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 State Captain Resources

 

State Captain Teleconference:
On March 27, 2012 at 2pm EST, a teleconference was hosted for State Captains to go over the ABA Day issues and other things Captains should know. We will be posting an audio recording of this call shortly.

Main State Captain Responsibilities:

  Scheduling Hill visits with your state’s Congressional Delegation: 

  • Sample request forms can be found under the Scheduling Hill Visits tab at the right of the page.  If you need contact information for the schedulers, please email alexandra.kandalaft@americanbar.org.  We recommend that the Hill Visit requests be sent no later than March 16th in order to increase the possibility of securing meetings.  You will likely not receive confirmation from offices until one week out, but ensuring you make the request one morth out wil maximize the chance you will meet with the Member.
  • Please enter requested and scheduled meetings using the Knowlegis online scheduling program.        

    Coordinating with all attendees from your state:

  • You should be contacting any attendees from your state in order to coordinate Hill Visits and prepare for ABA Day.  If you need updated information on who has registered from your state, please see the List of ABA Day Attendees by State (coming soon) under the Scheduling Hill Visits tab at the right of this page or email alexandra.kandalaft@americanbar.org. 
  • If anyone in your delegation has not done so already, please encourage them to register for ABA Day by visiting our ABA Day Registration webpage.  Registration is free, but starting March 19th, a $100 late fee will begin to be charged.
  • Hotel reservations can be made at the Virginian Suites Arlington.  Our room blocks at the Hyatt Regency and Liaison Capitol Hill are currently sold out.  For details, please visit the ABA Day Travel webpage.    

Helpful Hints

  1. Coordinate with ABA Day participants from the same State to determine which participants are best-suited (based on constituency and/or other relationships) to attend which meetings – this is particularly important in states with large Congressional Delegations because it will likely be necessary to divide into teams or with large contingencies to distribute participation to no more than 5 people per meeting.
  2. Help prepare your group for your meetings before you arrive in D.C. by using the Hill Visit Backgrounder. It is very important to be knowledgeable about the Member(s) of Congress with whom you will meet.
    • Visit the ABA Grassroots Advocacy Center to find out about a Member's background;
    • Review the ABA’s chart of “Lawyers in the 112th Congress”;
    • Visit the ABA Day Issues Resources pages to learn more about the ABA Day issues.
    • Learn how the ABA Day issues directly impact your State, your district, your clients, your law practice, the justice system, etc.
    • We will provide general talking points to intelligently discuss the ABA Day issues with your Members of Congress. We ask you – individually or collectively – to come up with at least one additional talking point that speaks to how the issue directly and specifically impacts the Members' State/district and to constituent needs (We will provide additional materials on each issue that may help with this). 
    • It will be helpful for you to compile an ABA Day Prep Kit – a collection of information that will boil down everything into a single, compact resource. For example, you can include your meeting schedule information, issue background reports, Member vote/cosponsorship record, your own district-specific information and any of the helpful resources linked to this page, the Capitol Hill Visits page and the Issue Resource pages.  If you need any assistance with this, ABA GAO staff are available to help you with this project – Captains, this is also a good opportunity to involve your colleagues! You can contact Ken Goldsmith at Kenneth.Goldsmith@americanbar.org for any assistance.  We will also provide to Captains “leave-behind” folders -- 1-2 for every scheduled meeting-- at the ABA Day registration desk.
  3. Encourage your colleagues to attend the ABA Day Opening Session (Attendance is required as a prerequisite to participating in hill visits). During this session we will learn more about how to effectively communicate the organized bar’s message during Hill visits and you will also learn more about the substantive legislative issues that will be the primary focus of ABA Day 2012 Hill visits. Review the Suggestions for Congressional Hill Visits.

Support from the GAO

GAO staff are available to:

  • Help you determine which ABA Day issues would be most effective to address with a particular Member of Congress;  
  • Provide you with the e-mail addresses for your Members’ schedulers;
  • Provide general talking points to intelligently discuss the ABA Day issues with your Members of Congress and are happy to assist you in preparing any preparatory materials; and
  • Provide any other assistance you may need. 

For more information, review the ABA Day Meeting schedule, the ABA Day Issue Resources web pages, and the Capitol Hill Visit resource webpage. For assistance, please e-mail Ken Goldsmith or call him at (202) 662-1789.

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