Orthopedic Alliance. I'm Joseph Matthews. I'm with Advanced Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, a division of Ortho Lone Star in Texas. And we're here to talk to you today about relationship building and how to visit your representative. As you can see, we didn't call it simply as how to visit your representative because we don't want this to be a one-time event. This is more a start to a relationship that you are going to build with your congressman. A large part of advocacy involves building relationships with your representatives. As Congressman Pete Sessions pointed out, it is not enough to know your congressman. Your congressman should know you. As you start your journey in advocacy, remember legislators work for you. It is okay to be nervous about meeting elected officials, but remember, legislators are people just like you, people who want to improve life in their communities. Just as the staff in a medical practice have a profound role in shaping the outcome of a provider, legislators rely on the advice and opinions of their staff. Members of Congress and their staff depend on subject matter experts like you to create effective legislation. Your input matters. One of the first steps is to know who your elected officials are and their support for your particular interests. You can locate your representatives at www.usa.gov slash elected officials. There you will enter your personal information like your address. This will display a list of representatives in your area along with their party affiliation, contact address, phone number, their website information, Facebook, and Twitter slash x links along with their email address. You can also check the congressional calendar to know when your representative is in your district at www.house.gov slash legislative activity and www.senate.gov slash legislative slash 2024 schedule. The power of advocacy. Advocacy efforts are essential in shaping public policy along with the ongoing process of educating and engaging our representatives and senators. When we share powerful stories with our congressmen and senators, it can move and inspire them into action. The best time to connect with our legislators may be when they're in their home districts away from their busy legislative sessions. While letters, emails, and phone calls are useful, meeting with your legislators can be the most effective ways in getting your message across. Post-COVID, we're used to a lot of Zoom and Teams meetings, but again, we need to meet with our legislators as much as possible face-to-face to get to know them on a more personal level. A lobby visit is merely a meeting for you to tell your elected representative that you think about a certain issue or bill and try to get them or her to take action on that issue. And on a personal note, as an example, my brother-in-law who has cancer was recently denied very vital treatment and I reached out to our local congressman here and within two days, the insurance company had retracted their decision and now is covering his necessary treatment. So what we are saying is advocacy does not always have to be altruistic. The power of advocacy helps us get noticed. So my own mother who required three weeks to get in front of a doctor because she has Medicaid advantage and nobody wanted to accept her, is that a good story to tell somebody who has the power to make a change? Like Senator Edward Markey from Massachusetts says, every policy goes through three stages, education, activation, and implementation. We are that vital stage for education. Congress will not act unless there is a stimulus for change and we as healthcare professionals can best educate congressional staffers on how these impact our day-to-day lives. In fact, I was on a call recently with a congressional office. We did our spiel and we had forgotten to talk about pre-authorization and he brought it up saying, hey my son has cystic fibrosis and I understand what you go through for pre-auth because my own son was denied. So they are human beings too. They go through some of these same problems and they can relate with us when we share some of the powerful stories that we have. So how do you set an appointment? If you are the one making your call to set the appointment and if it's your first time, have some notes in front of you which will definitely boost your confidence. They have a limited opportunity to meet with you when they are in district. Make sure you call in advance. Make a list of what you want to say. If you have specific dates and times at work, ask for that. How many people will attend? What kind of issues and legislation are you advocating for? Make sure you ask for staffers contact information, especially email, so that you can reach back and confirm your appointment. Make sure you let them know you're a constituent if you are one because that improves their response to you. It's important to know your audience. Here are some of the tiers of staff in an office. Of course, you have the public figure, the member of Congress. They are highly over-scheduled. So it's not uncommon that even if they show up, they would leave halfway. The chief of staff oversees the office and staff. A visitor may not realize how often the chief is in communication with a member and how much they depend on them. The legislative director oversees policy priorities for the member. They tend to be specialists in the policies of the committee on which the member serves. So if your Congress person is not in the health caucus or the health committee, then your legislative director or chief of staff may not be the expert on health care. So I would rather have a legislative assistant who tend to be young, average age under 29. Most of the offices have them. They've arranged a portfolio on a certain focus. So if the focus is health care, that's the person you want because they can relate what you're expecting or advocating for to the people above them. A legislative correspondent or staff assistant tends to be even younger. They're usually the staffers on the phone who are coordinating the visit. Research your legislator. Once you set up an appointment, make sure you research your legislator. Check with the staff or the website what is the member's position on key issues. Check their voting records. Check their news media or Twitter links. Social media sometimes gives you a good idea of what the Congress person feels about issues. See what committees they're on and what caucuses they are part of. What kind of memberships do they hold? Then prepare. Make sure you research the issue and any previous local or federal legislation on that issue. Map your call to action. Map your ask or call to action. Know the counter arguments. Anticipate questions of potential pushback. Prepare thoughtful, compelling responses, especially if it's an issue that has been litigated before and has not resulted in a successful outcome. Prepare an agenda to help the conversation and stay on topic. Rehearse this with your fellow attendees so you can stay on topic. Bring visual aids and other collaterals to leave behind that illustrate your key points simply and succinctly. I can't stress the importance of making sure you choose colleagues who can strengthen the message because if you have someone who is overly passionate who can derail the whole conversation you do not want that person on board. Make sure you choose a manager and secretary for the meeting so you can have a successful outcome. Now you're at the meeting. It's a hurry up and wait. Make sure you arrive on time and be patient. Sometimes more often than not they may be late or they might even cancel the meeting at the last minute. It's okay. Don't be disheartened. When the meeting finally starts make sure you introduce everyone. Acknowledge and thank the member for any positive actions the member has taken for positions you have supported. Bring up any personal professional or political connections you have so that the elected official knows that you're not just another person. Be concise. Stay focused. Stick to three or four major issues and don't get sidetracked. Stick to your talking points and stay on topic. Use personal stories. Humanize evidence to support the basis of your arguments. Connect the potential impacts of the legislation. Example my mother having to wait for three weeks. I'm sure they had somebody that had to wait to get into a doctor because of x y or z. Be respectful and honest. If you don't know the answer don't try and make it up and sacrifice your credibility. Spend time listening to the staff for answering their questions. Don't talk at them. Make sure that it's a dialogue. You keep them engaged in the process and for sure keep politics out of it. Know your next steps. Exchange contact information and take pictures with the staff. This is a trick I learned recently. For the 10-15 years I went I would email them back after a hill visit and I would not get much responses but when I started taking pictures and with my thank you notes sent a picture with me it was more likely to get a response. Remember they meet thousands of people. You want to stand out. It's almost like how do you make your resume stand out in a crowd. Offer yourself as a resource for information and make sure you leave behind the collateral that you so diligently prepared. And then you follow up. After the meeting your team gathers together, compares notes. The secretary should have taken good notes but in case they missed something make sure you come together and share what was discussed in the meeting. Review any commitments made by either party so that you can follow up. Always send a thank you email. Thank the member and staff for their time. Add a reminder of the meeting topic for the office reference. Send pictures that you've taken. Congress people like their twitter slash x. Tag them on social media. Be more visible. Attend events in the district. The more visible you are, the more you're likely to be heard. Remember this is relationship building. This is not a one-time event. Attend town hall meetings or other events in your district to increase visibility with your members of congress and their staff. Find opportunities to engage in policy matters in the district including building relationship with district staff. Become a trustworthy source. Stay in touch. I'm not saying that you email them every day and be a stalker but pass along a new information that they might not have. If the member does not follow up to a deadline that they promised be persistent but be flexible. I'm relatively new to advocacy. Actually this has been my first year and I have had opportunity to meet our state representative several times throughout the past year. Even once in DC on Capitol Hill day and interestingly enough I was at an event recently and he actually knew who I was and knew my name which was pretty exciting since this is all new and you know just like some of the slides that don't be intimidated. They're people just like us so I was very glad that he knew who I was and we did not talk politics at that event. I mean sorry not politics. So I was very glad he knew who I was and we did not talk business at that event but it was very very encouraging. That's exactly what Congressman P Session said. It's not enough for you to know your congressperson. Your congressperson should know you. Well let's talk best practices. Do greet the member or the staffer with a handshake and formally introduce yourself and remind them that you are a constituent. Be respectful of staff staffers because they may be young but they are not inexperienced. They're usually very helpful and have a lot of knowledge. Thank them for the meeting and any prior support. Obtain information about their knowledge of the issues. Always limit your agenda to three or four topics. That's very important and cite bills, issues, and personal stories for clarity. Be attentive to feedback. Provide leave behinds and ask for a follow-up method and timeline. Do not arrive late. Do not get discouraged as a meeting is canceled or running late. I have found many of my scheduled meetings have ran late but very glad to have had the opportunity to meet face to face with my representative. Do not be disappointed if you are meeting with a staffer and not the member. It's very common practice. Do not assume the member or staffer is familiar with the issue. Do not discuss too many issues. Again keep the topics to three or four. Do not become narrow-minded or bring politics into this discussion. Do not demonstrate angry threatening or confrontational behavior and do not treat the meeting as a one-time event. Remember follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Inclusions and takeaway. So how do we build our relationships and advocacy? Well rather than always asking for something, building a two-way relationship can have a lasting and meaningful impact and it may take time and patience to achieve a meaningful result. So it's good ideal to connect early in the legislative process and establish the rapport. Passion, persistence, and organization are the key to success in advocacy. If you have any questions, if you are interested in being part of the advocacy committee or if you just want to start, make sure you reach out to the AAOE advocacy committee at advocacy at aaoe.net. you

advocacy

relationship-building

congressmen

face-to-face meetings

legislative process