DC Trip 2017 Meeting Material & Ettiquette...• But sometimes a search for a member won’t give a...
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US HEP USERS’ DC Trip 2017 Meeting Material & Ettiquette Breese Quinn 2/24/17
Transcript of DC Trip 2017 Meeting Material & Ettiquette...• But sometimes a search for a member won’t give a...
US HEP USERS’
DC Trip 2017
Meeting
Material & Ettiquette
Breese Quinn
2/24/17
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
2
Research for Meetings
You (primaries in particular) need to prepare well for your
meetings
• Basic Information: There are many good places to learn about the
Congresspeople you’ll be meeting, e.g.
• www.senate.gov, www.house.gov
• www.govtrack.us
• www.congress.org, This is a great place to find the complete staff list for
each office. However, it is tricky to use.
• Start with a Google search e.g. “congress.org Mike Simpson”
• You’ll get a link like
• Legislative Action Center - Rep. Mike Simpson (R ... - Congress.org
• www.congress.org/congressorg/mlm/congressorg/bio/staff/?id=209
• But sometimes a search for a member won’t give a result, so you need to do
a little more creative search to get the “id=XXXXX” number for that
member from some other site, e.g. Google “gary palmer staff id” and find id
# from capwiz.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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Research for Meetings
• Committee/Subcommittee assignments: Make sure you know all of
their. This tells you their primary legislative interests.
• Remember the 8 most important subcommittees with obvious relevance to us:
DOE Appropriations: House Appropriations/Energy & Water Development
Senate Appropriations/Energy & Water Development
NSF Appropriations : House Appropriations/Commerce, Justice, Science & Rel. Agencies
Senate Appropriations/Commerce, Justice, Science & Rel. Agencies
DOE Authorization: House Science, Space & Technology/Energy
Senate Energy & Natural Resources/Energy
NSF Authorization: House Science, Space & Technology/Research & Technology
Senate Comm., Science & Transp./Space, Science & Competitiveness
• But others like Homeland Security, Defense, Agriculture, etc. will help guide
you in connecting with them and their priorities.
• Past Trip Reports: Visit past year’s Wikis to read reports of previous
meetings.
• Who: names of staff members, or members themselves that we met with
• What: what questions did they ask, information that piqued their interest, etc.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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Research for Meetings
• State/District Funding: VERY important. Find the DOE and NSF
funding sheets for the state. This information is crucial for them to
justify support in many cases.
• DOE SC in Your State – cumbersome spreadsheets that can be massaged
• NSF in the States – very helpful state tables
• Michael Baumer’s HEP funding tool – this gathers HEP related funding data very
conveniently. However, one caveat: the “SC Contract” numbers do not include
university grants from non-HEP DOE SC offices (e.g. Nuclear Physics, BES, etc.)
• Deeper Research: useful for knowing what to thank them for
• Voting records on key science legislation, public statements on science
• Personal Connections: Be Careful!
• In your district, you may know something about work they have done that has a
close personal impact on you, that you can use to make a connection.
• Be very careful with this information, in particular that it is not politically sided
and does not distract from our message.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
5
Behave!
• Dress: Business professional.
• Be sharp and well-groomed. It communicates respect, i.e. you respect them
enough to take the effort to present yourself well.
• Don’t try to be a flashy fashion plate.
• Don’t change/finish dressing in the offices/halls (e.g. shoes, ties, jackets – don’t
laugh, it has happened more than once before!)
• Don’t wear anything political (e.g. a red tie is OK, a red tie with a pattern of little
elephants is not. A U.S. Flag pin is OK, a U.S. Constitution tie is a little too far)
• Arrive 5 Minutes Early: useful for knowing what to thank them for
• Secondary wait for your Primary to arrive before going into the office
• It is best for the Primary who made the appointment to make introductory contact with
receptionist (i.e. “Hi, I’m Breese Quinn, and I have a meeting scheduled with Joe Smith
at 1:30.”)
• The Primary needs to give the Secondary a quick briefing on the member, connections.
Also Primary and Secondary need to introduce themselves to each other (e.g. knowing
what each is working on helps flow of meeting conversation)
• If Primary still not there 1 minute before meeting, go on in and introduce yourself.
• Personal Connections: Be Careful!
• In your district, you may know something about work they have done that has a
close personal impact on you, that you can use to make a connection.
• Be very careful with this information, in particular that it is not politically sided
and does not distract from our message.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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Behave!
