Policy Advocacy Project
Arrange a meeting or phone call and speak with the elected official or staff member or assistant that you identified in the Policy Advocacy Project Part A: Proposal to advocate for the legislation you selected (See attached Part A paper). Make sure to complete all the requirements specified in this assignment.
Part I: The Meeting • Meet/call the elected official or staff member/assistant to discuss the legislation.
• Do not mention that you are a student or that you have arranged this visit as part of a course requirement.
Part II: The Report Write a report of your visit and include all the items listed below. The report should be written in an academic manner that uses standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling. However, APA format is NOT required, nor a reference list.
1. Include the exact name of the elected official or staff member whose office you visited and the person with whom you spoke.
2. Indicate whether the elected official or staff member was familiar with the legislation. See Part A
3. Describe how you conveyed your issue in the meeting. Summarize the topic and how you presented the topic, including what facts or supporting information that you provided. Once you lay out the issue, you should ask for the legislator’s support.
4. Summarize the elected official’s or staff member ‘s response to your request; namely, will the legislator provide the requested support or not? If not, why not? If the individual can support your position, you should elaborate why he or she was so enthusiastic about showing support (so that we might convey that enthusiasm to other less enlightened legislators).
5. Describe how the meeting ended. Was there additional information that you needed to send the elected official or staff member?
6. Summarize the elected official’s or staff member’s demeanor. Was he or she cordial, merely civil, barely engaged, etc.? In other words, despite your anxiety about the meeting (which is common for most nurses), did the individual seem agreeable to having the discussion? For example, did he or she: • Seem interested in the topic? • Ask good questions? • Seem candid about their position or remain noncommittal? • Seem pleasant, easy to talk to versus merely civil versus confrontational? • Relate any experiences that contributed to his or her understanding about the topic (e.g., has a family member in one of the health professions or some other relevant personal experience). If so, did these experiences help the individual to support your request or did it have the opposite effect?
