Congressional Visit Planning Checklist

Appointment

• Call Congressional office; find out name of scheduler; request meeting

• Write short letter to request and/or confirm meeting

• Arrange place for pre-meeting

• Inform members of lobbying team of date, time and place of pre-meeting andmeeting.

• Check with team members to see if anyone should be added to the team because of knowledge of an issue or persons, connections to the Member of Congress (Remember: the ideal size of the group is 5 to 9 people)

• Arrange for a camera to be brought to meeting for pictures

Pre-Meeting

• Pre-meeting is held an hour to an hour and one-half before the visit at a site close to the Congressional office. If this is your first meeting, you may want your pre-meeting to be a day or two before to allow more time for your team’s discussions.

• The team meets to plan, strategize and script the meeting

• Review the goal and topic of the meeting

• Establish the order of introductions and go through what team members will say; their presentation should be personalized

• Script what points team members will make on the issue to be discussed;the fact sheet/ talking points will be your guide

• Explain leader’s major tactics:

• Directs discussion; does not do most of talking
• Ends meeting before Member of Congress does
• If possible, the picture needs to be taken at end of meeting