• Fit the lobby day into a campaign plan. A lobby day should be part of a larger campaign plan. A lobby day can serve one of three functions: (a) to build momentum around a specific issue; (b) to educate legislators about an issue, through face to face meetings with constituents in their offices; or (c) to ask legislators to support (or oppose) a specific bill.
• Choose a single message. A lobby day is most effective when it focuses on a single bill or issue. Many activists will only be able to stay on message if the message is short and coherent. Most legislators will only absorb a message that is short and coherent -- particularly if it is a message they’d rather not have to hear. There will likely be several reasons to support your position on an issue or bill; pick the top three, and save the rest for those legislators that ask for more information later. The message of the day should be able to be phrased to a legislator in one or two sentences:

“We are asking you to vote against house bill 1258, the buffer repeal bill, because it will hurt water quality. Buffers along our rivers are a cheap, sensible way to keep our drinking water supplies from getting contaminated and becoming impossibly expensive to treat. Can we count on you to oppose this bill?”

• Appoint a steering committee. If the lobby day is a coalition effort, appoint a small steering committee to plan and manage the lobby day. It should be clear which other organizations in the coalition working on the campaign are also committed to getting their members to participate in making the day a success. All groups that participate must be willing to help not just in recruiting activists, but also in taking on other tasks delegated by the steering committee.
• Decide on the relationship of the lobby day to media work. The primary purpose of a lobby day is to influence target legislators through direct meetings. You may or may not want to combine the lobby day with a rally in front of the legislature, a press conference, or a press stunt. Each of these media actions can be valuable, but can also detract from the effectiveness of the lobby day if they distract the activists, pull them off message, or annoy the legislators. Even if you do not organize a media event per se, articulate activists from smaller communities should consider dropping by the capitol press pool to visit with the reporters who are stringers for their local papers.
• Draw up a list of target legislators. The target list is the list of legislators you want to have visited by activists. You will probably want to start with two lists. The shorter list should be the legislators who have to power to do what you want (move or block a bill, usually). The longer list includes all those legislators you need to win over eventually but who are not in a position to help or hinder you in the short term (for example because they do not serve on the committee whose vote your lobby day is intended to influence). For both lists, rate each legislator on how you think they will vote on the specific decision you are trying to influence. For example: 1, absolutely committed in your favor; 2, leaning your way; 3, neutral; 4, leaning against you; 5, unalterably opposed to you. Your main targets are the people on your short list in categories 2, 3, and 4. Your additional targets, resources permitting, are people on your short list in category 1 (to thank them for their support), and on your longer list in categories 2 and 3 (to educate them and build your strength for the future.
• Recruit group activists to come to the lobby day. In general, you need one or two semi-articulate constituents to meet together with each target legislator. One good approach to recruiting activists is to arrange your list of targets by legislative district, and then divide the districts up among groups in your coalition. Each group is then responsible for recruiting activists from its districts.
• Prepare recruitment materials. You will probably want to draft a one-page flier for all the groups to use in recruiting. The flier should include a version of the message for the lobby day, a short explanation of the reason for the lobby day, the time and place where the lobby day begins, and a default person for activists to contact to say they are coming and ask for more information.
• Keep track of who is coming. Your group or coalition should have a single ‘list keeper’ to keep a master list of all the committed activists, their districts, and their organizations. This makes it easier to determine where you still need activists and can help to ensure that all target legislators are visited.
• Schedule meetings with legislators. This can be handled in either of two ways: (a) each group is responsible for having its activists schedule meetings with their assigned representatives, reporting back on scheduled meetings to the list keeper; or (b) the list keeper schedules all meetings as soon as they know activists from a given district will be present at the lobby day.
  
  Scheduling is best done through calls directly to the legislators Raleigh offices Tuesday morning through Thursday morning, when the General Assembly is in session. When you call to set up an appointment, identify yourself as calling on behalf of the organization whose activists will attend the meeting, and say that a member (or several members) are planning to be in town on [date of the lobby day] and would like to visit with the legislator about [issue name], and when would be a good time for him/her to meet them?
  
  It is essential to be polite but persistent; a legislator’s secretary will typically say that her boss is incredibly busy and that the activists should check back later or just drop by that day. If you get this brush off, say, “could we take a look at his/her calendar for that day to see what times he/she may have free?” Once the appointment book is open, your odds of getting an appointment go up considerably. The best time for meetings is often 11:00 to 1:00. Committees often meet earlier in the morning, and the House and Senate generally go into session between 1:00 and 3:00.
• Make a schedule grid. The list keeper should keep a ‘schedule grid’ that lists all the scheduled meetings, arranged by geographic area (time slots on the vertical axis; geographic regions on the horizontal). Then, all meetings with legislator from the same area can be bundled in a single column, and the lead activists for those meetings groups into a single ‘lobby team’ that will travel from meeting to meeting together. Each team should have a team leader who can help make sure no one in the team gets lost and that all the activists in the team stay on message during lobby visits.
• Prepare the materials for the lobby day. The materials that will be given to the activists should generally include:
  
  a one-page factsheet that carries the lobby day message (‘pass the Clean Water bill’) and a short, convincing rationale. Quantity: 1 copy to leave with each legislator, plus 1 per activist.
  
  Any additional supporting information or gimmick (like an inhaler stamped with the bill number of a clean air bill). Quantity: 1 of each paper or gimmick for each legislator.
  
  A ‘cheat sheet’ with short information on other bills or issues that activists are likely to be asked by legislators. Quantity: 1 copy for each activist, not to be given to any legislators.
  
