Following Up After the Event or Meeting

Even though the hard work of your event or meeting is over, there are a few last quick but important items you should complete. You should thank your Member of Congress, and remember to keep them up-to-date in the future through their staff. And, we hope you will let the Safe Routes to School National Partnership know how your event or meeting went. This will help us follow up with the Member and his or her Washington, DC staff to secure their support for SRTS. The information and tools below will help you accomplish these steps quickly.

➢ TOOL: Sample thank you letter. (Word format) You can adapt this thank you letter with information about your local project.

➢ RESOURCE: We have created a form on the SRTSNP website where you can report in about your event or meeting. It should only take a few minutes to fill out. Please go to this form to update us about your event or meeting, and the reaction of your Member of Congress. We will also collect these stories and photos from the events and post them online, so that others can learn from your experiences when planning their own event or meeting.

Thanking the Member of Congress and Staff

It’s important that you formally thank the Member of Congress for attending your event or meeting with you. This thank-you note gives you an opportunity to reinforce your message in support of the SRTS program, and to continue to build a relationship with your Member of Congress.

Take a look at the Sample Thank You Letter tool, and personalize it with information about your project and partners. Make sure you send this within a week of the event or meeting. You should also call or email any of the Member’s staff who helped with the event or meeting (such as the scheduler, the press secretary, or another staff person who accompanied the Member to the event or meeting) with thanks for their assistance.

If the Member of Congress attended an event, be sure to include with the thank you note any newspaper clippings on the event (particularly if they feature a quote from the Member of Congress) or a couple of photographs of the Member of Congress speaking at the event or interacting with constituents. The best way to deliver this note is to hand-deliver it to the district office, as letters sent via postal mail go through a lengthy security screening process, delaying them. If you must use mail, be sure to email or fax a copy of the thank you letter so the Member receives it promptly.

Keeping in Touch with your Member of Congress After the Event

The event or meeting you had with the Member of Congress can serve as the beginning of an ongoing relationship. Now that he or she is familiar with your project, and you hopefully have the name and contact information for the staff person for follow-up, it’s important to keep in touch. This will help build a relationship with the Member of Congress, and help make sure he or she doesn’t forget about your project. Some ideas for how you can follow up include:

  • Make sure to add the Member’s staff to the list for any newsletters or project updates you email or mail out. Be careful not to “spam” the staff with unnecessary information.
  • As you have future events for your SRTS project, make sure to send an invite to the member and staff. You shouldn’t necessarily expect they will attend, but the invitation can serve as a reminder about your organization and project.
  • If you haven’t communicated with your Member’s office in a while, consider sending a “quarterly update.” Write a quick friendly note to the Member referencing your past event or meeting, and providing some new information (news about your progress, mention of an upcoming event, etc.) about your project.

It’s also important that you let the Safe Routes to School National Partnership know about your event or meeting with your Member of Congress. As soon as possible after your event or meeting, please click here and fill out the form we’ve provided with a brief summary of your event or meeting, how the Member of Congress reacted, and whether he or she agreed to support SRTS in the transportation reauthorization bill.

SRTSNP will follow up with the Member’s Washington, DC staff to make sure they are aware of your local event or meeting, and work with them to formalize the Member’s support for our SRTS reauthorization recommendations.

Closing Thoughts

We want to thank you for taking the time to review this toolkit, and hope it was helpful as you planned an event or meeting for your Member of Congress. If you have feedback on how to improve the toolkit, please contact Margo Pedroso with the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is committed to advancing the SRTS movement all across the country, and in ensuring that the federal commitment to SRTS is expanded in the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill.

Your help is absolutely essential to that effort. If Members of Congress don’t hear about or see firsthand the impact of SRTS funding, they will be less likely to champion a significant increase in funding for SRTS. Thank you for your efforts in helping build additional Congressional champions for Safe Routes to School.