Legislative Action Training For Librarians
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A presentation for the California Library Association’s Legislative Committee to train librarians to build connections with local and state legislators and leaders of power organizations. This training was developed more specifically to help California Librarians learn how they can support the efforts of CLA around statewide legislative action. It encompasses aspects of EveryLibrary’s “Librarian as a Candidate Training,” as well as EveryLibrary’s “Successful Legislative Day Training.” For more information on EveryLibrary visit everylibrary.org and to work with PC Sweeney to develop a political training for your library or library organization, visit pcsweeney.com
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Legislative Action Training For Librarians
- 1. Legislative Action Training Patrick “PC” Sweeney Political Director EveryLibrary
- 2. Libraryland Ecosystem Building voter support for libraries
- 3. EveryLibrary’s Successes Building voter support for libraries
- 4. Why Build Relationships with Legislators
- 5. What little data we have is great! Building voter support for libraries
- 6. Civic Attitudes ● 94% of Parents say libraries are important for their children. 79% say “very important”. 2 ● 58% of Americans have a library card. 3 ● 62% of card holders have visited the library in the last year at least once.4 2. Pew, May 2013 3 and 4. Harris Interactive | ALA, January 2011 Building voter support for libraries
- 7. Voter Attitudes Nationwide, of all voters: 37% will Definitely vote yes for the library 37% will Probably vote yes for the library 26% will Probably or Definitely vote no or may vote either way. Building voter support for libraries
- 8. Party Affiliation Doesn’t Matter Building voter support for libraries
- 9. Library Card Stats Don’t Matter Building voter support for libraries
- 10. Library Use Doesn’t Matter Building voter support for libraries
- 11. What Does Matter Building voter support for libraries
- 13. What do politicians respond to? Building voter support for libraries
- 14. What can we get? Building voter support for libraries
- 15. Fears?
- 17. The Staff person • First person you meet • Makes the appointments • Puts you on the agenda Building voter support for libraries
- 18. Guiding Principle: The Haycock Rule
- 19. Guiding Principle: Dred Pirate Roberts
- 21. —it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working i the system.” (Alinsky, 1971)
- 22. Your Supplies
- 23. Do your Homework
- 24. Understand their district and issues
- 27. 27-9-3
- 28. Stories of Impact Building voter support for libraries
- 31. Take a Breath
- 33. Handshakes
- 35. Eye Contact
- 36. Body language
- 37. Ask Open Ended Questions
- 38. Listen
- 39. Don’t force your views on them
- 40. Handling Opposition - Your Goal
- 43. Following up
- 44. This is not the end….
- 47. Data
- 48. Help Us Grow Building voter support for libraries
- 49. Surfacing
- 51. Email Lists
- 53. Houseparties
- 54. Letters
- 57. Legislative Day Training Patrick “PC” Sweeney Political Director EveryLibrary
Editor's Notes
- 98% of library funding comes from the local level and completely dependent on local ballot issues and local politics. Your local voters matter most. When votes are that important, why aren’t we talking about it?!?!
- People’s relationship and feelings about the library and librarian are what matters. How do people feel about the library, how do they engage with the library? The key is building relationships to the community and understanding them and their beleifs and they way they use the library. This is what drives funding and allows us to do the things we want to do in a library.
- Which can we expect to get? People – how do we get more people on our side? This is why I talk about library marketing in terms of community organizing and not in terms of sales.
- Make the staffer your best friend- They probably did 90% of the work for setting up the meeting. They can get you in, they can get you in front of the politician, they have a large amount of power to help you get what you want
- Bring your business cards, set your phone to silent, bring a notebook and pen and your notes, bring your takeaways- if you bring a bag- Make sure its tidy and organized and don’t spend time rifling through it looking for something
- Find out about the representative before you walk in. Know the issues that they care about. What did they run on? Find out what committees they are on. What is important in their district. Learn the names of their staff
- Don’t give out stats, give out stories – Joe the Plumber
- Ask for something
- Before entering a party, take a second and take a deep breath and relax
- Be on point when you first meet someone. Smile, handshake etc.. All the judgements you make etc…
- Positive attitude
- If the boss looks at you longer than at your co-workers during conversations or meetings, it may be a sign your star is rising. A growing body of research shows eye contact signals status and influence in both one-on-one conversations and group meetings … People who are seen as lacking in influence, however, get less eye contact from influential participants in meetings, according to another study published in 2010 in the ‘Journal of Nonverbal Behavior.’ The pattern is strongest among male bosses … The most dominant person in a small group spends more time speaking than others, and also looks longer at others when speaking, the study says. Gazing into others’ eyes is a way of dominating the conversation. High-status women use even more eye contact than men to establish their dominance during meetings, the study says … High-status women tend to be more democratic than men, dividing their eye contact equally among all other participants in a group. High-status men tended to spend more time looking at other high-status participants.” HAVE THEM STARE INTO EACH OTHER’S EYES FOR ONE MINUTE
- Slouching, looking away, folding arms, looking down (it loses all of its effect), angling body away from other people looks like you are ready to leave, touching or fondling hair or face (people who are lying are more likely to touch their face), glancing at the clock, frowning or scowling.
- Have them make a list of open-ended questions. Ask them what they care about.
- Listening is the best strength you can have because it allows for follow up questions and follow up questions are key to a good conversation
- Connect to their views with librarianship
- its ok for them to disagree, your goal isn’t to turn them into passionate library lovers. For oppositional politicians or even citizens, the goal is to turn them from vocal opposition to silent opposition. They can can disagree as long as they don’t tell anyone about it or tell other people to disagree.
- Don’t argue or be combative, don’t give them a reason to fight with you, Always smile, be polite and be attentive to their concerns - their concerns matter and make them feel like their concerns matter. Don’t attack them or give them a reason to take it personally or defend themselves personally
- Lessons from improve- Let them finish their concerns and listen to what they are saying then agree that its an important issue then bring it back to the message. I understand what you are saying Take 10 minutes and imagine someone saying something off the opposition list and what would you say to get back? Statement: “The library tax will be yet another tax that small business owners can’t afford to pay.” Response: I understand the great burden placed on small business owners AND that’s why we provide so many resources that make being a small business owner easier and help small business own access the resources that only large companies can afford Statement: “The internet has everything that I could find at the library.” Response: The internet is a great source of information AND that’s why we want to increase the community’s access to it and add value to what you get from it. Statement: “I don’t want to pay more taxes” Response: I understand that taxes are high AND that is why it’s so important to me to provide services to the community that help bring the cost of living down and the value of the community up. Statement: “We don’t need a new library.” Response: We know that people love the old library and everything that it provides to the community AND that’s why it’s so important to us that we continue to provide the services of the old library and the kinds of services that you deserve in a modern age.
- Take notes on what you talked about.
- The most important thing to remember is this is the beginning of a relationship, not the end. Think of ways to build and strengthen that relationship. Invite them to photo-ops with kids. Invite them to give a speech at a library function. Send them emails about library news (not the newsletter but tailored to them) or send them your annual report. Senator story time. Politicians are always looking for a way to get into the community, give them that opportunity and build your relationship with them. 5-10 minutes - 3 ideas to invite them to your library or help build your relationship.
- SCA-3 if it passes, will go before the voters. If it doesn’t pass, we still need to build these relationships with our legislators. We need to start building action now, so that we can use those resources later. The campaign starts today no matter when the election is.
- What does a state-wide campaign look-like
- Which can we expect to get? People – how do we get more people on our side? This is why I talk about library marketing in terms of community organizing and not in terms of sales.
- We are currently in the surfacing phase of this campaign and it starts with you
- Don’t expect politicians to be engaged from the beginning. They need to be walked there. That’s why your goal is a relationship.