 Welcome everyone to our first webinar in the course outreach activities for collections care It's so great to see so many of you logged in today. It looks like we have a hundred and fifty four so far signed into the meeting room Which is fantastic Please again, do continue saying hello in that chat box. We love hearing where you are all from And throughout our session feel free to type in your questions as you go I will hold on to them and as soon as there are breaks or by the end of this presentation We'll make sure to ask our speaker today to answer those questions As you know this course is just one of many in our series caring for yesterday's treasures today Since we launched the series in January We've completed six courses with a seventh on its way If you missed any of those courses or you're simply interested in going back over the material Everything from webinar recordings to resources are archived on the online community Today's course in this entire series has been made possible through a Laura Bush 21st century librarian program grant From the Institute of Museum and Library Services And we're also fortunate to have learning times on board and make with us to help with both our website and webinar support Before we move on to our topic today, let me just quickly review the course schedule and a few other Logistics for those of you who are joining us for the first time. I do promise future introductions will be much shorter As you know today is part one of this four-part course and then after today our next webinar will be this Wednesday November 6 at 2 p.m. In the same place. You'll log in just as you've done today Now to officially complete this course. We just ask a few things from you And I'm getting a note that I should speak louder and I will try my best The first we ask that you've registered online for the course at the first page of that online registration forum Looks like this image to the right if that doesn't look familiar to you Or you did not receive a reminder email about this course on Thursday There might be a chance that you're not registered. So please let us know email us if you think that's you We also ask that you watch all four webinars whether you log in live like you have today Or you're watching the webinar recording Everyone who has registered for this course will receive a link to the recording of each webinar Shortly following the live event if you're unable to log in with us live you may keep up that way The emails will come from Heritage Preservation So please make sure we're not being blocked by your spam filter And if you're not getting those emails again, let us know and then the final requirement for this course is to complete All four homework assignments at the end of each webinar will post a link to that day's homework assignment We will also email you the link and you can also find that link on the course homepage I will note that these are not graded assignments. So, please don't stress about them Our intent was to get you thinking critically about the topic So simply do your best and everything for this course will be due no later than Thursday November 21st and I will note that this course is eligible for five archival credits if you are certified archivist and The course home page is where you'll find everything you need for this course including transcripts links to the homework assignments PDFs Of the PowerPoints and an extensive list of resources that our instructors have kindly compiled And then as soon as the course has concluded, this is also where we'll post all those links to the webinar recordings But for right now, those are just being reserved for our registered participants. I Will go ahead now and invite you to join the online community if you haven't already done so It's not a requirement to participate in this course, but it is a great resource And membership which is free gives you access to post on the discussion board to post questions in both answer them Like all of our courses if you have any questions, feel free to email us or call us. We're here to help you So now without further delay now, we've gone through all that Let's move on to our topic today. I am so pleased to introduce our first instructor for this course Jeffrey Smith Jeffrey is the president of the foundation for the Baltimore County Public Library as well as a member of the BCP Alboard of Library Trustees and a board member of Citizens for Maryland libraries as a professional lobbyist for both public and private sector Organizations Jeffrey has conducted successful legislative advocacy efforts through direct interaction with government officials at the federal state and local Levels Jeffrey. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm going to go ahead and move this out of the way, and I will hand things over to you Very good. Thank you so much what I'd hope to do for everyone this afternoon is to provide you with effectively an overview of How you can actually be an advocate for your organization or for causes or projects that are important to your organization and The basic agenda that we'll be talking about are there are four separate sections to the program I'll be starting with an overview of the typical legislative process Then we'll go right into looking at the dynamics of the current 113th session of the United States Congress to give you a sense of what is or more accurately not happening at the congressional level at this point then I have a specific 12-step program that actually talks about important things to keep in mind for successful legislative advocacy and Lastly, we'll try and put it all together by presenting a case study in advocacy essentially something that I've been involved with in the past and Try and show you how some of the lessons that we'll be talking about in that 12-step program Or actually incorporated into a collective advocacy case study with that let's get started and Jenny why don't we ask our first poll question just to sort of gauge the landscape and the Level of knowledge that our participants have today with regard to advocacy You see right in front of you fairly straightforward question Yes or no. Have you ever spoken to an elected official about an issue or concern? Yes or no We have a couple seconds to see how those results come in Fairly evenly divided a bit more on the no side Which isn't particularly surprising a lot of folks are somewhat Nervous or daunted by the advocacy process Or they don't necessarily know where to go or who to speak to And with that why don't we get right into looking at the overview of the typical legislative process? For our purposes today, I'm providing you what that overview would look like at the United States federal level Congressional advocacy, but it's important to remember that pretty much all of our Various deliberative legislative bodies be they at the state level Be they at even the local level have some fundamental similarities to this particularly with regard to the process for considering legislation Obviously it's fairly standard as everyone knows the US Congress has two chambers the house which is elected their members are 435 and they're elected for two-year terms and then we have the Senate There are 100 members in the Senate and they're elected for six-year terms The important dynamic to remember with regard to these two chambers Obviously with the house having such a short cycle between elections There's a heightened level of concern not surprisingly in the house for folks Always seem to feel as if they're up for reelection and they're very conscious Of looking at their activities through the lens of well gee when I go back to seek reelection What are my constituents going to think of this particular action or reaction? Whereas in the Senate they have a longer window obviously that six-year term and there are also fewer senators So you tend to see a bit more of a collegial nature within the Senate You tend to see folks who are somewhat more willing to think long term And again a given some of the dynamics that we see in our legislature today at least in the United States Having a little bit of the capacity for a longer term perspective is something that should not be overlooked by us and advocacy community and the basic powers that any legislative body will have Certainly ones that are most important for advocates for any particular cause The notion of spending money in other words what what are the government what activities to the government choose to spend money on? What would they promote or not promote certainly the notion of regulating commerce creating courts Taxation again because taxation is of course necessary to be able to have the money to to run any of these programs The lawmaking and making all laws quote necessary and proper to carrying out these powers It's a fairly broad portfolio But it's one that's certainly that you can really dwell down and drill down into a couple aspects of it if you're an advocate This is the basic legislative process and again this type of process is really Universal for the most part When a bill is introduced it will be read for the first time in front of the full chamber That's called first reading and really immediately after that bill is introduced then it is assigned to a committee These committees are generally split up by subject matter certainly if you're dealing with Budgeting items that would go towards an appropriations committee if you're dealing with matters of the law There'll be a judiciary committee of some sort The committee process is really important to keep in mind because that's the meat of the process when you have that committee