July 27, 2025
Three Ways to Take Maximum Advantage of the Congressional Recess Right Now
Members of Congress are on their way home as we speak, for basically a month long recess, which is known in Congressional speak as a district work period. I want to make sure you have everything you need to take full advantage of this significant opportunity, while you have them right there, easily accessible to you home in the district.
And I know. I hear you. You could be forgiven for thinking that you don't want to see another member of Congress for as long as you live, given how they've been behaving as a body lately. But whoever you've got representing you, they're who you've got right now. Even if we're displeased with them or frustrated with them, we still need to engage them. We still need them doing as much as possible on behalf of the people we serve and the work that we do.
The good news is that your chances of highly successful engagement go way up when they’re home in the district or state – if you know how to leverage the three best ways to engage them.
In this episode, we share:
- How members of Congress operate differently when they’re home, and how that creates exceptional opportunities for engagement
- The unique advantages offered by a strategically designed program visit
- How to create a powerful engagement experience at your program, that is strategically designed to produce results
- The boring, but essential action you need to take immediately to ensure your success
- How to leverage the unique features of town hall meetings for maximum impact
- What NOT to do with your messaging in a town hall setting
- How to create empowering and successful opportunities for your clients, volunteers and supporters to be involved in engaging your members of Congress at home
Link: Episode 31 – How to Get Maximum Results from a Decisionmaker’s Visit to Your Program
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share how to take full advantage of a congressional district work period coming soon to your neighborhood.
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So stay tuned.
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If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode because we've got an opportunity coming our way that is happening basically immediately.
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And I wanna make sure that you have everything you need to take full advantage of that opportunity.
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So what is this opportunity?
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Members of Congress, US Senators and House of Representative members are on their way home as we speak, for basically a month long recess, which is known in Congressional speak as a district work period.
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They all go home.
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They spend time with constituents, they meet with folks, they find out what's going on.
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They put their ear to the ground.
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For some of them they're actually home already starting to campaign for primaries for the 2026 election.
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So that means they're right there, easily accessible to you home in the district.
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On the House side they're gonna be there for a good five weeks.
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They're there for all of August plus the last week of July.
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The Senate will be off starting August 2nd through Labor Day, unless they get pulled back.
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There is some talk that they may actually stay in DC to deal with some judicial nominations that have been stalled.
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So we'll see how much time the senators actually get in their home states.
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But definitely the House is already home.
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So you have an opportunity to engage with them in a number of different ways.
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And I know.
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I hear you.
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You could be forgiven for thinking that you don't wanna see another member of Congress for as long as you live, given how they've been behaving as a body lately.
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But whoever you've got representing you, they're who you've got right now.
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And so even if we're displeased with them or frustrated with them, or some combination of the above, we still need to engage them.
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We still need them doing as much as possible on behalf of the people we serve and the work that we do.
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And for those of you who are lucky enough to be represented by progressive members of Congress who are actively working on behalf of good causes.
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That's wonderful.
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That makes your job a lot easier.
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But we need to engage all of them.
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The good news is that when they're home in their district, they're operating on a little bit different level.
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They really are focused on what's going on at home?
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What's going on with their constituents?
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How are people doing?
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How are they experiencing the world?
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What's happening?
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And you know, quite honestly, part of the reason they need to know that is so they can figure out how to get themselves reelected.
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It's also their job, but from a practical standpoint, they're also operating with that other concern.
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So their ears are a little more open, they're a little more receptive, generally speaking.
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When members of Congress are home in the district or the state, there are basically three major opportunities for you to engage with them.
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There's visits to your program, there's meeting with them in their local office, and there's town halls and other public forums.
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A lot of members of Congress have already scheduled town hall meetings for the August district work period, and they've announced them.
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So if that's going on in your state or your district and that's happening, you wanna make sure that you get that on your calendar right away and make plans to show up.
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And we'll talk about how you can show up at those town halls in a way that's gonna make the greatest impact.
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You may have some very specific asks or at least areas of concern that you want to raise with your member of Congress, particularly around funding.
