CongressionalRecess

Best Practices Guide

2017Edition

Table of Contents

Federal Lawmaker Meeting Request Letter…………...... Page 3

Tips on Meeting with Your Federal Lawmakers

Best Practices for Meeting with Your Federal Lawmakers………………………………………………Page 4-5

Best Practices for Alternative Opportunities to Engage with Your Federal Lawmakers………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….Page 6-7

Talking Points

The Importance of Federal Funds for Public Broadcasting…………………………………...……...Page 8-11

Dear Representative/Senator [INSERT NAME]:

I am writing on behalf of [INSERT STATION NAME] to invite you to visit our station when you are home during the district work period from [INSERT DATE RANGE].

My colleagues and I would be honored to show you what we’re doing here in [INSERT CITY, STATE OR REGION]to promote education, public safety, civic leadership and the preservation of local history and culture for the benefit of your constituents.

There is so much more to the public media mission than what is on the television screen, and I believe you would find a brief exploration of our broadcast, online and on-the-ground services enlightening and encouraging.

All of these services are made possible by the federal investment in public broadcasting which is the foundation of our successful public-private partnership.

I hope you will come see for yourself the impact federal funding for public broadcasting is having in our community; I am certain you will like what you see.

In particular, [INSERT PROJECT OR SHOW NAME] is a project that we have been working on here at [INSERT STATION NAME]. This program concentrates on[INSERT TOPIC OF SHOW OR PROJECT], and we’re especially proud of it.

I look forward to showing you around our facility, and if you have time, we’d like to interview you while you’re here for a segment of our [INSERT PUBLIC AFFAIRS PROGRAM NAME]series.

We would be honored to host you at our station on [INSERT DATE & TIME OPTION 1] or on [INSERT DATE & TIME OPTION 2].If neither of those times work for you please have your scheduler contact me at [ENTER CONTACT PHONE NUMBER AND EMAIL] to find a good time for a visit.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration, and we look forward to welcoming you to [INSERT STATION NAME].

Sincerely,

[INSERT NAME]

[INSERT TITLE]

[INSERT STATION]

Best Practices for Meeting with your Federal Lawmakers during Congressional Recesses

When Congress leaves Washington for district work periods, each Member of Congressspends time in theirhome district or state, meeting with constituents and hosting community events.Thisprovides a valuable opportunity for your station to invite your Representatives and Senators to spend some time with you and showcase the unparalleled services you provide to your local community.Meetings such as these can have a significant impact in helping Members of Congress understand the great work you do in your community and the essential role federal funding plays in the success of your station.

These meetings are particularly important for reiterating the value of your station’s services throughout the long appropriations process. The process begins in the late winter/early spring, but final funding decisions are often not made until the fall or early winter (sometimes even later). As such, continuing to remind Members of Congress about the critical impact federal funding has in the communities they represent is vital to securing funding each year.

As a reminder, our FY 2018 funding requests are:

  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Two-Year Advance: level funding of$445 million for FY 2020
  • Interconnection: $55 million
  • Ready To Learn:$30 million

Here are our tips for maximizing your meetings with your federal lawmakers during congressional recesses:

Schedule your Meetings ASAP

  • It is critical for you to submit your scheduling requests to your Senators’state offices and your Representatives’district office(s) with as much advance notice as possible.When you submit your scheduling request, please email the request to your federal lawmakers’ district or state schedulers. It can also be helpful to call the local office and ask how they prefer to receive scheduling requests. Most offices prefer email but some offices require you to submit a scheduling request through their official website. Please do not send a scheduling request to aMember of Congress’ general email inbox, which receives thousands of messages a day. Please contact APTS if you have trouble identifying the correct office or person with whom to be in touch. If you don’t hear from your Congressional offices, please follow-up with their schedulers. If your lawmaker is unable to meet with you due to scheduling constraints, please refer to pages six and seven for alternative opportunities to engage with your federal lawmakers.