Deliberate they'll have Hearings most likely on the particular bills and then they'll make modifications or amendments to the bill as they deem appropriate It will then come back to the full floor of the chamber. It was originated in where it will be discussed again and At that point additional amendments can be made at that second reader stage on the floor and finally after any Modifications have been made on the floor of the chamber the bill is read for a third time and is voted up or down by that chamber If it is voted up then immediately goes to the opposite chamber and this process begins again, and it's deliberated Once the second chamber has actually gone through that process if there have been any modifications to what they receive from the Originating chamber, there'll be what's called a conference committee to resolve those differences At that point once the conference committee is come together with common language for both bills Then it is considered one final time for both chambers before it is sent to the executive branch In any deliberative legislative body only a particular member of that body can introduce bill But anybody can write a bill in other words if there's a particular topic or issue that you are Interested in or your organization has a particular focus on you can draft legislation for A particular member should that member decide to introduce it on your behalf and then support it At least at the congressional level there are roughly 9,000 bills proposed during the course of any given session Fewer than 5 to 10 percent of those are ultimately enacted many of those bills will actually initiate with the executive branch as a policy Introduction or something that needs to be changed or the administration would like to change certainly like the patient care and affordable The protection act of a healthcare bill that obviously was initiated in the executive branch But ultimately decided upon and deliberated within the legislative branch The three stages again we spoke about those on in committee on the floor and conference committee The important thing to remember any point in that process a bill can die It could simply be put in a drawer after a hearing if it isn't considered popular It could even make it to the very final stage And if you can't get agreement between the two chambers in a conference committee it could die there Again just a little over you're talking about the committees standing committees are the most important Those are committees that exist in perpetuity going forward and again They are often decided by subject matter Appropriations budget health commerce and so forth Select committees will be created for a specific time for a specific purpose Typically they'll come together and produce some sort of a report a blue ribbon report on a particular issue Joint committees will have members from both chambers. Sometimes. These are permanent usually again Focusing on a specific subject matter Or they can also be temporary And again as I noted conference committees of those committees to come together to resolve differences into distinct pieces of legislation Some things to remember when thinking about congressional decision-making and again, also this really crosses boundaries to the state and local level as well It's almost unheard of that a legislator would disregard the wishes of their constituents Particularly on hot-button issues or contentious issues that get media attention More often than not again Folks are focused on getting reelected and it's very unlikely that they're going to take a pre-elected stance That really is at odds with what many the majority of their constituents believe That being the case. It's very challenging to Dissern what individual voters are feeling in any given moment Certainly, there are a lot of opinion polls that are conducted But oftentimes what a person will say to a pollster, but then the action that they may take ultimately In the voting booth may not always be the same Perceptions of the representatives are very important How they perceive their constituents what they perceive their constituents priorities to be these are really important things for an advocate to take note of So that you can hone your message optimally in a manner that will really Get to the meat of the types of issues that your particular elected representative is interested in If constituents have little knowledge or interest in a particular issue more often than not in those cases The legislator will make their own best judgment as to what should happen with a particular piece of legislation Now we're going to talk briefly about the dynamics of our current 113th Congress and this will probably be a good time Jenny for us to go to our second poll question Our second poll question is have you ever participated in an organized advocacy initiative? For example preservation day at your state legislature and legislative meet and greet and so forth What we're really looking for here is an advocacy activity where you may have been one Individual out of a larger number of participants for a program Oftentimes what you'll see is you will see a trade association will sponsor For instance, we do this in Maryland library day in Annapolis Where folks from the library community will gather at our state legislature Spend the day meeting with legislators in their offices and typically will end the day By getting together at some sort of an evening reception to mix and mingle and again interact with the legislators We see here by and large Results are showing far fewer people have engaged in an activity like this One thing I'll say is it's important to keep these in mind any allied Associations that you might be a member of I would be very surprised if they don't have activities of this nature And I encourage you to see those out because those are really good opportunities to sort of get your feet wet in advocacy If it's not something you've done individually before It's a good way to get connected with a broader community of folks who are likely to share some of your particular issue priorities Now let's move right into talking about the dynamics of the 113th Congress As you see here, this is probably not an uncommon perception of the current dynamic in Congress It does indeed They often get wound up in DC But then unfortunately as we saw with the government shutdown nothing happens This is really part of Part and parcel of what we're seeing with the divisiveness that's really taken over at least in Washington Now at the state level you will see somewhat more or less of this depending upon the dynamic For instance, I know here in my home state of Maryland We have one particular party that overwhelmingly dominates our legislature and also has a control of the governorship So obviously when one party is is in that much degree of control It's it seems somewhat less contentious because that party can sort of govern by itself If you're in a state that there really is a strong divide between how many elected representatives You have say in the Republican Party versus the Democratic Party. You may see sort of mirror effects of what's going on in Washington Looking at DC now again with with the budget shutdown that we just recently encountered being a pretty good example of that Congressional gridlock is really very very significant as part of the dynamic to date For those of you who are students of history You'll see this chart goes all the way back to the 80th Congress, which was the 1946 1948 session of Congress It's a famous session of Congress indeed during his reelection in 1948 President Harry Truman Deemed the 80th Congress. They do nothing Congress yet if you look at the quote-unquote do nothing Congress of the 1940s versus last the last full session of Congress we had which concluded right before the Presidential election you'll see that 80th Congress that was supposedly do nothing got about 8% of their bills passed You can see all the way at the far right the 112th session couldn't even get 2% of their bills passed and The reasons for that again that there is a very broad divide between The ideological goals within the parties and this next chart I think gives a good indication of that The House of Representatives again not surprisingly is particularly polarized essentially what you're seeing this is showing The most liberal Republican and their voting record on the left versus the most conservative Democrat And you'll see there are very very few individuals in that center section if you look again all the way at the top in the 1994 you'll see there's a lot of crossover in sort of the middle of the page When you go down to that final line the 2012 line You'll see there is such a very very tiny section that is considered quote-unquote crossover between Those partisan divides of the polls of the two parties That's something to be to keep in mind to the extent that you can position your issue as one that is universal To the extent that you can position it as a bipartisan issue That's something that's important for you to remember and I see one of the questions we have and I'll quickly turn to it The question is where can you find? Deliberations for bills that have died on the floor congressional record and so forth for the US Congress the very best Source of information is the the website done by the Library of Congress called Thomas Thomas is really that the electronic home if you will for all of the records of what goes on in Congress Every bill that's introduced will have a page there and you can find the text of that bill You can follow all the progress that that bill is or is it making as far as where