Advice to Advocates

Advice to Advocates

Organize.
This is so important it has to be first. Think about what you want to accomplish, what decision you want from a local elected official, what their time lines are, what kind of public support they need to take the position you want and what you can actually provide. Have conversations with your allies about which of you has the best relationship with which decision-maker, who will approach whom when, what you have to offer. Sharing information and insights among yourselves can often be the key to success.

Appeal to the decision-makers' self-interest.
Think about what the benefit to the county as a whole or the county commissioner as an individual is by supporting your position. Why should the county take the position you want them to take? Will it save tax dollars? Will it increase efficiency? Economic arguments can be the most influential, even for environmental issues.

Create a political presence.
Sometimes just say hello. You don't have to expound an opinion on everything.

Be credible.
Never, ever lie. Never fudge. If you don't know the answer, admit it. Then tell the decision-makers that you will find out and get back to them. You will never be able to influence decision-makers if they know they can't count on your word.

Elect your own people.
Success at influencing decision-makers requires that there be decision-makers who can be influenced, who are responsive to their constituents, who are independent thinkers and who want to do what they believe is in the public interest. If your elected officials are controlled by resource-extraction industry interests, it is unlikely that you will ever prevail. You would be better off focusing your energies on the next election. Get involved in the campaigns of candidates who are good on your issues.

Be confident; don't be afraid to teach and learn; be fair and sincere.

Have honest goals and principles, but flexible positions.
This means that it is important to differentiate between your overarching principles and goals and the positions you take to achieve them. Positions are negotiable, goals and principles are not. See also, below: focus on interests not positions.

Convert a staff person.
As a volunteer, you probably can't work on your important issues every day. Convert an agency staff person to your point of view; they are paid to work on your issues every day. Having them on your side also adds credibility to your point of view.

Everybody has to see a future and that includes your opponents.
This idea can be difficult. It's one thing to recognize intellectually that there is value in accomplishing this and yet another thing to get motivated to develop something that benefits your opponents, who may have been personally antagonistic in the past. But if you can demonstrate that what you are proposing includes something for your opposition, you can provide every politician's dream--a win-win situation.

Compliment and thank decision-makers when they do good things.
Decision-makers, especially local elected officials, usually hear from constituents only when they have a complaint. The roads have pot holes; the planning commission is making poor decisions; they shouldn't have cut the funding for some favored project; they shouldn't have missed a particular meeting. Newspapers sell controversy; negative headlines and editorials are more common than positive ones. A quick phone message or a brief letter to the editor complimenting the decision-maker can have a big impact on that decision-maker's attitude and their perception of you. Give positive feedback.

Don't be in touch only when you have something to complain about.

Develop a relationship.
Developing a relationship begins with a simple meeting to introduce yourself, letting the decision-maker know the issues important to you, and offering to provide the decision-maker with information and support on those issues. If you were involved in their campaign for election, so much the better. Every couple of months, make sure you have some contact with the decision-maker. It can be a phone message left on their answering machine thanking them for a position they took on an issue (and it does not have to be an environmental issue). It can be a supportive letter to the editor. It can be a quick hand-shake at a town hall or other public meeting.

See the decision-maker as a partner.
Try to envision your role as that of a helper. You are trying to help the decision-maker come to a decision that will be beneficial to you. Involve them early on. Let them know what problems you anticipate and how you are trying to solve them. Instead of being yet another demanding constituent who is going to be unhappy no matter what the decision is, you want to be seen as a reasonable person who is perceived as an equal, trying his or her best to bring the situation to a good resolution.

Don't expect the decision-maker to pass your personal political litmus test.
Opinions on environmental issues cross many boundaries. It is a mistake to think that a decision-maker won't be good on a conservation issue because they are on the opposite side of the choice issue, for example. Or because they are members of a certain political party and you are not. Focus on the issue at hand, and let all the other issues on which you don't see eye-to-eye fall by the wayside.

Match activists' skills and talents.
Environmental advocates at times waste their limited resources competing among themselves. What strategy is best? Litigation? Confrontation? Politics? Civil disobedience? The truth is there is room for everyone and every strategy. Rather than spending your energy trying to convince others that yours is the only viable strategy, support a strategy that allows everyone who is willing to be involved to do so in the manner they choose.
Focus on interests rather than positions.
Interests are more general and more basic than positions. Your interest may be protecting the biodiversity of our remaining forest lands. Your position may be that a certain initiative should be passed. Unless your immediate goal is to gain support for the initiative, you will be better able to achieve protection of the biodiversity of our remaining forest lands by looking at the larger picture when working with local decision-makers. It allows you to look at a range of options, see below.

Remember that you are not performing for the audience--you are performing for the decision-maker.
Face the decision-makers when testifying or speaking at a public meeting. If you are using visual aids, have them face the decision-makers, not the audience. Make eye contact with the decision-makers.

Speak out so the decision-maker can then speak in support of your view.
It is important to speak at public meetings, even if you don't think you will prevail. By expressing your point of view, you are offering political cover for the decision-maker who you hope will support your position. This tactic will allow that decision-maker to acknowledge his or her agreement and shows that he or she is not simply operating on a personal agenda, but is representing some portion of his or her constituency.

Have a citizen say a controversial thing rather than expect the elected official say it.
Don't expect your elected official to take a leadership role on every controversial issue that comes along. If you want an issue addressed, then you need to accept some of the responsibility. It is too easy for the opposition to marginalize the elected official who champions all the tough issues. It is too easy for the press to suggest that that official is nothing more than a troublemaker rather than the problem solver you know him or her to be.

Give a range of options.
See "focus on interests rather than positions" above. Be sure you support the entire range of options you are proposing. You may favor some over others, but each option you suggest must be an improvement--from your point of view--over the status quo.

Be brief and to the point.
You don't need to read your written testimony aloud unless you think the decision-makers aren't going to look at it. Just touch on the high points. Similarly, if there are twenty of you at a public meeting, don't have everyone say the same thing. The decision-makers will tune everything out and resent you for wasting their time. You have at least two options. The best option occurs when there are enough material and perspectives that you are able to arrange each of the twenty to speak from their own experience in support of your issue without repetition. Another alternative is to have one or two main speakers who will then ask everyone who shares their point of view to stand up to demonstrate public support.

Know the system.
You need to know what the process is for the decision-maker whom you are trying to influence. Is it a quasi-judicial process with specific opportunities for public comment? Are private conversations with the decision-maker allowed? Will there be a workshop session which allows the decision-makers to discuss the issue in an informal setting? Can you appeal the decision? If so, to whom can you appeal and what are the timelines? Is it a budget matter subject to a specific deadline?

Don't use jargon.
It can be difficult not to lapse into the use of acronyms, nicknames and abbreviations. But you will lose your listener if they are not as informed as you. Most elected officials are not going to want to demonstrate for public consumption that they don't know what you are talking about.

No surprises.
If you have been working with a decision-maker and you know you are going to have to take a public position which is going to cause problems for that decision-maker, let them know ahead of time. If you receive new information that may change the direction you or the decision-maker has been going, warn them. Even a few minutes advance knowledge before you make a public announcement can allow the decision-maker to factor it in.

Don't put decision-makers on the spot publicly.
See "no surprises" above. Additionally, you will not gain brownie points by putting the decision-maker in an uncomfortable position. Remember that what you are trying to do is make the decision-maker want to please you. If you have another agenda, you probably aren't trying to influence that particular person.

Don't attack staff.
Local decision-makers tend to identify with their staff. They may have hired them; the staff may have helped familiarize the decision-maker with their department and their issues; in any event, they spend a lot of time together. On occasion, criticism may be necessary. If so, criticize the action, not the person.

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