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And I grant you that on the subject of federal funding, there has been to say the least, a lot to absorb in the last couple of months.
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With the reconciliation bill and then the trial balloon rescission bill, and now the fiscal 2026 appropriations process is well underway.
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There's a lot just recently happened and a lot still going on that has to do with what federal funding is going to look like going forward.
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If you're affiliated with a national advocacy organization or network that represents programs in your niche, in your area of work, I would assume that those national organizations have already reached out to you and let you know what their priorities and messaging are on a national basis for your issues.
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And that might very well include some things around appropriations as well as other legislative priorities.
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So take that into consideration and build from there.
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Now, I presume that you have been advocating for your federal funding with your members of Congress on an ongoing basis since at least the beginning of the year.
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But the thing about district work periods is that it's an opportunity for you to bring some of that messaging to life for them.
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And really engage them on a level that is very difficult to do from a distance.
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Or in a brief visit when you come to Washington for a Hill visit.
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So we wanna take full advantage of all of the extra opportunity that exists when they are home.
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First of all, we aren't gonna pretend that the last few months didn't just happen in Congress.
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So if your member of Congress did something right in that process, be sure to thank them for that.
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And if they did something wrong, you need to let'em know that you're not happy.
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And that that has created problems that are now going to need fixing, and that in effect, you're going to expect them to help fix them.
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Generally speaking, your ask when you're in direct conversations with your members of Congress is gonna be whatever actions you've identified that they can take that will ensure that your services continue to be available to the people you serve.
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Super bottom line.
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That might involve appropriations.
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It might involve some other actions related to policy.
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You might also have an interest in an earmark, which goes by the name of Congressionally Directed Spending in the Senate and Community Project funding on the House side.
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Now, an earmark will not solve funding issues in terms of direct services to clients.
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That's not what earmarks are intended to do.
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But it might address some of the other financial needs that you have that would be appropriate under the rules.
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That would be a whole other episode at least, or maybe two, on all the details of how you pursue an earmark.
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But, if that's one of your asks, then you're gonna want to be prepared to have that conversation.
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And just a reminder on that, the window to apply for an earmark for FY 2026 closed in April.
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So if you don't already have a request in, you're looking ahead to FY 27 on that.
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Fundamentally, you want to get clear about what it is that you want them to do for you.
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You gotta start there.
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But the main thing is to craft messaging that's going to engage them and get through to them about the importance of their taking action to help the people you serve.
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And we're up against a lot with that.
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If it were easy, we'd all have everything we wanted from Congress.
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We just be like, Hey, look, this is what people need.
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And they say, awesome.
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Let me just help you with that here.
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What do you need?
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Let me give that to you.
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That'd be great if it worked that way.
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But as you are no doubt painfully aware, it doesn't.
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So we have some real engagement challenges to really get members of Congress in particular, to dial in on what's really needed.
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And then to motivate them to take action to do something about it.
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Hands down, program visits in particular are the place to do much more tailored and structured engagement and messaging in a quieter atmosphere with a really tight strategic focus about the exact message you want to convey.
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And it creates an opportunity for a unique level of engagement, which we'll talk about in a minute.
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So you figured out what it is you need this member of Congress to do for you.
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And then the next thing is to figure out what is it that you need that member of Congress to absolutely get about your program and about the work that you do and the impact that it has.
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To make it a no brainer for them to say yes to the thing that you want them to do.
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And part of the challenge with members of Congress, because they're kind of removed.
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You know, they're operating at a national level, they got a lot of stuff to pay attention to.
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And they often don't have a deep understanding of our work and its specific impact in any kind of detail.
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So the more we have them understanding that, the more they're likely to be on board with whatever it is we need them to do, to make sure that those services are able to continue at the highest quality and volume possible.
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But they have to get why that matters.
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So when you're talking about funding, they've gotta both get the impact of the federal funding you have had, and the impact that creates when that funding is disrupted.
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And just to be clear, we talk about this all the time, but it's not about the impact on your program.
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It's about the impact on the people you serve.
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Always stay focused on that.
