Conducting a Successful Meeting

If you have opted to request a meeting with your Member of Congress, you must now make sure you are prepared to make the most of your time with the Member. This section will help you get prepared to effectively make the case for your project and SRTS.

➢ TOOL: Sample talking points on SRTS and the reauthorization recommendations. (Word format) You can adapt these talking points with information about your local project to help guide your conversation at the meeting.

Understanding the Basics of a Meeting with a Member of Congress

Members of Congress have dozens of meetings with their constituents each week, and there are a few basics you should keep in mind for any meeting with a legislator:

• Be punctual, but flexible. Because Members of Congress have such busy schedules, your group must arrive a few minutes early for your appointment. If you are late, you may miss your opportunity to speak with him or her, or have your meeting time reduced. You should also understand if the Member of Congress is running behind and be as flexible as possible to accommodate any scheduling changes. At the beginning of your meeting, ask how much time you have with the Member.
• Know your subject area. You want the Member of Congress to see you as an expert on your project and SRTS. Make sure you’ve done your homework before the meeting and know the background on your project and SRTS. Have a good SRTS story to tell.
• Be organized and succinct. Members of Congress have extremely busy schedules, so you want to use your time with him or her as wisely as possible. Plan ahead on your message and who will deliver which messages. You may only have a few minutes with the Member of Congress, so make sure you are ready to clearly communicate your key points.
• Focus on the local impact. Members of Congress are elected to focus on the needs of their district and constituents. While it will help them to understand the national perspective, you should spend most of your time talking about the local impact of your project-what problems you are looking to solve, what activities you are undertaking to address those challenges, and what the impact will be on your community in the end.
• Be honest. Never, ever lie or exaggerate your project’s impact. The Member of Congress should know they can rely on you to talk truthfully about your project. If you don’t know the answer to a question, say you will look into it and get back to him or her.

Planning the Meeting Content and Message

Before the day of your meeting arrives, you should spend some time getting prepared. It will help to have in front of you the worksheet you developed in Section 1 identifying key messages and the partners you invited to the meeting, as well as the background materials you developed in Section 3. Here’s a list of things you should think about and plan before the meeting:

1. Develop the talking points for the meeting. Re-read the "Identifying your Story" and "Engaging your Partners" in section 1 for ideas and the "What is Safe Routes to School?" resource in section 3, and fill in the "Sample Talking Points"tool with your local information. A couple of key messages to keep in mind:
   1. The barriers that are preventing children from walking and bicycling to school, and how you will address them through your SRTS project.
   2. The benefits to your community once your project is complete, such as health, safety, or reduced traffic congestion.
   3. Any stories or data you have demonstrating the importance of your project and impact on your community.
   4. The breadth of the coalition of partners you have engaged to carry out the project.
   5. Importance of the federal SRTS program in providing the funding you need to accomplish these goals, and any local cost estimates of what it would take to make the school fully accessible to students walking or bicycling.
   6. The ask: at the end of your meeting, you want to ask your Member of Congress to be supportive of SRTS and to support the reauthorization recommendations the Safe Routes to School National Partnership has put together that would increase funding for SRTS and continue to focus on quality and accountability.
2. Once you’ve identified the key points you want to address in the meeting, think about which of the meeting attendees is best suited to discuss each point. Ideally, each of the individuals who are attending the meeting should speak for at least a few minutes about their role in the project and why it’s important to them.
3. Set up a group conference call or meeting with everyone who will be attending the meeting. Spend a half-hour or hour preparing, as a group, for the meeting. During this time, you should:
   1. Identify the "leader" for the meeting. The leader will start the meeting off, introduce the other members of the group, and facilitate the flow of the meeting.
   2. Discuss the talking points and make sure each member of the group is comfortable with their portion of the talking points and is familiar with basic information about the project and SRTS.
   3. Review the flow of the meeting-who will speak, about what, and in which order.
   4. Do a "dry run" of the meeting, with each participant in the meeting rehearsing their talking points.
   5. Identify who will take notes on the Member’s questions and responses, and any follow-up needed.
4. Prepare informational packets. See section 3 for more information on what to include in your packets. Make sure to bring several copies, one for the Member of Congress and extras for any staff that may be sitting in on the meeting.

Conducting the meeting

On the day of the meeting, make sure all members of your group arrive a few minutes early. Once the Member of Congress arrives, you can begin the meeting. The designated leader for your group should manage the flow of the meeting, and make sure the following things happen during the meeting:

• Thank the Member of Congress for agreeing to meet with your group. Ask how much time the Member has, and be prepared to adjust your plan if necessary.
• The leader of the group should start the conversation by letting the Member of Congress know that they want to discuss the SRTS project in their community and give a very short (2-3 sentence) overview of the project and its benefits (such as health, safety, traffic improvements).
• The leader should then have each group member introduce themselves, providing their name, organization, and a brief explanation of how they are involved in the SRTS project.
• The leader should then follow the talking points and roles that were previously developed to direct the flow of conversation, and help tie the various speakers together. For example:

LEADER: One of the reasons we were so interested in undertaking a Safe Routes to School project is because so many of the children in XYZ school are struggling with obesity and obesity-related health issues. Today we have with us Mary Smith, who is the school nurse at XYZ school and deals with these problems every day. Mary, do you want to elaborate?

MARY: (Leader name) is correct. Nearly one-quarter of our students at XYZ school are obese, which is higher than the national average. I have dozens of children each week suffering from asthma, diabetes and other chronic health conditions that are exacerbated by weight and air quality.

That’s why I’m so supportive of and engaged in the Safe Routes to School project. If we can get more of our children walking and bicycling to school regularly, it will mean an average of 30 minutes of exercise each day. That’s half of the recommended amount for children, and will make a big difference in our efforts to help kids be more active and healthy. If we can start changing these habits now, which the children are still young, it will pay dividends for years to come in terms of improved health and less strain on our health care system.

LEADER: Thanks, Mary. [The leader would then introduce the next main talking point, and engage the next speaker in addressing the comment.]

• The leader should also make sure that there are natural pauses in the conversation, between speakers, to allow the Member of Congress an opportunity to ask follow-up questions without interrupting each speaker. These questions and interactions are very important, because it will help you get a sense for what topics seem particularly interesting to the Member of Congress, and whether he or she seems supportive of the SRTS concept.
• The leader should also keep a close eye on time so that the meeting does not run over the time allotted. As the time comes to an end, the leader should bring the conversation to a close. The leader should at this point thank the Member of Congress for listening, and "make the ask" for his or her support of the SRTS program. For example:

LEADER: Congressman/woman [Name], we so appreciate your time today. We hope you have a better understanding of the work we have ahead of us with our Safe Routes to School project at [school name or community name.] Before we close out the meeting today, I’d like to ask you, on behalf of our group here and our community, if you would support the reauthorization and expansion of the Safe Routes to School federal program.

It’s our understanding that Congress will be looking at this program as part of the new transportation bill, and it’s extremely important that this program continue to exist-and that Congress significantly increase funding for it. We work with a national organization, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, that has developed reauthorization recommendations on expanding and strengthening the Safe Routes to School funding stream. I’ve enclosed a summary of their recommendations in your packet, along with their contact information if you or your staff need more information.

Do you think this is something you would be interested in supporting, based on what you’ve learned from us today?

[If the Member is noncommittal: Is there any more information you need to help with your decision?]

• Then, ask who on the Member’s staff you should follow up with for updates on your project or more information, and get contact information for this staffer.
• At this point, the meeting is now coming to a natural close. The leader can once again thank the Member of Congress for their time, and exit the meeting. If you have a camera, this is a good time to ask if you can take a photo of the Member with your group.