CCL June Meeting Analysis

This training reviews the June Meeting Analysis, how to use it in a meeting with a member of Congress, the media, potential endorsers, and the larger community.

Please be aware that some of the content of this training may be out of date. While we work hard to keep all of our trainings updated, the latest revision date for this training is May 2022. 

Findings from June 2020's 434 Congressional Meetings

Findings: 434 Congressional Meetings, June 2020

I. What are the most common topics raised in our Congressional meetings?


(Click the link to be taken to CCL's June 2020 Meeting hand-out)

Table 1. In CCL's June 2020 meetings, the most common topic areas raised by Congress were the Dividend, Jobs, Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), Frontline Communities/Environmental Justice, Infrastructure, and Agriculture. Looking at top topics for Congress overall can mask important priorities for different regions in the country or for Democratic and Republican offices See the resources below for more information to understand these trends.

Frequently Raised Topics Resource

Want to interact with the CCL June Meeting Analysis more than this two-page hand-out? CCL's research team recommends utilizing the Frequently Raised Topics in Lobby Meetings resource. This resource goes even more in-depth in displaying the topics that come up in all of CCL's lobby meetings and has been updated with this year's data, across party interest and committees of jurisdiction. 

June Meeting Analysis Tool

In addition, new to 2020 is the June Analysis Interactive Tool (click here to visit). The tool contains two main interactive areas that you can hover over and click through with your mouse to find more specific information. The top area displays a heatmap depicting the percentage of times that a given topic was raised by a Member of Congress/Staffer in a meeting for each CCL region. Topics were only counted if it was brought up by the Member of Congress/Staffer (not if it was just mentioned by a CCL volunteer). Darker blue indicates higher percentage of offices bringing up the topic in that region. Lighter yellow indicates lower percentages. The topics are in order by most frequently raised to least frequently raised, and CCL Regions are displayed in alphabetical order.  

Below in the national heatmap are ten state maps. Each state map visualization represents one of the ten top topics raised by a member of Congress/Staffer in a meeting by individual region. Topics were only counted if it was brought up by the member of Congress/Staffer (not if it was just mentioned by a CCL volunteer).  Darker blue indicates higher percentages. Lighter yellow indicates lower percentages. Each of the topics below was a top ten topic for Congress overall.

How Was This Done?

• In addition to CCL's Vice President of Government Affairs Danny Richter, additional analysis was conducted by Taylor Krause, CCL National Partnerships & Coalitions Coordinator, Adeline DeYoung, Government Affairs Coordinator, and Sara Wanous, International Operations Manager and State Policy Specialist, to help with the process. All analysts followed the three steps outlined below when compiling this information:
  • 1. Centralization and simplification of the notes 
  • 2. Careful reading, category determination and counting
  • 3. Analysis
• All of the June Analysis was then updated by CCL IT Administrator Bryan Hermsen and Project Specialist Morgan McCue using Python for the June Analysis Interactive Tool (click here to visit).

Notes of Caution:

• Meetings varied in content and duration
• Quality of notes was variable, though much improved
• No review and researchers not formally trained

To skip ahead to a specific section go to the time indicated in parenthesis.

Intro & Agenda
(from beginning)

How was this done?
(3:30)

What were the most frequent topics?
(9:23)

Change of annual trends
(13:38)

Other Frequently Raised Topics (and where to find them)
(15:57)

Assessing Engagement
(21:11)

• Adeline DeYoung

Download PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.

To skip ahead to a specific section go to the time indicated in parenthesis.

Intro & Agenda
(from beginning)

How was this done?
(3:30)

What were the most frequent topics?
(9:23)

Change of annual trends
(13:38)

Other Frequently Raised Topics (and where to find them)
(15:57)

Assessing Engagement
(21:11)

• Adeline DeYoung

• Download this episode (right click and save)
• Find the episode on CCL’s iTunes channel.

• Frequently Raised Topics in Lobby Meetings
• 2020 June Analysis Handout