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You can do an office visit if you can't get them to come to your program.
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But the best option is to get them to come to your program for a visit, where you can design a much more engaging experience.
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There's tons of detail about how to structure a highly strategic program visit in episode 31, which I recommend you go back and listen to if you're interested in doing this.
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But here are some highlights.
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The most important thing to understand about a program visit is that it is an engagement opportunity.
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It's an opportunity to fully engage a member of Congress in not only a two-way conversation, which you could have with them in their office, no problem.
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So it's not just about the conversation, it's also a two-way emotional experience.
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You're crafting an emotional experience and journey for them when you bring them to your program.
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And at the center of that emotional experience is going to be story.
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The story of the client experience is how you're gonna help the member of Congress understand whatever it is you need them to get, that you figured out is the thing they gotta get their head around so that they'll say yes.
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So you're designing an engagement experience with story at the center.
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And you want that engagement experience to be as hands-on and emotionally engaging as possible for the member of Congress.
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So you're not just taking'em on a tour and say, here's this part and here's that part, and here's where we do this thing, here's where we do that thing.
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And oh look, a participant.
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Let's say hi to the participant.
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You're not just having them meet a couple of participants or a couple of volunteers.
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You're designing the engagement experience that they're going to have at every one of those points in the process.
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Now, in addition to their emotions, the other thing you're gonna do is invite that member of Congress to engage their brain.
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And you can do that through a number of different techniques.
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You can ask them questions, ask them to speculate on a couple of things.
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And all of that is laid out in the strategic design process for a visit in episode 31.
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The whole visit experience is always guided by your strategic goal.
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What outcome do you want from this engagement?
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And how can you design an experience for the member of Congress that will lead them there?
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Ask yourself, what can they see that will drive home the key points of your message?
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What can they hear and from whom?
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What can they touch or do or experience, and how can you cause them to experience emotions in that process?
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And always remember that surprise is an emotion.
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So even if you help them observe or experience something they didn't expect, that they didn't know before, that they didn't understand before in the same way.
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That's all emotionally engaging.
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There's tremendous opportunity in a program visit that doesn't really exist in any other container, so use it for all it's worth.
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Now, if you're gonna do this, this is the boring part, but very essential.
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Getting on their schedule is the critical first step.
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If you haven't already done so, get on the phone to the scheduler in the district office and say, Hey, we understand that a district work period's coming up.
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We would really like for Representative or Senator so-and-so to come and visit our program, meet some of the people that we serve, et cetera, et cetera.
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How do we get on the schedule?
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And then they'll tell you in the local office whether they're scheduling from there or whether they want you to go through the scheduler in the DC office.
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If it's the DC office, they'll tell you who to talk to, and then you make a second phone call and you get that done.
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Then you can get to work on designing the visit.
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But get on their schedule right away.
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I know they're home for a little over five weeks on the House side, and hopefully a good four weeks on the Senate side.
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But stuff fills up fast.
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And they do take a little time off in there too.
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Go to the lake or whatever.
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Do a few other things besides meeting with constituents.
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So you wanna get right on that schedule.
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And if you can't get a program visit scheduled,'cause that's more time outta their schedule.
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Then ask to come and meet with them at their district office or wherever else, but preferably in an office setting.
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In that case, you still wanna structure your messaging in a way that is deeply engaging.
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You're just not gonna get to create the full 3D experience of your program visit.
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But you don't abandon all of your good engagement principles and messaging that goes with that when you go for an office visit.
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You just don't get to add all the bells and whistles that can come with a program visit.
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Now the other key opportunity for engagement is the town hall.
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But it serves a very different purpose, totally different animal.
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A lot of members of Congress have already announced plans for town halls during the August recess, and it's looking like a lot more are gonna be doing that soon.
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So definitely find out if your member of Congress is planning one.
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And if they are, make plans to show up and to bring a bunch of people with you.
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Town halls are a fantastic place for your clients, the people you serve, for your volunteers, for any member of the community who's involved in your work, and who feels strongly about it to come and make their voice heard in large numbers.
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Because part of what happens in these town hall dynamics is that when a member of the community speaks about a particular harm or concern that they're worried about.
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What very commonly occurs is that they're not the only person in the room who's feeling that way, who feels that that thing is important.
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And even if a dozen other people around them came to talk about some other concern.
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They get it that this is all tied together.
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And so the dynamic you start to get is that when one person raises a concern about one thing, the whole room says, yeah, that's really important.
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You need to do something about that.
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Even though they're there to talk about a different thing.
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So it's a way to rally the entire room to your cause simply by speaking up in a compelling and powerful way.
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And help your clients and supporters prepare to support that process.
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And have a plan for it, ideally.
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As always, you want to be clear about what your core message is, based on the member of Congress you're dealing with.
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But you need to tailor that messaging to the venue.
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Town halls are not the place to do a detailed walkthrough of your services or who you serve or your impact.
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Town halls are the place for a short, concise message about whatever you're focused on.
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So if there's a negative thing that has happened that you wanna draw attention to, like cuts to funding or other issues, then your messaging draws attention to the, profound impact that's having on the lives of members of the community.
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And you pair that with what you want to have happen instead.
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What you want that member of Congress to do about it.
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And we're talking two or three sentences, very tightly focused.
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And ideally what happens is you deliver that high impact message and then the whole room echoes it and says, yeah, that's right.
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That's important.
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We care about that too.
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That's your primary objective with the town hall is in large part to rally the whole room to your cause and to amplify your voice that way.
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It's also a really great experience for clients and volunteers who, if they choose to speak up and they want to speak publicly, to feel that support in the room.
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That's a pretty cool experience.
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But even if they don't want to be the spokesperson and they just want to be there as voices in the choir, that's cool too.
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Because they'll see you standing up for them, and that's pretty inspiring too.
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But what you're not trying to do in a town hall is have a deep and detailed discussion about the issues with your member of Congress.
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Those sessions aren't structured that way.
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That's what the visit to your program is for, or the office visit.
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So you wanna be super strategic about how you structure your messaging and your engagement and understand what each of these opportunities can do for you.
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And in a perfect world, you'll do more than one.
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But whatever you wanna do, it's time to get cracking.
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Because the district work periods are starting basically right now.
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So get on the schedule.
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Make your plan.
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Get prepped.
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Engage the clients and supporters that you want to have involved.
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Make an engagement plan, refine your messaging and go to it.
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Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share how to take full advantage of a congressional district work period coming soon to your neighborhood.
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So stay tuned.
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If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode because we've got an opportunity coming our way that is happening basically immediately.
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And I wanna make sure that you have everything you need to take full advantage of that opportunity.
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So what is this opportunity?
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Members of Congress, US Senators and House of Representative members are on their way home as we speak, for basically a month long recess, which is known in Congressional speak as a district work period.
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They all go home.
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They spend time with constituents, they meet with folks, they find out what's going on.
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They put their ear to the ground.
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For some of them they're actually home already starting to campaign for primaries for the 2026 election.
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So that means they're right there, easily accessible to you home in the district.
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On the House side they're gonna be there for a good five weeks.
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They're there for all of August plus the last week of July.
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The Senate will be off starting August 2nd through Labor Day, unless they get pulled back.
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There is some talk that they may actually stay in DC to deal with some judicial nominations that have been stalled.
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So we'll see how much time the senators actually get in their home states.
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But definitely the House is already home.
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So you have an opportunity to engage with them in a number of different ways.
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And I know.
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I hear you.
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You could be forgiven for thinking that you don't wanna see another member of Congress for as long as you live, given how they've been behaving as a body lately.
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But whoever you've got representing you, they're who you've got right now.
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And so even if we're displeased with them or frustrated with them, or some combination of the above, we still need to engage them.
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We still need them doing as much as possible on behalf of the people we serve and the work that we do.
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And for those of you who are lucky enough to be represented by progressive members of Congress who are actively working on behalf of good causes.
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That's wonderful.
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That makes your job a lot easier.
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But we need to engage all of them.