Prepare Accordingly

  • Research your Members of Congress.Prior to meeting, check your Members committee assignments to see if they sit on key committees for public broadcasting (generally, the Appropriations, Education Commerce and Homeland Security committees.)Research their past support for public broadcasting by checking whether they have signed our annual letters supporting public broadcasting funding. You can always reach out to the APTS Government Relations Team for assistance.Please “like” and “follow” your Members of Congress on your station’s social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Instagram and/or Snapchat). Look at their accounts weekly to monitor and identify the issues your Members are most interested in so you can highlight station services that are related to those topics.
  • Leverage your lay leaders in your meetings. It is critical that you include your local community leaders, board members and other local voices in your meeting. Their participation shows your federal lawmakers how important your station is to your community because these influential people are spending their time supportingyourstation. It is especially helpful when you include station supporters whoalready have relationships with, or are financial supporters of,the Member of Congress. The APTS Government Relations Team is more than happy to work with member stations to identify these people.
  • Keep the meeting concise and manageable.Invite no more than four or five of your colleagues and lay leaders to attend. Prior to your meeting, decide which participant will cover each issue or portion of the station visit or tour.General talking points are provided at the end of this guide for your use in preparing for and conducting your meeting.Please personalize these with examples of your local work in the areas of education, public safety and civic leadership.

The Meeting

  • Say thank you.Thank your federal lawmaker for the opportunity to engage with them during the district work period and any past support they have given the station.
  • Emphasize local impact. Articulate the unparalleled services you provide to yourcommunity and their constituents, particularly the unique services that are only available through your station in the community.It is also useful to mention services beyond the broadcast that the Member of Congress might not know about like on-the-ground education activities, partnerships with public safety agencies and other community outreach. APTS encourages all stations to share with their Members of Congress any work you do in the areas of education, public safety and civic leadership because our work in these areas has proven to expand support for our stations across the political spectrum. Explain what losses your station would sustain without federal support, and be specific.Provide impact data on how federal dollars help you provide these great services to your community.
  • Make your ask:Will you or your boss vote to continue full federal funding for public broadcasting?
  • Don’t let the meeting veer off course. Convey your expertise and try to keep the meeting on track by returning to the outline you planned in advance.

After the Meeting Follow Up

  • Send an email to thank your federal lawmaker and staff for their time and provide any relevant supplemental information.
  • Send APTS an email with details of your meeting, so that the organization canfollow up and serve you better in the future.

Alternative Engagement Opportunities

Public affairs tapings at your station. Your federal lawmaker may not have been able to fulfill your official meeting request; however, you may already have a scheduled time for your federal lawmaker to come to your station for a public affairs program taping or other event. Prior to, or following the event or taping, take a few minutes with your federal lawmaker and explain the value of your station to your local community. You could also have a supporter of the federal lawmaker and the station (lay leader, active station volunteer, community leader, etc.) greet your federal lawmaker and express the value of the station to the community.

Engage with staff. If your lawmaker is unable to visit the station or meet with you, set up a station visit and meeting with their staff. Establishing a good relationship with congressional staff in the local office is very important. If a staffer has a positive experience visiting the station, meeting with you, or talking to your lay leaders, they are more likely to recommend that the lawmaker meet with you in the future. Having open lines of communication with staff will help you understand the Member of Congress’ outlook and priorities. In addition, while congressional staff in the local offices are focused on community engagement and events in the district or state, they can also weigh in with their counterparts in the D.C. office on legislative issues, highlighting the impact a bill or funding measure could have on the district.

Attend town hall meetings. Some Members of Congress hold town hall meetings during their district work periods. These events are public forums for the Member to provide their constituents with an update on their work and for constituents to ask their Member questions. To obtain a schedule of your Members’ upcoming town halls, contact your Senators’ state offices and your Representatives’ district offices or check their website. If they don’t have a schedule the first time you call, remember to call back to check whether the public schedule has been released yet. Once you have identified a town hall you would like to attend, put together a group of community allies to join you at the town hall. The more people you have in your group, the greater chance you will have of being recognized. Also, you should prepare a brief, meaningful statement on the importance of federal funding to your local public television station. This could be particularly powerful coming from a member of the community (teacher, parent, first responder, etc.) who can tell their personal story about why your station’s work is important. You could also pose a question to your federal lawmaker on their position on federal funding for public broadcasting. On the day of the town hall, your group should arrive early and get seats up front. Everyone in your party should be briefed on your statement, should they be called upon during the event. Following the town hall, send your federal lawmaker and their staff an email thanking them for hosting the town hall, and reinforce the concerns you presented at the town hall or would have liked to present (if you were not called upon). Also, be sure to include any statement of support or commitments that the Member made during the event.