• Know Your Roles: let Primary be Primary, Secondary be Secondary
• Secondary needs to let Primary do most of the talking. It is their meeting, and
they are the one that the member’s office has the connection to.
• Primary needs to know when to invite Secondary participation (e.g. when
discussing their area, get student’s perspective, etc.), and graciously let Secondary
interject when they pick up on something that they can address.
• SMILE! Be interested in and encouraging of staffer/member’s
questions and comments.
• NEVER! Be a condescending lecturer.
• DO NOT ever say things like “You probably don’t know about/aren’t aware
of…”, or quiz them like “what do you know about…” Things like that either
belittle them or put them in an awkward spot, neither of which will engender a
positive reaction!
• Be appreciative: of everyone, explicitly, Say thank you!
• To member, staffer, receptionist, …
• For their time, support, votes, refreshments, whatever!
• Wrap it up: Be respectful of considerate of their time.
• Look for cues (checking watch, glancing at door, etc.). Secondary impt for this.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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Delivering an Effective Message
• Pick a Packet Item: use it as the focus of your meeting
• Likely the main brochure
• Use it as a guide for the meeting.
• Don’t try to get through everything
• Know the Rest: Familiarize yourself with all the packet materials
• Use specific items to connect to that office’s interests
• Be ready to pull out something in response to questions
• Find Your Passion: What about our story gets you fired up?
• Make sure your spiel includes this.
• People tend to support happy, positive people. They won’t get excited about
something that you are not obviously excited about.
• Make the “Ask”: Make sure they know the bottom line
• Use it early up front, close with it, be ready if they ask for it
• Be ready to pull out something in response to questions
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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Delivering an Effective Message
• Know When to Go: Don’t wear out your welcome
• Follow Up: Build relationships for the future
• A day or two later: thank them for time, respond to info requests
• Further out: there will be calls for you to communicate with offices regarding
specific legislation
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
9
What To Expect
• Who will I meet with?
• Likely a low-level staffer, e.g. Legislative Correspondent: will be very young
(right out of or still in college), not much interaction (they are just there to take
notes for someone else), don’t lapse into lecturing one of your students
• Likely a specific-issue Legislative Assistant: LA’s have responsibility for a few
different legislative areas (see congress.org member staff lists). You may get
someone who covers science, space, education, energy (sometimes this isn’t us but
just oil, solar, etc., but sometimes means on Energy subcommittee which is us) in
which case conversation will be at higher level. You may just get who’s available
(e.g. Agriculture, Family Issues) in which case it will be like LC meeting. They
may signal member’s interests if you pay attention, and if so, go with it.
• Unlikely the Legislative Director/Senior Policy Analyst: Very good sign! Means
our issue is a priority for the office. Could be very in-depth, impactful
conversation. If you know you will be meeting with LD ahead of time, do your
research well!
• Unlikely the member themselves: may be just in and out for a few minutes to
make face time with constituent – be ready with 1-minute elevator speech, but
may be long sit down because it’s something they are interested in. Whatever
time they give, be VERY grateful, respectful.
• Extremely unlikely Chief of Staff: usually not a good sign, because they are the
chief political person. Usually means they have some agenda to push through us.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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What To Expect
• Big 8 Subcommittees: know if your Primary is on these!
• Meetings with these offices may be at a significantly higher, more detailed level.
Some of these staffers (particularly those whose members are Chairs or Ranking
Members) know areas of our program better than we do.
• DO NOT try to BS or fake your way through something. If you don’t know the
answer to a question, say so and tell them you will find out and get back to them –
but make sure you actually do get back to them!
• Meeting Duration: practice/prepare for the right time
• A typical meeting will run about 15-20 minutes or so. Your baseline, practiced
talk should conform to this.
• If meeting is with offices on non-relevant committees, or with members
themselves, may be shorter so know how to condense your spiel.
• If meeting is with Big 8 office, could easily go longer.
• Prepare for what else you want to cover if you have more time.
• Be aware of this when scheduling meetings, i.e. don’t schedule another one 30 minutes
after this one in another building.
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
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Keys to Success: P7
Persistence – in making initial contact
Preparation – for your visit
Passion – for particle physics
Positive – in everything
Personal – build relationships
Politics – AVOID!
Profuse – in thanks
DC Trip Planning Meeting
2/24/17
B. Quinn
University of Mississippi
12
It’s Show Time!
GO!
a. Get on the plane
b. Get to the hotel
c. Relax
d. Have A Blast!