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The good news is that when they're home in their district, they're operating on a little bit different level.
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They really are focused on what's going on at home?
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What's going on with their constituents?
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How are people doing?
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How are they experiencing the world?
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What's happening?
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And you know, quite honestly, part of the reason they need to know that is so they can figure out how to get themselves reelected.
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It's also their job, but from a practical standpoint, they're also operating with that other concern.
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So their ears are a little more open, they're a little more receptive, generally speaking.
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When members of Congress are home in the district or the state, there are basically three major opportunities for you to engage with them.
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There's visits to your program, there's meeting with them in their local office, and there's town halls and other public forums.
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A lot of members of Congress have already scheduled town hall meetings for the August district work period, and they've announced them.
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So if that's going on in your state or your district and that's happening, you wanna make sure that you get that on your calendar right away and make plans to show up.
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And we'll talk about how you can show up at those town halls in a way that's gonna make the greatest impact.
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You may have some very specific asks or at least areas of concern that you want to raise with your member of Congress, particularly around funding.
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And I grant you that on the subject of federal funding, there has been to say the least, a lot to absorb in the last couple of months.
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With the reconciliation bill and then the trial balloon rescission bill, and now the fiscal 2026 appropriations process is well underway.
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There's a lot just recently happened and a lot still going on that has to do with what federal funding is going to look like going forward.
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If you're affiliated with a national advocacy organization or network that represents programs in your niche, in your area of work, I would assume that those national organizations have already reached out to you and let you know what their priorities and messaging are on a national basis for your issues.
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And that might very well include some things around appropriations as well as other legislative priorities.
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So take that into consideration and build from there.
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Now, I presume that you have been advocating for your federal funding with your members of Congress on an ongoing basis since at least the beginning of the year.
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But the thing about district work periods is that it's an opportunity for you to bring some of that messaging to life for them.
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And really engage them on a level that is very difficult to do from a distance.
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Or in a brief visit when you come to Washington for a Hill visit.
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So we wanna take full advantage of all of the extra opportunity that exists when they are home.
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First of all, we aren't gonna pretend that the last few months didn't just happen in Congress.
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So if your member of Congress did something right in that process, be sure to thank them for that.
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And if they did something wrong, you need to let'em know that you're not happy.
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And that that has created problems that are now going to need fixing, and that in effect, you're going to expect them to help fix them.
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Generally speaking, your ask when you're in direct conversations with your members of Congress is gonna be whatever actions you've identified that they can take that will ensure that your services continue to be available to the people you serve.
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Super bottom line.
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That might involve appropriations.
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It might involve some other actions related to policy.
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You might also have an interest in an earmark, which goes by the name of Congressionally Directed Spending in the Senate and Community Project funding on the House side.
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Now, an earmark will not solve funding issues in terms of direct services to clients.
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That's not what earmarks are intended to do.
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But it might address some of the other financial needs that you have that would be appropriate under the rules.
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That would be a whole other episode at least, or maybe two, on all the details of how you pursue an earmark.
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But, if that's one of your asks, then you're gonna want to be prepared to have that conversation.
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And just a reminder on that, the window to apply for an earmark for FY 2026 closed in April.
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So if you don't already have a request in, you're looking ahead to FY 27 on that.
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Fundamentally, you want to get clear about what it is that you want them to do for you.
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You gotta start there.
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But the main thing is to craft messaging that's going to engage them and get through to them about the importance of their taking action to help the people you serve.
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And we're up against a lot with that.
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If it were easy, we'd all have everything we wanted from Congress.
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We just be like, Hey, look, this is what people need.
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And they say, awesome.
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Let me just help you with that here.
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What do you need?
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Let me give that to you.
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That'd be great if it worked that way.
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But as you are no doubt painfully aware, it doesn't.
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So we have some real engagement challenges to really get members of Congress in particular, to dial in on what's really needed.
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And then to motivate them to take action to do something about it.
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Hands down, program visits in particular are the place to do much more tailored and structured engagement and messaging in a quieter atmosphere with a really tight strategic focus about the exact message you want to convey.