  A directory of legislators’ offices, so activists can find their way to their scheduled meetings. Quantity: 1 per activist.
  
  The ‘schedule grid’ listing scheduled meetings. Quantity: 1 per activist.
  
  Pages to take notes on visits with legislators (see debriefing, below). Quantity: 1 per legislator, to be filled out by the group after the visit.
  
  Pictures of the legislators to be visited by each lobbying team, to help the activists recognize their quarry if they have to track them down at a committee meeting or otherwise away from their office. Quantity: 1 set per team.
  
  Stickers for activists to wear with a short slogan that expresses the lobby day message. The value of the stickers is that they make the crowd of activists visible around the legislative buildings, even to those legislators that are not themselves being visited. Seeing the other activists walking around with stickers also tends to boost activist morale.
• Plan logistics for how activists will get to and from the lobby day. You may want activists to drive themselves to the lobby day. Turnout is likely to be higher, however, and activists are likely to have a better experience if they can carpool together, or even ride together in rented vans. Prices vary, but 10 to 15 passenger vans run between $100 and $150 per day (you supply the driver), while charter busses carry 45 to 50 people and cost $800 to $1200 for the day, but generally come with a driver.
  
  A few days before the event, the list keeper should send out to all the attendees (or their group contacts) driving instructions explaining how to get to the legislative building in Raleigh, where to park, and how to walk from parking to the briefing room where the lobby day will start.
• Plan the briefing/training the activists will receive. Starting the lobby day with an activist briefing helps ensure that the activists convey a consistent, effective message during their visits with legislators. The briefing should be short. Assume it will start five to ten minutes after the scheduled time. One template for the briefing is as follows:
  
  a short welcome to the activists (5 minutes)
  
  a short recap of the issue (5 minutes)
  
  a short update on the status of the issue that explains why the lobby day is being held and what you hope to achieve (5 minutes)
  
  Go over the message the activists will take to their legislators (10 minutes) – note that this includes much of the same information as the recap of the issue, but specifically packaged in the message of the lobby day and its supporting arguments
  
  Tips on how to lobby effectively, including the importance of taking notes at each meeting and following up with legislators in the coming weeks (5 minutes)
  
  Have activists break into their lobby teams. Team leaders will make sure their teams have all the materials they need (copies of handout, gimmicks), and should decide with team members who will speak first and carry the main message in each visit. At this point, the teams will be ready to go.
• Practice with lobby team leaders. A couple days before the lobby day, do a dry run of the briefing with the presenters and the lobby team leaders over a conference call. The dry run helps ensure that all the pieces of the briefing fit seamlessly – you don’t want activists feeling lost or uncertain just before they go off to do their visits. It also helps ensure that all the presenters and the lobby team leaders will be on message themselves when the day rolls around. This conference call is also the final opportunity to check that all logistic arrangements are ready – everyone knows when and where to meet, has directions, and knows what materials they are responsible for bringing.
• Letting allies and others know in advance. A lobby day should always be carried out in the context of a larger campaign plan. That plan will almost certainly call for ongoing lobbying, negotiation, and partnerships with ally organizations, state agencies, and others. To keep these relationships healthy, you should have a plan for when the lobbyists can let allies and others know that the lobby day is being held. Legislative champions on your issue are likely to know about the lobby day from early on in its planning; champions who help you on other issues may not, and you may want to give them a special heads up a few days in advance. It won’t score points to let allies know in advance if they’ve already found out first through your press advisory or, worse, an unexpected call from a reporter.

On the Lobby Day

Even if the lobby day is planned well in advance, there is still much to do on the scheduled day. Major tasks include:

• Confirming appointments. If you have staff available, it helps to call through the offices and confirm appointments – because even if the legislators usually have to cancel, a lobby team can usually track them down if you know which committee meetings the member will be attending.
• Greet activists. A couple interns or volunteers should greet activists as they arrive at the briefing room, having them sign in on a roster – names, organization, addresses, phone, and e-mail. The interns or volunteers can also help pass out lobby materials as the activists arrive, or during the briefing session.
• Launch briefing at the proper time.
• Floaters. As the lobby teams leave the briefing room to go to their meetings, staff or interns can help first-time activists find their way around the legislative buildings.

After the Lobby Day

• Debrief the activists after their visits. It is key for the lobby teams to take notes on each visit immediately after the visit, writing down what they asked the legislator, what the legislator said, and whether the legislator promised to vote or speak for or against the bill or issue of the day. If the legislator asked questions the team could not answer, it is also important to write those down, so folks remember to follow up with the legislator in the next few weeks after the visit. The steering committee should have a plan for compiling the notes and getting them to the community’s lobbyists as quickly as possible, so they can make use of the information right away.
• Following up with the activists. About three days after the lobby day, it is worth e-mailing the activist participants to let them know what effect the lobby day has had and where the issue stands. This is also a good time to remind the activists to send a thank you note or follow up with information they promised to send the legislators.
• Hold a coalition meeting to determine next steps. If you are working in a coalition, one week after the lobby day is a good time for the coalition to focus on its next steps. After all the energy that goes into successfully organizing a lobby day, it can be tempting to declare victory and rest. However, while a lobby day may pave the way for a winning vote, it will rarely complete the campaign. A coalition meeting that assesses where the campaign stands post-lobby day is key to make sure the momentum generated by the day does not simply dissipate. This meeting is also a good time for the coalition to make sure that any follow up chores that the grassroots cannot carry out are being covered by the lobbyists or policy experts in the Triangle.