In-District Activities with Members of Congress
Connecting with a Member of Congress (MOC) or their staff in the local district is another way to build relationships with your Member of Congress (MOC). Simple activities include drop offs at the local district office and attending events where your MOC is already appearing. More in depth planning is needed to set up an activity with your MOC in your community that will allow for a more casual conversation with them to learn things we might not in a lobby meeting - what are the stresses they’re facing, like how much pushback do they face on climate, and how do they feel about the current congress. Strengthening your relationship with the office in this way will help position CCL as an ally and resource for members of Congress and increase the likelihood of getting a meeting and making successful asks in the future. For more information on setting up meetings in Washington, D.C., see Scheduling A Meeting in DC with Congress training.
Please note: These are not lobby meetings and should not be treated as such. You are not asking them to take any particular policy action. These activities are about building and strengthening your relationship with your MOC and solidifying your relationship as more than just transactional.
/topics/congressional-in-district-activities
Why In-District Events
Congress regularly takes a recess each spring when they return to their districts to connect with their constituents. Our successful lobbying and advocacy is based on strong relationships.
If your MOC is new, this is an opportunity to introduce MOCs to CCL, not just our specific policy asks but more importantly, who we are as an organization. These are the first steps to building a relationship.
For all MOCs, having a more casual conversation will help us learn things we might not in a lobby meeting, i.e. what are the stresses they’re facing, how much pushback or resistance do they face on climate, how do they feel about the current congress, as well as strengthen the trust we’ve already developed. We want to develop a candid and strong relationship with the MOC by demonstrating that we hope to be as much of a resource to the MOC as we are making policy asks. We also want to find common ground and learn things about the MOC that you might not be able to find in your research.
This engagement is not about making an ask but instead a friendly get together or positive event with the MOC. In order to truly listen to advocates and lobbyists, MOCs need to know them and have some level of trust in them. We’ve built that trust over time and this is another opportunity to build it with new MOCs and to strengthen it with existing MOCs.
Planning the Activity
One of the most important things to think about when planning the activity, especially for new MOCs, is to start with your own education and research. This includes information about the district / state (geography, natural resources, demographics) and the MOC (policy interests, background, hobbies, where they’re from). New MOCs often do not have as much legislative and public history, so look for issues, ideas, and topics they’ve promoted/publicized through the election season and in the first couple months of being in Congress. This will help you figure out what type of event might get the interest of the MOC and their team.
Similarly, it’s important to start with research and education when working with a returning MOC, with a slightly different framing. This is going to include refreshing your research on the MOC (policy interests, background, hobbies) and district/state. Particularly, if you have new district boundaries, look at whether that changes the geography or prominent natural resources or if there is a new particular business or industry that is now under the MOC’s jurisdiction. Also consider if your MOC has any new interests - whether it’s something they’ve started signaling publicly (potentially due to the changing politics or post Inflation Reduction Act passage) or areas that they’ve been excited about which now overlap with CCL’s policy agenda.
Additionally, for all MOCs, consider the context of the political environment and the current congress. What pressures might they feel within their party? What scrutiny are they receiving in the media?
For more guidance on how to conduct this research, check out the Getting to Know Your Member of Congress training and also the BRIDGE Advocacy program.
Another important component to consider before deciding on the type of activity you want to plan is your chapter bandwidth. Remember to coordinate with other chapters if yours is not the only chapter in the district or if you’re planning for a senate activity. Teamwork matters!
If you’re planning to organize a larger event, make sure you have enough people that are interested and available to help plan, as well as attend, the activity. You also want to check with the event venue on capacity restrictions and any insurance requirements. For internal CCL insurance support, review the process on the Proof of Insurance Form page.
If you choose to plan your own activity, try to pick a few options to offer the MOC, if possible. Ultimately, you want to land on an activity that the MOC is excited about!
If you'd like support in coordinating across chapters or finding a site to plan an event, you can reach out to your State Coordinator and Network Director for help!
Activity Options
Here are some examples of different types of activities you can plan, but don’t feel restricted to just these options. You can be creative when planning activities and find other options that work best for your chapter and your MOC.
It is important to look carefully at your relationship with your MOC as you select an activity. If you have been interacting frequently lately, a simple drop off focused on thank you may be best. If this is a new or tenuous relationship, attending an existing event or a drop off could help you build trust. If you have a good relationship, but haven’t had much interaction then planning a specific event may make sense.
Simpler, Less Formal, Activity Options
- District Office Drop off: this could include
- Chapter members sign a single card and drop it off at the MOC’s district office
- Constituent comment letters dropped off all together
- Children’s drawings or thank you cards
- Themed cards such as Valentine if in Feb, thank you cards of various types, Earth month cards
- Attend a town hall put on by your MOC - arrive early and stay late to have the best opportunity to connect with your MOC personally and their staff
- Attend an event where your MOC is already scheduled - keep your interactions respectful of the organizer’s plan
- Join your chapter on a hike, visit to local park/nature center, tree planting or park cleanup
Pick a location that is likely to appeal to your MOC and keep it lowkey (short hike, short park visit) with the goal of getting to know the MOC and the MOC getting to know members of your chapter while enjoying the outdoors. Though the activity is simple, it still may take time to plan and arrange with your MOC and their staff.
Larger, More Formal, Activity Options
- Partner with a local business (renewable energy companies, etc.) for a site visit to showcase to your MOC what the business is doing on clean energy (local jobs tied to clean energy) and highlight the climate tie to your district/state.