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And it creates an opportunity for a unique level of engagement, which we'll talk about in a minute.
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So you figured out what it is you need this member of Congress to do for you.
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And then the next thing is to figure out what is it that you need that member of Congress to absolutely get about your program and about the work that you do and the impact that it has.
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To make it a no brainer for them to say yes to the thing that you want them to do.
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And part of the challenge with members of Congress, because they're kind of removed.
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You know, they're operating at a national level, they got a lot of stuff to pay attention to.
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And they often don't have a deep understanding of our work and its specific impact in any kind of detail.
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So the more we have them understanding that, the more they're likely to be on board with whatever it is we need them to do, to make sure that those services are able to continue at the highest quality and volume possible.
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But they have to get why that matters.
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So when you're talking about funding, they've gotta both get the impact of the federal funding you have had, and the impact that creates when that funding is disrupted.
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And just to be clear, we talk about this all the time, but it's not about the impact on your program.
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It's about the impact on the people you serve.
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Always stay focused on that.
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You can do an office visit if you can't get them to come to your program.
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But the best option is to get them to come to your program for a visit, where you can design a much more engaging experience.
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There's tons of detail about how to structure a highly strategic program visit in episode 31, which I recommend you go back and listen to if you're interested in doing this.
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But here are some highlights.
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The most important thing to understand about a program visit is that it is an engagement opportunity.
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It's an opportunity to fully engage a member of Congress in not only a two-way conversation, which you could have with them in their office, no problem.
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So it's not just about the conversation, it's also a two-way emotional experience.
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You're crafting an emotional experience and journey for them when you bring them to your program.
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And at the center of that emotional experience is going to be story.
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The story of the client experience is how you're gonna help the member of Congress understand whatever it is you need them to get, that you figured out is the thing they gotta get their head around so that they'll say yes.
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So you're designing an engagement experience with story at the center.
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And you want that engagement experience to be as hands-on and emotionally engaging as possible for the member of Congress.
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So you're not just taking'em on a tour and say, here's this part and here's that part, and here's where we do this thing, here's where we do that thing.
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And oh look, a participant.
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Let's say hi to the participant.
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You're not just having them meet a couple of participants or a couple of volunteers.
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You're designing the engagement experience that they're going to have at every one of those points in the process.
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Now, in addition to their emotions, the other thing you're gonna do is invite that member of Congress to engage their brain.
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And you can do that through a number of different techniques.
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You can ask them questions, ask them to speculate on a couple of things.
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And all of that is laid out in the strategic design process for a visit in episode 31.
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The whole visit experience is always guided by your strategic goal.
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What outcome do you want from this engagement?
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And how can you design an experience for the member of Congress that will lead them there?
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Ask yourself, what can they see that will drive home the key points of your message?
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What can they hear and from whom?
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What can they touch or do or experience, and how can you cause them to experience emotions in that process?
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And always remember that surprise is an emotion.
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So even if you help them observe or experience something they didn't expect, that they didn't know before, that they didn't understand before in the same way.
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That's all emotionally engaging.
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There's tremendous opportunity in a program visit that doesn't really exist in any other container, so use it for all it's worth.
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Now, if you're gonna do this, this is the boring part, but very essential.
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Getting on their schedule is the critical first step.
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If you haven't already done so, get on the phone to the scheduler in the district office and say, Hey, we understand that a district work period's coming up.
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We would really like for Representative or Senator so-and-so to come and visit our program, meet some of the people that we serve, et cetera, et cetera.
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How do we get on the schedule?
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And then they'll tell you in the local office whether they're scheduling from there or whether they want you to go through the scheduler in the DC office.
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If it's the DC office, they'll tell you who to talk to, and then you make a second phone call and you get that done.
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Then you can get to work on designing the visit.
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But get on their schedule right away.
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I know they're home for a little over five weeks on the House side, and hopefully a good four weeks on the Senate side.
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But stuff fills up fast.
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And they do take a little time off in there too.
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Go to the lake or whatever.