it goes on the legislative calendar? Pretty much every state has something the same if you were to do a Google search For your particular home legislature you will find that they should also have a web page where you could actually Do searches for legislation by topic and again? That would be something that I think would be helpful for you to know to try and get a sense of well Gee water my legislators talking about that is of interest or note to me What's caught on this gridlock? Well pretty much everything else at the congressional level We're dealing with obviously issues of the budget are stuck in gridlock We're not really sure even now that the federal budget shutdown has been resolved Something they have basically sort of taken a pause if you will But ultimately something will need to be done with regard to our federal budget by January if nothing happens by January Again, we'll be back same place. We were a couple of weeks ago Certainly the federal sequestration of funds which really puts a stranglehold on what the governing can spend money on That's still somewhat of an unresolved issue And of course they're always going to be issues of taxation. There are certainly given the weakness of our economy issues of job creation that folks would like to be talking about but aren't able to Issues of public safety as well and again the challenge for us as advocates is to figure a way through this Morass if you will figure out how we can talk about our issues in a manner that will get them attention and Hopefully get them to be able to move through the legislative process Now we want to move right into the 12 steps for successful legislative advocacy When talking about these first steps What I'm going to be doing as we go through this will be the first 12 steps really will be focusing on Strategies that I have found to be helpful if you were actually having in-person meetings with legislators and Again given that we're we're giving this talk in a virtual setting I've infused within this section of the legislative of the presentation Actual images of what you might see if you were to go to your state capital during a legislative session So you get a sense of what the sights and sounds might Potentially be for you and here on the first page This is a picture of the Maryland General Assembly if you were to walk up to your state capital would probably look something like this a Maryland is somewhat unique and it is the oldest state capital in the United States that remains in continuous use Once you walk into the chamber, that's when you really need to start thinking about well, what am I here to accomplish? What do I want to do and? We'll move right into talking about these 12 steps first and foremost. It's really important that you feel good about what you're doing as an advocate Outreach visits to legislators are really one of the backbones of our democratic process I know a lot of folks are turned off by Government in this day and age or feel that they don't necessarily have the knowledge or interest to be able to affect change But indeed there couldn't be further from the truth in fact our ability as citizens to Speak directly to our elected legislators is held up and embodied in the first amendment to US Constitution Specifically within the first amendment it protects the right of citizens to quote petition for redress of quote from their government Basically, that is what we do as advocates We petition the government to do something or to not do something depending upon our perspective on an issue and It's important to take pride in that You every one of us as a voter has the right to Effect attempt to affect change in our government and being there is something you shouldn't be ashamed of it You should be very happy of and proud of that you're able to do that sort of thing Second step again a lot of these are going to seem fairly straightforward and not terribly surprising But anytime you're involved in any interpersonal reaction with others. It's good to keep these things in mind If you're going down to meet with an elected official their time is very valuable often They're probably gonna have a multiple number of appointments during the day. So make sure you're on time Clearly identify yourself and the organization you represent Very important if you're visiting an elected official and you actually happen to be a constituent of that elected official Make sure to say so. It's important that they know that someone that could potentially vote for them in the next election Has come down in order to speak about a particular issue Third point to remember and this is again not surprising be friendly and respectful To the extent that you can create a personal bond with these individuals of the more likely that you'll be effective in your advocacy efforts Many folks have sort of an aura or belief that elected officials or sort of you know Celebrity ask if you will the important thing to remember is they're just citizens like everyone else particularly when you're dealing with state legislators Most of those folks are not full-time legislators for instance here in Maryland our legislative session is only 90 days So if you're an elected legislature in a 90-day session Organization by necessity you're going to be having some sort of other job I know in Maryland our legislators pride on pride themselves be able to describe themselves as citizen legislators again given that this They do not consider this to be their full-time job For fourth point to remember once you get the greetings and pleasantries out of way get right to the point Again, you may only have 10 to 15 minutes with the particular Legislator since so many folks will want to see them at any given time Make sure you present a good very clear and focused message Don't ramble about what you're talking about tell them exactly what it is you're looking for why you're there and Hopefully get a sense for them of what they might be able to do to assist you This image here shows a joint session of Maryland's General Assembly when our governor governor Martin O'Malley presented his state of the state address during this 2013 session When you would be looking at the floor of your legislature, this would be generally what you would see Folks usually it's not as quiet as this Surprise it not surprisingly. They're very chaotic when bills are being deliberated and debate is going on We'll move on to the next slide Point number five When you're in that particular meeting with a legislator ask them to do something specific something tangible Say exactly what you want the policymaker to do using clear concise language of your own Or if you have something that's provided from an advocacy organization, certainly do that If the particular issue that you're there to speak about involves legislation Make sure to cite the specific bills name or number that way the legislature We're the legislator will be able to go back later to reference what it was you were talking about I Can't overemphasize the importance of point number six Don't overstate your case Use very hard facts and data to support whatever your viewpoint happens to be And make sure to leave that supporting documentation behind whenever possible Ultimately when an advocate comes into an office They are providing information to an elected official and that you would be surprised how much the elected officials rely on the Information they get from advocates therefore. It's very important that the information you give is good data and honest data Point number seven Don't be afraid to express an informed opinion about any issue even if you don't necessarily think you're an expert in it That being the case if you actually are a subject matter expert or a particular issue Don't be afraid to let the legislator know that Again if they know that you have recognized expertise with regard to the issue of historic preservation They need to hear that so that they know that when they Listen to you that what you're saying is actually based on your knowledge and the education and your experience from your career The image here shows what I like to consider the heart of a legislative process. This actually a panel Discussion for a bill hearing Indeed this particular bill hearing was for gun control legislation that was prevented by our governor Martin O'Malley who was seated in the center of the screen He put together his administration put together This was the opening panel on the gun control legislation that was Sponsored in the wake of the new town shooting Baltimore County of Maryland's state's attorney is speaking at the podium So the governor's right is lieutenant governor Anthony Brown and to the far right is the superintendent of the Maryland state police Each one of them actually came to this hearing with a specific point that they wanted to get in across to the legislators as Part of this bill hearing ultimately the legislation was successful It was probably some of the most contentious legislation I'd ever seen considered in anapolis indeed It's hard to tell from the picture here in this bill hearing But there were literally thousands of people outside of those doors lined up Why all through the state Capitol and actually going out into the street of individuals who wanted to testify on this bill I've never seen anything like that in all my years in anapolis But it just goes to show that anyone has that right to exercise their ability to speak their mind on any issue Point number eight is very important When you're meeting with a legislature legislator or legislators be prepared for questions even be prepared for challenges If a particular question