- Partner with a local farm for a farm tour or visit to learn about the impacts of extreme weather they’re facing and their response.
- Community forum on local environmental/climate impact.
Community forums are more likely to be successful when coordinated and co-hosted with other local groups/orgs. Have confirmed panelists/speakers from a range of backgrounds that reflect the constituency and allow the MOC the opportunity to participate at their desired level (pushing them to have too big of a role may make staff say no). Your MOC may want to give opening remarks and then just listen or leave or they may want to moderate. When organizing forums, be aware of political sensitivities when choosing topics and other outside groups to work with. Focus on partnering with groups who are trusted messengers for your MOC.
When planning an activity for Senators, pick a location closest to your strongest chapter(s). We want to make sure we have enough volunteers who can help plan and attend an event. After determining where the chapter is strongest, if there still is a question of where to host, pick a location that is either 1) closest to the largest district office or 2) closest to the district office nearest the Senator’s home.
Scheduling the Activity
When to reach out depending on the type of event
If you’re planning a smaller activity, like dropping off a card at the district office, you don’t need to reach out to the office very far in advance. Due to security concerns by many offices, do call ahead to tell them you are coming and determine a good time.
For larger site visit events or activities that require you have a good number of people available to participate, you’re going to want to start thinking about reaching out several months in advance.
Specifically for planning site visits, you want to be thinking about how long it’s going to take to coordinate with the venue. We also want to offer flexibility to the office as much as possible, so reaching out several months in advance to get information on site availability will be helpful. You can then go back to the MOC office with a couple options and get a final date solidified weeks in advance.
Who to reach out to
These types of activities will most often be coordinated within the MOC’s office by their district scheduler or their DC scheduler if they don’t have one dedicated to the district. The scheduler will work with the district director or a specific district staffer to arrange the rest of the details.
If your liaison has a strong relationship with a legislative staffer, start with them to maintain that strong relationship which can elevate your request for the MOC to join an activity to the top of the scheduler’s pile.
If you don’t have a particularly close relationship with the legislative staffer, no worries! You can email the district scheduler if there is one, or the DC scheduler if not. You can also cc or also include the district director on that email to the scheduler.
For new MOCs, it’s important you include the district director on the email since many schedulers for new MOCs are overwhelmed and they don’t yet know what the office’s event priorities are.
Who to expect will join the activity?
We are ultimately hoping for the Congressperson to join the activity. It is also likely the district director or another district staffer will join, since MOCs usually travel to in-district events with at least one staffer.
If you are planning an activity without the option for a virtual component and are unable to confirm that the MOC will be able to attend, you can invite someone from the district office to build or continue building the relationship with the office in this more casual setting.
Executing the Activity
What to do during the activity
During the activity, the goal is not to push a specific policy or bill (this is not a lobby meeting) but instead to host a positive experience and highlight our focus on building bridges and supporting bipartisan legislation.
For new MOCs, focus on who we are (our volunteers) and what our mission is, with some introduction of our policy commitments. Remember, CCL is committed to advancing federal policies that reduce emissions, remove climate pollution, and protect people. After researching your MOC, there might be one policy area that you think will appeal to them more than others - you can dive a little deeper into that area with the goal of gauging their interest and finding common ground.
Be sure to introduce who you are in your community (teacher, mom, business owner, etc.) - new MOCs love to meet their constituents! It’s important to start building a relationship and finding common ground. Do this by having normal interactions, getting to know the MOC on a more personal level and sharing your background. Ask open ended questions to learn more about your MOCs interests in the environmental space (not just policy but how do they approach environmental issues - are they a hunter, do they worry about their children’s future, etc.), we want to draw them out. Take note of any topics/interests the MOC shares that relate to our work.
Keep in mind, if they are new they might not know where they stand on the issues - this is why the personal connections and conversations can be most helpful when engaging with a new MOC.
For all MOCs, we want to make it known that we are an ally and a resource as much as we are lobbyists. It has been crucial to CCL’s success that we have created authentic and trusting relationships with MOCs - a lot of that is due to the fact that we want to work WITH a MOC, not against them, if they don’t agree with us. We want to reinforce that message at these events - we are here to work with Congress on environmental and climate policy, not against them.
After the Activity
- Log your activity!
Designate someone on your team to submit the activity through the Action Tracker. It will provide a useful tool for your team to have a record of the activity and a summary of some of the topics that came up during your activity. You will log this under “Contact with a Legislator” then “Other Event/Encounter”. Include notes that describe the activity and summarize any notable topics the MOC or office brought up
2. Submit a success story! (optional)
If you would like to share a success story or photos from your activity with CCL staff and other volunteers, you can use the success stories form to submit that information. Just a note that if you use this form, we’ll also ask you to use the action tracker as the official way to record the activity
3. Follow up with the office
Follow up with the office after the activity! Send the office a note or email with a thank you, reference something interesting or specific that came up during the interaction, and follow up on any actionable items if appropriate.
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
- (0:00) Intro & Agenda
- (2:50) In-District Activity Goals
- (9:21) Activity Options
- (15:31) Scheduling the Activity
- (22:41) After the Activity
- (25:22) Find Candidate Events
- (30:07) Learn About All Candidates
- (31:45) Develop Strategic Questions
- (37:34) Work with Incumbents
- (38:50) Stay Nonpartisan and Bipartisan
This training includes information on in-district activities in addition to other election season activities such as interacting with candidates.
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