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Do a few other things besides meeting with constituents.
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So you wanna get right on that schedule.
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And if you can't get a program visit scheduled,'cause that's more time outta their schedule.
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Then ask to come and meet with them at their district office or wherever else, but preferably in an office setting.
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In that case, you still wanna structure your messaging in a way that is deeply engaging.
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You're just not gonna get to create the full 3D experience of your program visit.
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But you don't abandon all of your good engagement principles and messaging that goes with that when you go for an office visit.
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You just don't get to add all the bells and whistles that can come with a program visit.
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Now the other key opportunity for engagement is the town hall.
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But it serves a very different purpose, totally different animal.
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A lot of members of Congress have already announced plans for town halls during the August recess, and it's looking like a lot more are gonna be doing that soon.
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So definitely find out if your member of Congress is planning one.
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And if they are, make plans to show up and to bring a bunch of people with you.
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Town halls are a fantastic place for your clients, the people you serve, for your volunteers, for any member of the community who's involved in your work, and who feels strongly about it to come and make their voice heard in large numbers.
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Because part of what happens in these town hall dynamics is that when a member of the community speaks about a particular harm or concern that they're worried about.
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What very commonly occurs is that they're not the only person in the room who's feeling that way, who feels that that thing is important.
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And even if a dozen other people around them came to talk about some other concern.
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They get it that this is all tied together.
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And so the dynamic you start to get is that when one person raises a concern about one thing, the whole room says, yeah, that's really important.
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You need to do something about that.
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Even though they're there to talk about a different thing.
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So it's a way to rally the entire room to your cause simply by speaking up in a compelling and powerful way.
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And help your clients and supporters prepare to support that process.
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And have a plan for it, ideally.
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As always, you want to be clear about what your core message is, based on the member of Congress you're dealing with.
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But you need to tailor that messaging to the venue.
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Town halls are not the place to do a detailed walkthrough of your services or who you serve or your impact.
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Town halls are the place for a short, concise message about whatever you're focused on.
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So if there's a negative thing that has happened that you wanna draw attention to, like cuts to funding or other issues, then your messaging draws attention to the, profound impact that's having on the lives of members of the community.
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And you pair that with what you want to have happen instead.
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What you want that member of Congress to do about it.
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And we're talking two or three sentences, very tightly focused.
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And ideally what happens is you deliver that high impact message and then the whole room echoes it and says, yeah, that's right.
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That's important.
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We care about that too.
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That's your primary objective with the town hall is in large part to rally the whole room to your cause and to amplify your voice that way.
00:18:20.102 --> 00:18:30.574
It's also a really great experience for clients and volunteers who, if they choose to speak up and they want to speak publicly, to feel that support in the room.
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That's a pretty cool experience.
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But even if they don't want to be the spokesperson and they just want to be there as voices in the choir, that's cool too.
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Because they'll see you standing up for them, and that's pretty inspiring too.
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But what you're not trying to do in a town hall is have a deep and detailed discussion about the issues with your member of Congress.
00:18:50.959 --> 00:18:52.878
Those sessions aren't structured that way.
00:18:53.378 --> 00:18:56.739
That's what the visit to your program is for, or the office visit.
00:18:57.669 --> 00:19:06.249
So you wanna be super strategic about how you structure your messaging and your engagement and understand what each of these opportunities can do for you.
00:19:06.749 --> 00:19:09.148
And in a perfect world, you'll do more than one.
00:19:09.648 --> 00:19:12.665
But whatever you wanna do, it's time to get cracking.
00:19:12.766 --> 00:19:17.248
Because the district work periods are starting basically right now.
00:19:18.087 --> 00:19:19.884
So get on the schedule.
00:19:20.125 --> 00:19:21.265
Make your plan.
00:19:21.744 --> 00:19:22.674
Get prepped.
00:19:22.974 --> 00:19:26.777
Engage the clients and supporters that you want to have involved.
00:19:27.406 --> 00:19:31.894
Make an engagement plan, refine your messaging and go to it.
00:19:32.508 --> 00:19:37.637
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
