just provide updates occasionally. I used to do a quarterly update but I actually go more often than quarterly now. I have a relationship with the chair of our select board. I'm good friends with the town manager, because I've developed these relationships and we have, you know, similar goals and a similar vision for moving the town forward and so we're able to stay connected and and really keep a keep in touch to make sure that we're all moving on in the same direction. It's similar with other organizations that we collaborate with whenever we have a new initiative, or some new project that we're working on we invite people to the table to join in on the process to join a committee to join in an advisory role that sort of thing so it's always it's about welcoming people into what you're doing, sharing more information, and in really building relationships. That's great. Being present. You know, I think I guess a great point. So we're coming to the top of the hour so I want to thank everybody for joining today. We hope you enjoyed our panel. 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