Why Do You Need a Fly-In or Lobby Day?

An essential aspect of any successful government relations program is the organization of different types of meetings and events. One of the most important events organized by an association's government relations department is the "Advocacy Day." There is no better way to have your views and concerns heard in Congress then by having legislators hear first-hand from their constituents. These events need to be closely managed in order to ensure that the meetings are productive and achieve the association's goals and objectives.

Why Use Eye on Washington's Fly-In and Lobby Day Services?

Eye on Washington has made the management and organization of Advocacy Days one of our specialty service packages. Here are some of the benefits of choosing Eye on Washington's services:

• Eye on Washington takes sole responsibility for setting up all Capitol Hill meetings; researching and providing summary sheets about the lawmakers to be visited; and preparing, collecting and summarizing scorecards from the visits. With one person responsible for setting up the Hill meetings, there are no duplicate requests to Congressional offices and there is more precise grouping of participants from the same states and districts. Additionally, with one comprehensive schedule of ALL Hill meetings, follow-up by client staff is made easier and more effective.

• Participants benefit from having clear and concise summaries of the voting records and leadership positions of the legislators to be visited. Individualized attendee packets are provided, complete with a meeting schedule, room locations, and background summaries of the legislators. Feedback from managers of other Advocacy Days organized by Eye on Washington has shown that these summaries are greatly valued by participants as they help them assess the legislators' views before participating in the meeting. With information about the lawmaker's votes on important issues, participants are better prepared for the meeting.

• Eye on Washington's staff has developed close working relationships with the schedulers in many Congressional offices. This helps to ensure that whenever possible, participants will meet with the legislator in person.

• Eye on Washington has organized a number of successful Advocacy Days over the years. Each subsequent event for those organizations has consistently attracted more attendees and more Hill meetings.

What Services Will You Receive?

Among the many responsibilities Eye on Washington staff will assume to make your event successful are:

• Setting up Capitol Hill meetings by drafting and faxing letters to Members of Congress requesting a meeting with Lobby Day attendees, as well as determining which legislators should be visited.

• Following up with lawmaker schedulers to try to set up a meeting. All efforts will be made to arrange the meeting with the legislator in person. In the event that the Member of Congress is unavailable, all attempts will be made to arrange a meeting with the appropriate lawmaker's staffer.

• Preparing meeting schedule cover sheets for all Lobby Day attendees detailing their Hill visits (time, place, person with whom they will be meeting). The cover sheets include brief summaries of where each legislator stands and voting records on certain issues, any committee or leadership positions they hold, and in election years, intelligence on their race.
  
  Click here for a sample meeting schedule cover sheet.

• Drafting and compiling the briefing materials and leave-behind packets of information for both attendees and the Hill offices visited.

• Faxing confirmation letters and background materials to Members and/or Hill staffers detailing with whom they will be meeting.

• Faxing follow up thank you letters to all offices visited.

• Drafting, collecting and summarizing scorecards from each meeting.

Take advantage of Eye on Washington's contacts with schedulers in Capitol Hill offices to arrange for your attendees valuable face-to-face time with their legislators. We handle the Capitol Hill meetings so you can concentrate on promoting and publicizing your Fly-In.