from a legislator might throw you off balance because you're not really sure of the answer Don't be afraid to say I don't know Again the credibility that an advocate brings to the table is their absolute most vital resource and asset Don't say something off the top of your head that you think might be right because you certainly wouldn't want to have to come back And correct yourself later. It's far better to say senator I don't know the answer to that but let me look into it and I'll get back to you that way They know that you're giving them factual honest data, but it also provides you with an opportunity for follow-up Maintaining that credibility is actually vital to your success Another part of advocacy goes on outside of the committee chambers this gives you an example of a meeting of Particular advocates for an issue in this case this was Marylanders who were in support of our state for becoming a leader in the development of offshore wind farms for the production of electricity Part of what you do outside those chambers to put together rallies or Speaking occasions such as the one you see here again to put the spotlight on a particular issue that folks might be interested in indeed To get that group of folks together and what you'll see there that really represent a cross section again Given this was legislation that came directly from our governor. You'll see him there He's certainly touting his support of it But all of the individuals who see in that audience are from various facets of Maryland's community Particularly with folks who are interested in the notion of offshore wind power Getting that type of broad based attention for an issue is an important part of success in advocacy Point number nine is really important Going and speaking to an elected official isn't just about telling them what you want them to hear It's also about listening to what they have to say be a good listener when you're in one of those sessions Give that decision-maker or a staff member of the decision-maker the opportunity to express their point of view Very important is the second item also listen for an actual commitment of support from them Not something that sounds like a generic platitude, but really doesn't mean much of anything Ten again is one it certainly seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how little this happens be very gracious remember to say thank you I can remember my very first session Lobbying in Annapolis at the end of the session I actually sat down and wrote out thank you cards for all of the individual legislators who had done something that was in some way helpful for me Shockingly I didn't realize it until I heard from some of them later that in many cases That was the first time any of them had actually gotten a thank you card from an advocate Again, it's part of relationship building effective advocacy is really about effective relationship building and Building that relationship means that the next time you may come down to speak to that elected official You're now a known commodity. They know you they respect you they understand why you're there And hopefully that means in the future that would increase your likelihood of successful advocacy The end of any advocacy process you're hoping to get a picture like this This was actually a bill signing for a piece of legislation that was supported important to Maryland's library community And it culminated a variety of advocacy activities that went on during that 2012 in this case legislative session To be able to get to the point that your bill is actually signed by the elected leaders of your state is really a sweet moment It's one that you can certainly take pride in all the activities you had involved in previously But also it can give you a sense of where you might want to move in the future Let's get to our last two points in the 12-step program Get to know staff members of the decision-makers again elected officials are often very busy So it's quite possible if you go down to your state capital or to Congress You may not necessarily see the specific elected official But if you see their staff members, that's important. Don't forget about the importance of staff Particularly in a very busy active legislature Staff members are really the key because they have to follow all of the bills all of the legislation in support of their bosses and They can often very very importantly influence their thinking of their elected official bosses Again follow-up again on point number 12 with a thank-you note or letter It also gives you a good opportunity to restate your position regarding Whatever you might have met with the elected official about but it also gives you that chance to provide any information You may have promised to that individual during the visit So other just basic points that we want to talk about as far as influencing elected officials again Elected officials are people just like us Therefore they are influenced the same way we are influenced by personal contact and direct communication You'd be really surprised how much that makes the difference Being actually able to go down in person and see some of these folks It does indeed make an impact because they can certainly see the passion that you bring to your particular issue There are many different ways to influence a decision-maker to act on behalf of a particular issue particularly a preservation related issue Sometimes you may want to consider when the legislative body is not in session Inviting some specific legislators for a site visit to see your special collection or to see the historic site that you're involved in Again, it's part of furthering that relationship. It also helped deepen their understanding of the particular issues and Third when choosing how you want to contact the elected official keep in mind that the more personal you can make your connection The better and we're going to talk about a variety of different ways now that you can communicate We talked certainly extensively to this point about the in-person visit But that may not always be feasible for you Certainly if you're lobbying Congress and you live in California It may not necessarily be likely or possible for you to have an in-person visit But that doesn't mean you can't be engaged in advocacy indeed. There are a variety of other ways You certainly should and could consider I think about communications with elected officials I think it's a really helpful way of thinking about it is through this contact period pyramid Again the more personal a particular connection is the more value it has Again, so few folks actually make the difference and sit down to make an on-site visit to a particular legislator in his or her Office so obviously when you're able to have one of those visits it means a great deal Now if you're simply sending an email Elected officials get tons of emails So what that essentially means is for your issue to really get some attention There need to be a lot more emails than say one or two personal contacts. I typically say that one phone call is worth 10 emails and One in-person visit is worth 50 emails again trying to put on perspective the magnitude of the importance of those So if you're doing something that's easy like email They need to be a good number of them related to your issue for it to really get above the murmur if you will and get the attention of a particular elected official Let's talk about some points to remember if you're calling elected officials First and foremost plan out your strategy before you make the call Decide on what it is that you want to say Make sure to remember that the call is going to necessarily be brief So you should have a crisp clean and simple message to convey when you make this phone call Second what about that message be sure to tell your story succinctly Tell them why it is you care about historic preservation. What's in what makes it an important issue for you? More importantly why you feel you need this elected official support Think about the particular key point that you'd like to make and how the story that you're able to tell about that underscores that point of view Three actually make the call make sure to tell the decision-maker that you are a preservation supporter and Make sure if you again are their constituent make sure to share with them that you do live in their particular legislative district or community Fourth point staff or message if you're calling the decision-maker again, it's not likely you're going to get them directly Indeed you'll most likely be T speaking with a staff member Therefore you need to me leave a very crisp and concise message with that staff member so that it gets conveyed to the particular elected official Some things to keep in mind if you're writing formal correspondence to an elected official Again very simply at the beginning state that you're a preservation supporter and if you are a constituent Again, this matters because leaders are most interested in the opinions of people who live in their particular area or state Make sure to personalize your letter Research really shows that personal letters have the most impact on decision-makers let's say for instance, you're talking to a particular elected official about a Tax incentive program that would encourage the use and adaptive reuse of a historic property If you have a personal experience with something like that say your own organization convey that again Bringing these abstract issues into focus in a real way has a lot of value for an elected official Again, it gives them a sense of how these particular issues connect to the real world It also gives you the chance to include your personal story again as opposed to just simply sending a form letter Putting in something that's unique to you is more likely to gain the attention of a particular elected official Certainly on point three local local local again That's making sure to connect your story to the community at hand Particularly if you have something that you can say that's going on in a particular elected officials Actual district that's related to the advocacy point you're speaking of that's even more likely to be effective And last but not least show restraint Again, so many letters will be coming in to elected officials that you want to keep it brief succinct Crispin to the point emailing elected officials again very similar to writing the personal letter just some things to remember Make sure you use the subject line of the email to very clearly state what it is you're writing about Again, if you're writing about a particular bill put the bill name and number in there in that subject line If you're writing about an issue and your constituent make sure you say that your constituent and your supporter of your particular cause In this case historic preservation Many times larger advocacy groups will have sort of mock language for emails Indeed, you may often get sent to you from any advocacy groups You may be a member of a form emails if you will and they ask you to send it to a particular legislator or to your legislator specifically if you are getting one of those mass generated emails Take the time to personalize it change the language to put it into your own words again because if a particular elected official is getting These form emails they'll be very easy to recognize if they all come in with the exact same language with the exact same Points of view so to the extent that you can really personalize it. It's much more likely to be noted And last but not least since email is so casual and often a mass produced means of communication Oftentimes you'll want to follow up with something else Indeed probably the best thing to do is maybe a couple days after you send your email You may want to follow up with one of those phone calls personal letter or even if possible actual visit to a legislative office Now we're up to our fourth and final section, which is our advocacy case study Before we get to that. Why don't we turn right to our third poll question? And the third poll question is have you ever successfully advocated in support of a specific cause or project? But this doesn't necessarily have to be something related to your profession It could be say you live in a community and you asked your government to put a stop sign up on a day at a dangerous intersection It could be that you engaged with your local school board about boundary issues for your local elementary school Could be any number of those things So if to the extent that you have engaged in something like that feel free to let us know While we're waiting for that I have one question from a fellow Marylander Wow, and she asked which method of contact Do I think is the most effective? Certainly, I would say that an in-person visit is always going to be the most effective to the extent that you can actually do that Again, because when you're actually with someone in person, they can really see your enthusiasm for your issue They can really understand that this isn't something that you take lightly and Again part of communication is just by nature of it You know the way the way it works if you're able to have an in-person dialogue with someone It's much more likely to make a favorable impact and certainly for all of us if you The closer the lower down or closer you get to the Level of government say your state level or even your local county or municipal level Becomes much more likely you can have an engage in some of these personal visits these personal contacts And those are really the foundation stone in my point of effective advocacy Looking at our poll question. You'll see it looks about Two-thirds have not engaged in advocacy for a specific call to a project and one-third has It's certainly something I would encourage you all to think about doing in the future And hopefully what we'll talk about in this section will be helpful to you. Let's turn right on into the fourth section Now for this advocacy case study what I'm going to be doing is talking on a Macro level that could really apply to any particular project or cause But I'll also infuse the discussion with some specific experiences that I have had with relate regard to one specific advocacy campaign At the beginning of us you need to identify a specific project or policy change that can asex successfully Achieved through legislative advocacy In the case of what I'll be talking about I'm talking about a story though Here are the Baltimore County Public Library back in 2006 2007 Our foundation had the idea of working with the system to generate and create a new kind of interactive children's library We named it story though Thus our specific project was to generate public sector funding to allow us to have the dollars necessary to build story Though and here in Maryland. We have something called a legislative bond bill Essentially, they're similar to what exist used to exist at the congressional level called congressional earmarks here in Maryland any local State elected official can request funding for a capital project. That's located within their particular district So for us in 2007 we request $250,000 to help us support the construction of story though that roughly represented shall we say About a third of the three-quarters of a million dollars that was required to complete that project You don't necessarily have to be looking for money You could have a particular policy change that you would like to advocate for as well again something that might make Historic preservation or the adaptive reuse of historic sites Easier for businesses or others to consider or it could be asking for specific pots of money to help promote Special collections anything of that nature would be beneficial Once you have your specific project or policy change in mind, then it's really important you do your homework Go out and research and collect pertinent data for how your project or policy change would positively impact the general public for us in story though, we actually looked at the notions of What early literacy efforts have and the positive impact that they have on the overall literacy and educational future of young children? We talked about how the earlier that folks directly engage in reading and library-oriented activities with young people The more likely they would have were to be to have positive academic success in the future Point number three when you have your project or policy change Then you need to go out and enlist a legislative champion or champions who will share your excitement and enthusiasm in whatever your campaigns Ultimate objective might be Again in our case for storyville the legislators that represented the district where our branch library of the rosedale branch was located They were really our first legislative champions Since the library we hope to add storyville to was in their backyards within their districts The senator and three delegates were very enthusiastic supporters of getting state funding to help us complete that project Point number four once you have your champions Then you need to identify the key decision-makers who are going to need to view your project or policy change in a favorable manner Once you've done that then you really need to develop a coordinated plan for direct advocacy to these edge of individuals In our case obviously there were a couple of ways that we looked at the issue In order to get capital funding Granted through the state of Maryland it needs to go any proposal needs to go through the budget process So certainly elected officials that served on our appropriating committees the Senate budget and taxation committee and the House of Appropriations committee they were our first line decision-makers They were the first ones who could give an up or down yes or no To the notion of would storyville receive money from the state to help fund its construction Part of the coordinated plan that we came up with you need to figure out well How are you going to reach these individuals what we did in our case? We actually had hand bills prepared Providing a short synopsis of what storyville is about why we thought it was important that it received state funding and Then contact information at the bottom that individuals could take to actually contact legislators specifically We disseminated of these hand bills that all of the circulation desk and checkout desks out all of our 19 branch libraries So the folks were actually able to take this information See what we were looking for see why we thought storyville was beneficial But then they were given the contacts to actually go out and make the case themselves And we were really pleasantly surprised when we did that we heard back from legislators who said I've never gotten Community calls about a bond bill proposal in my history in the legislature And we were really excited by that because that showed that we were reaching the community and in turn be able to get the Community to convey their enthusiasm for the project to the decision makers Which leads directly to point five Develop a strategy for building public support for your project or policy change again This talks about the marketing tools the meet the outreach strategy Are you going to have a publicity and media strategy? I know we made a point to have letters letters to the editor written Promoting the idea of storyville and encouraging the state to seriously consider it for funding We were able to have Representatives of local newspapers actually come to the site see our mock-up proposals for what we were hoping storyville What ultimately look like and be able to again generate newspaper articles that elected officials were likely to see again? Generating a buzz about our project Point number six Prepare for and effectively deliver any direct written or oral testimony that could potentially be used to support your cause Here in Maryland any bond bill that's put in by a legislator is heard before the two budget deliberating committees and We actually the way our legislature structures this process. They take two different week weekend days They select weekend days since so many of these projects have interest from Volunteers and from the community at large that way folks are off from work presumably will be able to come down There were literally hundreds and hundreds of different bond bills proposed in the 2000 session when ours was being considered And each bill only had five minutes to be presented before the individual legislative committees So we were very focused on what we wanted to say in that short period of time Focused on being able to say why we thought having a unique interactive children's library was beneficial We also made sure that we had written testimony that was delivered at the same time That later at that day or even during the deliberating process Those elected officials could actually refer to our written testimony to be reminded of what we were speaking about with storyville And why we thought it was a worthwhile project Number seven is really vital closely monitor the mechanics of that legislative process and any way that that process might impact the prospects for your project or policy change Again, not unlike Thomas at the federal level all of our state legislatures will have Online web based web products or websites where you could actually go And track the decision-making process for any particular legislation You can actually go on at least in Maryland. You can actually go on You can listen to hearings as they happen bill hearings as they happen live over the internet You can also see it'll be posted after the hearing when any committee votes are taken on the legislation You can actually see online a pdf of the roll call of the committee vote on any particular piece of legislation You can then in turn see when the legislation is to be considered on the full on the floor of the full legislative chamber Again in this manner you actually can see pretty much real time How your project or policy change might be tracking through the overall legislative process What I want to do now to show you some again, this is some of the materials we put together This is what storyville at rosedale ultimately look like We were very fortunate and that we did indeed receive the full 250 000 dollars re-recrested for storyville And interestingly enough our storyville at rosedale bond bill proposal First time in the history of maryland that a library project Received funding through the local community legislative initiatives program We ended up doing it again in 2009 two years later storyville at rosedale was so overwhelmingly successful Our local county government wanted to build an additional storyville on the west side of our county So once again in 2009 we went and we actually requested 250 000 dollars for storyville at woodlock And again, we were very lucky and very successful in being able to garner those funds a second time This shows hopefully what you would like to see at the end of the project This is after we were able to get funding for storyville at woodlock. This was the 2010 dedication and ribbon cutting when storyville at woodlock was open But even after your project is completed that doesn't necessarily mean the advocacy ends And and as you'll see here this actually took this is a photo from the fifth anniversary of storyville at rosedale Uh, this was just this past summer We used it as an opportunity to reconnect with the elected officials who helped us that very first time in 2007 To garner funding for storyville Being able to bring folks together Um Routinely as a team and remind them of the successes that they help engender is very important and indeed pretty much everyone in that photo To the far left of the photo standing next to our mascot sneaks the cat That is the senator who's the lead sponsor for the storyville at rosedale bond bill funding Our county executive is standing immediately at the podium and to his right is our library director And on the on continuing to the right are again other elected officials who have been very instrumental and helpful in storyville Doing events like this is good not only because you're saying thank you for past support But they also continue to build the relationship so you can anticipate and potentially be there Looking for future support Before we really get into a dialogue of some questions back and forth. I want to provide you with some final thoughts Hopefully that will you know give you some additional perspective on this I can't emphasize enough that you really don't need to be an expert on all the technical technicalities of your particular bill or advocacy issue The fact that you're in earnest and good faith going down to be engaged in advocacy in some capacity Has a great deal of value for elected officials And I say this because again such a small percentage of the overall population Actually takes the effort to go down and become directly connected to a deliberative legislative process That you'd be surprised how much that is respected by the elected officials when they do see someone Take that initiative and show up to talk about an issue What you do need to be an expert in is in your story and ultimately I would hope that you know as all of us are involved In preservation and we're involved in collections and library issues. We should know something about stories We should be able to take what it is that we believe is important and help it help others to connect with it as well Talk about what you're interested in and why it affects your community in a favorable manner Talk about why it's important that we always remember our past and their history And why it should be showcased in anything that we're doing going forward I think you'll find more more likely than not that that type of Story will be seen very favorably by elected officials I know so many of them do indeed have a history interest in the past And in hearing about the past particularly in their own communities And to the extent that you can bring those types of stories to bear I really think it will resonate with the elected officials you might have to deal with The third point to remember communicating with a decision maker is really not much different than the type of communication We use every day Again, just be honest and forthright and enthusiastic and that really makes an enormous impact Lastly that follow-up and repeated contact really makes a difference Send your decision maker any supporting information that You can to help them in the future if you're involved in a local preservation organization Send them information about what your group has been doing of late And again to the extent you can get them to actually come to a site that you're involved with When they're not in session. I think that has a little great deal of value This is just sort of a repeat of some useful resources again These are the same resources that are on the home page for this particular program, but I do want to briefly Illustrate sort of why I thought these are of note The National Trust for Historic Preservation has a wonderful online advocacy center I encourage you to look at it because it really does a great job of sort of laying out the national issues That the preservation community would be likely to be interested in To the extent that there have been specific bills in the past They're highlighted and archived on this site But it also gives you a sense of well, what it is the National Trust is really interested in promoting And if you concede that from the national effort, it might help you to sort of frame in your own mind How your particular local issues may connect to some of the larger national concerns Again, a very similar one below that the National Alliance of Preservation Commission This is a very good advocacy review as well The third one I put because I really thought it was a great way of showing what a local organization is doing And how they are framing their advocacy efforts Historic Charleston has a great summary of their advocacy initiatives They regularly host events for local elected officials from that Charleston community And I think it's just a great way, it's a great local example of how some of these Online and other virtual advocacy techniques are really put together in one source by a local organization Certainly putting my library hat on the last two are very important The American Library Association has a great summary of advocacy legislation and issues Again, particularly from the collection side of the house, this will really give you a good sense Of well, what's the library community doing on issues that are concerned to you? And the last one ALA put together a couple of years ago. What I really think is a great toolkit It's the advocating in a tough economy toolkit And what I thought was particularly helpful about it was that it really helped individual advocates to sort of frame their arguments In light of the economic challenges that we hear in the United States have been facing in the past several years Obviously when there are limited funds in the public sector, that impacts us in a variety of different ways And it's important to sort of be able to keep in mind what the fiscal dynamic is, particularly if you're looking to have a project funded Be mindful of that and I ALA did a really good job with that advocating in a tough economy toolkit With that we will open it up to questions Before we do that, this again, this is a picture from Storyville at Rosedale. It's my wonderful family and we're with our governor Martin O'Malley This was an event we held at the first anniversary or Storyville at Rosedale With that Jenny, why don't I connect back to you? And if there are any specific questions that you think we should be starting to focus on And try and answer. Why don't we see about that? Yeah, of course, so we have some great questions And one that just recently came up from a couple people, Claudia actually asked she is a state employee And so therefore are not allowed to lobby the state legislator. What are some ways around that prohibition? And a few others have also commented that they're in a similar situation. They work for the federal government But would still like to be an advocate But would still like to be an advocate Well, there are a couple things to consider When particularly if obviously if you are a state employee Your ability to advocate on issues even if they're outside of your purview could potentially be restricted It's not necessarily a legal restriction per se, but it's more of a policy practice Some states will have it some states won't Obviously, for instance in my state, I was a state employee for a number of years I served as chief of staff for our transportation department And our general policy was State employees were able to advocate provided it was not within their specific area of focus as a state employee. So in other words During that 2007 time for Storyville, I was working for the state of Maryland I was allowed to advocate on that basically because it was not something that was covered by my daytime job if you will Other states may have it somewhat differently And to that extent, I think it's more if you're not necessarily advocating for a specific Bill or a specific issue per se, but if you're talking broadly about the importance and awareness Of historic preservation or connections. I think you can do that One thing that's important to note if you're a non-profit or a lot of folks who are in a non-profit organization will say Well, we're not allowed to be engaged in lobbying or advocacy. Well, that's not entirely true The internal revenue code actually provides that if you are a 501c3 non-profit organization You can spend up to 25 percent of your actual operating budget on quote unquote advocacy activities The one thing that you are not allowed to do as a non-profit is actually specifically support Candidates in other words give senator smith a donation towards his election or reelection That's something nonprofits cannot do But nonprofits are able to and indeed we do this quite often at the american library association We are able to weigh in in support or against specific bills specific pieces of legislation Um Again, there may be local or state laws that say something to the contrary That's why it's really important if you have a local advocacy group again here in maryland I'll give the example we have the maryland library association, which is a statewide affiliate of the national organization To the extent that you can turn to an organization like that and ask that for their guidance as to What is in or out of bounds with regard to state law? I think that would be helpful for you But again by and large if you're talking about issues if you're talking about specific pieces of legislation Non-profits can do that. You just can't actually engage in support or opposition troops candidates for office Very interesting. Um, and just to follow up on that question a few folks We're curious if you are working for a state organization Would a friends group would that help you in lobbying and advocating? Have you heard of that before? It absolutely can indeed The organization that i'm on the board of that you mentioned one of them the citizens from maryland libraries That is if you in essence It is what could be termed a statewide friends of the library group in that we cover all of our state We have board members and members From all over our state who pay to join us as members And we are one of the principal reasons that cml exists is to promote and advocate in support of libraries To elected officials not only those at the state level but also with the local level because again All at least here in maryland all of our libraries our public libraries are county based So they receive the bulk of their money From their local county operating budgets But there is certainly a statewide component and that we do have formula funding provided by the state of maryland to help support libraries So certainly friends groups are very very helpful I think in promoting advocacy again because they're really getting to grassroots advocacy The closer your advocates actually are to the specific elected officials again the easier it's going to be to build those relationships Okay, and then we have another question from amber and she says this may be a silly question Amber there are no silly questions, but she is curious. Can one be an advocate without lobbying? I view the term advocacy and lobbying as essentially really one in the same I tend not to always use the term lobbying because For better or worse. That's become a bit of a loaded word In that more often than not folks. There's this image of a lobbyist. They're in a dark Smoke-filled room something of that nature But the same things that I when I was a state employee Actually functioning as chief lobbyist in our transportation department the same strategies I employed as a paid public sector lobbyist or the exact same things And strategies I utilize as a volunteer Not paid advocate for library issues. I've never actually worked in a paid. Well, that's not entirely true As an adult I haven't worked in a paid capacity for a library now when I was in college I did I work part-time in a library But all of the advocacy I do in support of libraries today is simply by virtue of my being a volunteer For my county library system Again when I'm doing my day job, which is being paid as a lobbyist. I'm doing fundamentally the same thing I don't view them as different But again, as I told you since the lobbying word has can potentially have some sort of a connotation to it More often than not you'll see particularly with volunteer groups or associations. They'll refer to advocacy, which is perfectly fine Okay, let me take a pause really quickly and I'm just going to pull over the homework assignment for today We do have quite a few more questions, but let me get this over here Uh So there's a link to the first homework assignment for this course and then also a link to the course webpage And then in addition to that it doesn't look like we've had as many groups watching But just in case you want to get an accurate idea of our attendance If you're watching with a group, please feel free Your group leader, I'd love it if you could put down the folks who are watching with you Which means those folks haven't logged in but uh with that or the way Let me go ahead and get back to our questions because we do have quite a few I do have one here. I wanted to quickly do From aiming from Rome, New York asking regarding the story. Okay. So what levels was advocating done? principally our lobbying for storyville was at the state level And I say principally in that we were looking for money within the state of maryland's capital budget Which was ultimately determined by state legislators We did have somewhat of a local component in that obviously we did indeed speak with our county executive here in Baltimore county We talked with him about storyville Because we certainly wouldn't want him to be opposed to the project because more often than not what you would find is Some of our state legislators the first person they'd likely ask an opinion would be our county executive Since he is the local elected official who is responsible for library services So we worked with him on the first time principally To make sure that he was supportive in in principle for the notion of storyville Now when we went for funding in 2009 that was really a partnership between Our volunteer foundation for Baltimore county public library and our local county government Because that second location really was generated by the fact that that same county executive we met with in 2007 Was so taken with storyville. He put money in his own budget for 2009 to build a second location And in that case we had he was he and the county government were our partner in funding that second location So clearly that second round was very very much A state level partnership with our local partners local elected official standing right with us in order to generate support for that funding And just this is uh, jeffie. This is just more of my question. Um, and talking about storyville and advocating Can you give us an idea as you know, how much time is dedicated to this? How much time people might want to allocate to advocate advocacy? It would depend of course on every Absolutely it does. Um, it would definitely depend. I think it depends obviously if you have an active campaign Storyville it took a considerable larger amount of time than those years when