Attend your federal lawmakers’ scheduled office hours. Some Members hold community office hours events either in their local district offices or at central community locations. At these events constituents mayusually wait in line to speak with the Member for a couple minutes about the issue of their choice. To obtain a schedule of your Members’ upcoming office hours, contact your Senators’ state offices and your Representatives’ district offices or check their webpage. For this engagement opportunity, you should prepare a brief, meaningful statement on the importance of maintaining level federal funding to your local public television station. You should also invite one or two community allies to accompany you to this event and share their personal perspective on the importance of your station’s work in the areas of education, public safety or civic leadership.

Participate in tele-town hall calls hosted by your federal lawmakers. Reach out to your Representatives’district offices and your Senators’state offices for a schedule of upcoming tele-town halls hosted by your federal lawmakers. When the call begins, follow the moderator’s instructions to virtually ‘raise your hand’ to ask your federal lawmaker about their position on funding for public broadcasting and urge them to support public broadcasting. If you ‘raise your hand’ immediately, it is likely you will be forwarded to a staffer who will screen your question. When you present your question to the staffer make sure your question is concise, thoughtful and respectful of your federal lawmaker. Further, if the call features a poll question, it’s a good idea to tie your question into the poll question. Presenting your question in this manner increases your chances of being selected to pose your question to your federal lawmaker. If your question isn’t selected, wait until the end of the call to leave a voicemail for your federal lawmaker.

Write an op-ed. Federal lawmakers and their district staff read through the local papers every day. Ask one of your community allies or partners to write a thoughtful op-ed about the importance of your station to the community. The talking points at the end of this guide can be used to help draft an op-ed.

Promote the grassroots campaign, Protect My Public Media.District work periods are an ideal opportunity to grow our grassroots advocacy network, and add new public broadcasting supporters who can weigh in with their federal lawmakers during critical times.Here’s a few ways you can promote the Protect My Public Mediacampaign during recess:

  • Promote Protect My Public Media at your community and station events, including State Fairs, by distributing campaign pamphlets, bookmarks and raffling off tote bags. *
  • Promote Protect My Public Media on social media.*
  • Add a Protect My Public Mediabanner to your website.*
  • Add a Protect My Public Media acknowledgementin your newsletter.*
  • Run the Protect My Public Mediaspot featuring Amy Brenneman.*

*Protect My Public Media partner stations can access these materials at The password is “welcome.” Stations who want to raffle off tote bags should contact Cait Beroza at .

Talking Points to Use When Meeting with Members of Congress:

Public Service Media: Pursuing the Missions of Education, Public Safety and Civic Leadership

As the last locally-owned, locally-controlled media in America, reaching more than 99 percent of the American people, public television stations are uniquely positioned to provide education, public safety and civic leadership services – not only on television but in the classroom, the emergency response network and the community.

  • The federal investment in public television underwrites these public services and ensures that they are available to everyone, everywhere, every day, for free.The Government Accountability Office has found that there is no substitute for this federal investment in the commercial world.
  • The American people, by overwhelming margins, support this work and oppose the elimination of the federal funding that makes it possible.
  • Bipartisan survey research conducted Hart/American Viewpoint in February 2017 found that three out of four voters want funding for public television maintained or increased – including majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents and 66 percent of those who voted for President Trump.
  • More than 8 in 10 voters are concerned about the loss of our public safety communications capabilities, and 76 percent are concerned about the loss of educational programs and services that help America’s children prepare for success in school.

In education, public television is America’s largest classroom.

  • Early childhood educational television programming, the hallmark of public television, has helped 90 million kids get ready to learn in school and succeed in life.
  • Almost 2 million teachers and users serving 40 million students (including home schools) use PBS LearningMedia, which adapts public television programming – plus content from the Library of Congress, National Archives, NASA and more -- to create 120,000 curriculum-aligned, interactive digital learning objects for K-12 classrooms.
  • Public television stations run “virtual high schools” that bring expert instruction in specialized subjects to the most remote areas of America.
  • Public television operates the largest nonprofit GED program in the country, helping tens of thousands of second-chance learners get their high school equivalency diplomas.
  • Through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate initiative, public television stations have helped reduce the high school drop-out rate to a historic low of 16.8 percent.
  • Public television stations are leaders in workforce development. Vegas PBS is the largest job trainer in Nevada, certifying 100,000 hospitality service workers per year and placing more than 90 percent in jobs.
  • Public television enriches the lives of everyone, everywhere, every day, for free, with the best history, science, cultural and public affairs programming on the air.

In public safety, public television plays an important role in homeland security and emergency communications: