Contact Your Legislators
Visit your legislators
One of the best ways to get your message about a particular issue to your legislator is to schedule a meeting with him or her personally, or with a member of his or her staff. Nothing makes a greater impact on legislators than seeing that their constituents care enough about an issue to make a visit.
Show that education is a priority to you by scheduling a visit with your legislator today. If you are unsure about how to make a legislative visit please review the tips on visiting your legislator below.
Good Schools is also available to train you or your community on how to visit your legislator, please contact us to schedule training.
Here are a few important things to remember
when you meet with your legislator:
- Elected officials and their staff have limited time, so make the meeting as brief and as politically valuable as possible for him/her. Bring along several (no more than 5 or 6) other people who share your viewpoint, but who also represent as diverse a cross-section of the electorate as possible. Good Schools Pennsylvania may be able to help you find other members of your community to attend the meeting.
- When calling to schedule the meeting, explain that you are calling as a representative of several organizations that would like to meet with the legislator or one of his/her staff to discuss your particular issue. The scheduler may ask for the names of all groups that intend to be at the meeting, or other questions. Answer any questions politely, but be firm about wanting to have a meeting.
- Remember to prepare for your meeting. Spend at least one hour together preparing for the meeting. The group should decide who will be the group leader, everyone should go over what he or she will say and how you will answer any anticipated questions, and discuss what your key message is.
- You should decide what written materials you want to leave with the legislator or aide at the meeting. You should leave them with some background information on the issue, a sheet explaining who your group is and what you do, and something general outlining what you would like to see done. Do not overload them with paper, or none of it will get read. Good Schools has a number of useful materials such as our key education facts and your school's survey for you to share with your legislator. Good Schools Pennsylvania may also be able to suggest additional resources about timely issues.
- Remember that your issue is only one of many that compete for attention with your legislator. Therefore, it is critical that you find ways to make your issue stand out, while maintaining credibility with the elected official.
- While at the meeting make sure you stay "on message". One of the easiest and most common mistakes is to stray away from the message you want to deliver. Sometimes, the legislator or aide may even try to drag you "off message" with questions about topics that are not related to your issue. Be prepared for this. If a question comes up that is off topic, your best response is to immediately bring the meeting back to your central message. Be polite, but firm. If they persist, you can also tell them that if they want to discuss other issues, you'd be happy to come back for another meeting for that purpose. Remember it is okay to say you don't know an answer but will get back to them later.
- Remember at the meeting to clearly identify what you want the legislator to do. When you meet with the legislator, you will spend a considerable amount of time explaining who you are and giving background information about your issue. During this process, you will most likely find that the person you are speaking to seems very agreeable and concerned. However, just because they agree with you in principal does not mean that they will support your position on a specific bill or champion the issue. It is important that you communicate a clear understanding of what you want the legislator to do. Check out the legislative scorecard for actions your legislator can take to champion public education. Please contact Good Schools Pennsylvania if you need assistance.
- After the meeting it is important to fulfill any promises you made during the meeting. If you agreed to get more information, do it as quickly as possible, and then get it to the aide or legislator. It never hurts to send the legislator or aide a note thanking them for the meeting, and restating the points that were raised, and the agreements that you think were reached. If you met with an aide who promised to deliver your message to the legislator, it's fine to call in a week or so to find out if it actually happened, and if so, how he/she responded.
These tips have been excerpted from the Arc of the United States.