“Advocacy,” shared Brock Gregg, “is basically building relationships.” Yesterday afternoon, I had the chance to sit in on a tutorial session organized by Jennifer Bergland (TCEA TexTAN), Scott Floyd (White Oak ISD), and Brock Gregg (ATPE Governmental Relations Director). Brock was kind enough to sling my iRiver T10 around his neck for great recording of the podcast. Brock’s PowerPoint slides (retyped by me (groan)). I was unable to convert his PPSx presentation from the format it was in. I’ve sent it to Jennifer and Scott and asked for help (no, Zamzar.com didn’t work).

Obviously, the wisdom Brock shares is not contained in his slides, so you’ll want to listen to this illuminating presentation. I’d say there were about 15-20 people in the room. The question I have is, Why weren’t YOU there?

Listen to Brock Gregg (ATPE) share advice for TCEA Members.

(Or listen online via The Internet Archive)

Email: bgregg@atpe.org

Notes from Brock’s presentation:

ATPE – Legislative Tutorials

* Facilitator: Brock Gregg
* Share how we do our advocacy business at ATPE. I’m not a computer educator. Google Earth scares me really badly. I want to answer your questions, find out what you know about advocacy, and I have a copy of your legislative program and how to get the legislature to listen to your issues.

Advocating for Education Actions

* Build relationships
* Develop legislative program and priorities
* Develop communication systems
* Tell your story
* Be persistent, but be professional
* Buy some good shoes
o It’s about building relationships.

Advocacy Resources

* Legislative Program or agenda
* Lobby Team
o Legislative Committee-association members
o Paid lobbyists, or staff members (Executive Director or GR Director)
* Regular Legislative Communications
o Email networks and websites – TEXTAN the Edtech Action network
o Numbers are our strength
+ 300,000 retired educators

Individual Participation

* Building relationships with legislators and staff
* Reading and responding to action alerts
* Communicating with your legislators throughout the session-letter writing/email campaigns (Check your spelling)
o Letter writing campaigns work.
o Email is an acceptable way to communicate.
* Providing oral and/or written testimony if you have expertise in the subject matter of a bill scheduled for a committee hearing.
* Sharing information with fellow educators.
* Deadline for filing bills is March 15th.
* Texas Legislature Online – read any bill, track it through the progress, watch committee hearings…everything is online in—almost—real time.

Preparing for Legislative Session

* Elections – Political Involvement
o Be prepared to take the long term view
o Most decisions about issues are determined in November
* Legislative Proposals
o Concentrate on “Friendlies”
o Focus on legislative committee members
o Form coalitions—the education community does better for students when we all stick together
* Communicate and Follow-up Frequently
* Public education is political but not partisan.

Legislative Program – this is how we do it

* Cornerstone of legislative advocacy—developed by members
* Lobby team develops legislative agenda each session based on legislative program
* Legislative Program helps lobby team determine whether to support, oppose or remain neutral on bills during session.

Legislation

* Based on Legislative Program, Lobby Team develops priorities for upcoming session.
* Lobby Team gathers input and fcts from members, researchers, and elected officials on issues that may be addressed through legislation.
* Lobby team drafts legislation, reviews model legislation and provides input to legislators who are drafting their own bills.

Strategies

* Lobbyists develop strategies based on intelligence-gathering and the legislative process
* We “shop” for effective legislators who wold be willing to sponsor our legislation
* Not all ideas and priorities become stand-alone bills-depends on the strategy
* Constant intelligence-gathering

The Most Important Rules

* You are the Expert
o KNow your facts
o Tell the plain, simple truth
o Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want
o Be professional in your attitude and presentation
* You will not get everything you want and you must be willing to continually re-evaluate “success”
* Above all else, KEEP YOUR INTEGRITY INTACT!

Other Related Posts:

• Writing Your Elected Official
• TCEA TexTAN – Adopted Legislative Position
• TCEA TexTAN – Legislative Panel Discussion (with legislators)

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