we do not Um, obviously in a case like that, you would probably if you're a volunteer group and you meet monthly You would want to have Some sort of regular discussion at your meetings in in the months leading up to your initiating a particular legislative proposal But even if you don't have a specific proposal advocacy goes on We haven't had a specific Proposal for funding since storyville in 2010 But here at bottom the bottom of our county library community every year We participate in uh library dan anapolis and we'll go down and we'll meet regularly with all of our county legislators to Let them know how much is going on here still in the library world But also we'll we'll you know keep them updated on things. We know they've taken an interest in in the past Great and it sounds like you having a strong volunteer base is incredibly important It does the more volunteers that you have the greater the likelihood is that one of those volunteers will have a personal connection already with a legislator one of the first things you might want to do if you're um A member of either a volunteer organization or a specific specific preservation Entity is actually to pull Those either that are your volunteers or pull those who work for you to see who might already have a relationship with one of their elected officials for all you know Your board vice president could potentially be a neighbor to someone who's in your state senate Or potentially one of your employees in the office went to college with a particular delegate or representative in your house So doing that sort of internal inventory will give you a sense of the strengths you bring to the table before you even start Great, uh, let's see we have um a question from lisa who's curious and um having a strong volunteer base might help with this question But she wants to know if you're not a voter in the community say a permanent resident. Does that affect your ability to advocate? I wouldn't say that it affects your ability to advocate in that ultimately anybody can advocate to any particular elected official but as I pointed out Certainly if you live in the particular legislators home district and you're advocating Obviously, that's a heightened level of connection already Again, that's part of why if you know your landscape in other words know the connections that already exist within your community If you're scheduling a meeting with uh the chair of your senate appropriations committee and you happen to know That one of your uh volunteers has a relationship with that person already Clearly you want that that volunteer to be one of the participants in the meeting But if you don't have that that doesn't mean you can't walk in the door Absolutely not it just means that you need to frame your argument slightly differently Okay, uh, let's see we had um earlier on in the presentation. Uh cindy said uh in the past She's written to her representatives um rating very personal notes and only to receive one semi personal response But most often form letters and carla also weighed in that she's also gotten the standard form letter reply as well Is there any way around that um to kind of get past that uh form response? um Again, I think the way that you're likely to get by that response is um Part of it you have to remember a part of it is is sort of a matter of volume You have to anticipate that the letter that you're writing to a particular legislator is going to be one of many That being the case if at some point you can Up up the ante so to speak and if you're able to You know if you if you if you're writing to a particular legislator for many years You've always gotten those if there's a way to Bring a more personal level to it say if you're able to actually make the trip and meet with them in their office Um, I think that's more likely to you know, again Strengthen the bond that you might have with that person or again. I can't um Diminish the importance of this enough Trying to see if you can get them to come out for a site visit I know one of the things we're very mindful of Here is any time we have a specific event in our library, um We always make certain that we invite our local elected officials and our state elected officials And you'd be surprised how many of them actually do come And doing something like that again, I think it it heightens for the elected official The meaning and value of whatever your particular cause might be because again, they can see firsthand The benefits that your collection or your library or your historic site are actually giving to the community at large I mean, I know when we've had elected officials in its story But when they see the look on a child's face when they're interacting with some of the exhibits there or Listing during story time. I mean you can't buy anything like that I mean, that's the type of connection that's really priceless and I think ultimately over time will Burrow its way into the subconscious if you will all the elected official and really generate an emotional connection for them Great Let's see. We have just two more questions and one coming from us from Germany And I think this is a lot of us feel this way that meeting face to face so someone can Can be awkward, especially if you're meeting for the first time Do you have any advice on on how to read your representative and how they might be reacting to to what information you're sharing? You know, how do you know when you've shared too much or you know, when to back off any advice on that face to face meeting would be great One of the benefits that we have With the internet today is that there's a great deal of information available So one of the first things I might suggest Would be if you're going to meeting with a particular elected official go to their go to the website Again, let's say it's a member of congress Go to the congressional website and actually go to their webpage and Somewhere on that webpage you're going to find a bio a biography for that person I encourage folks to just sort of read that before they meet with the person just to sort of get a sense of What you might find there again in the interest of trying to Immediately come into the room trying to build a personal rapport You may find for instance that say a congressperson that you're about to meet with was On the board is on the board of their local library system That and something of that nature or maybe they were Involved in a historic site or somewhere or maybe say in their day job They were a history teacher or a professor If you can find things like that to tease out and be able to find points of commonality Between yourself and that individual again, that's more likely to increase the bond If you're able to go in and say oh senator I I I saw that you've been involved in your local library system when you were when you were earlier in your career Again trying to build a conversation point Not unlike what you might do if you were socializing with folks at a party is you just sort of Listen to hear where you might find some commonalities between what they're interested in what you're interested in As far as getting a sense of where they might be coming from on a particular issue You really should pay attention to their their body language Are they nodding along with you as they're as they're talking are they taking notes and writing things down While they're speaking with you Do they seem engaged and receptive in what you're saying? Is it an active conversation or are they just listening politely? All those types of cues are the sort of thing that would give you a sense of is your message getting through or do you need to try something a little different? That's it. That is some great advice Let's see. We just have one more question From kimberlene delaware. She's curious. How do you use lobbyists to help in your advocacy? Again, I think it depends on the particular organization. Again, I'll come from the library perspective The american library association has a dedicated advocacy government relations team And I think in that setting Having actual full-time staff members being able to be in a position like that It helps us as volunteers because we have Ready information we can go to the website and we can see Which bills are coming up when which bills might be something that we would want to have an interest We we would want to weigh in on but also paid professional lobbyists can provide you With intelligence on specific legislators who you might be wanting to meet with They can assist by providing talking points for you Before you go into those sorts of meetings And they're able to really do the intelligence and day-to-day monitoring That allow that officers volunteers may not necessarily have the time or capacity to be able to do So again, I can't emphasize that enough to the extent that there is A local organization or a chapter of a national organization that you could lean on for some of that professional support and guidance That way you can then focus on what really is the important thing for the volunteers Which is again generating a personal connection between yourself and whoever it is you might want to be speaking about Great. Well, those that's all the questions that we have and I think this is a fantastic Webinar to open up this course. We'll be talking more about how to tell your story to the media how to showcase your preservation Effort, so this was a really fantastic opener. Jeffrey. Thank you so much Thank you. I appreciate it and we'll meet again On wednesday at two o'clock same place And i'm looking forward to seeing you all there. Have a great afternoon and thank you for joining us