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MEANINGFUL CONSTITUENT CONTACT ACTION STEPSMEANINGFUL CONSTITUENT CONTACT ACTION STEPS

Communicate Effectively with your Constituents

Assign Staff or Volunteers to Each Constituency

Despite the best of intentions, many groups do not get the attention they deserve because no one is assigned to build and maintain the relationship with them. Be deliberate about this by assigning a staff person, a key volunteer or a member of your family (or yourself!) to be a liaison with each community you consider important to your agenda. See the graphic of a Constituent Outreach map (below) that demonstrates how you can build on relationships to access networks of constituents that currently have no contact with your office.

 

 

Constituent Contact Plan Outline

Regular, ongoing contact with your constituents is key to remaining accountable to your district, increasing transparency in government, and keeping voters happy with the job you're doing. This requires multiple, varied forms of communication that should be planned out to maximize impact and make sure you are accessible to all constituents. See below for a sample constituent contact plan template. Use the sample communication strategies below to craft your own plan tailored to your community.
A. Lit and Letters - How will you communicate with your constituents through the mail, given your budget? Think about the following options:

  1. Questionnaire - Many elected officials send an issue questionnaire to constituents at the beginning of a legislative session or beginning of their term. In general, this does more to make the elected official appear to be accessible to constituents than actually gauge constituent attitudes. Use a questionnaire in conjunction with other means of follow up and outreach.
  2. Targeted Mailings - elected officials may send issue-specific literature to constituents that have expressed an interest in that issue through the course of the campaign season and through constituent contact with your office.
  3. New Resident Welcome Letter - elected officials may frequently obtain lists of new residents to the district from city/town halls. Send a welcome letter to these new constituents welcoming them to the community and providing a brief introduction to your office and an invitation to contact you at any time. This can also be paired with a personal phone call. If you have a database of all residents in the district, such as a voter file, be sure to update it to reflect these new constituents.
  4. Follow up Letter - any constituent who contacts your office on a particular issue should receive a note alerting them to progress on that issue, thanking them for their thoughts, and asking them for help if appropriate by shoring up more community support.
  5. Congratulatory Letters - when you learn of any significant achievement by individuals or organizations in your district, send a note to acknowledge it. Monitor local papers and gather information from key constituent leaders for this information.
  6. Responding to Constituent Contact - all constituent letters, emails, and phone calls should be acknowledged and responded to appropriately.
  7. Doorknock/Event Hand out Pieces - for face-to-face contact with constituents, you may doorknock from time to time. Prepare a small (quarter page) piece with basic contact information, your issue priorities, and an invitation to contact your office.

B. Forums - Forums are an excellent way to make yourself accessible and learn more about what issues are of concern to your community
  1. General - Free-form events to hear constituent concerns
  2. Issue focused - particularly relevant or pressing issues to the district may demand a forum focused specifically on that issue. Do these in collaboration with organizations or active constituents that are leaders on the issue, and be sure to time them in advance of key committee hearings or votes on relevant legislation.
  3. Constituency focused - target forums to specific constituencies as part of a broad effort to engage people from key communities in your district, particularly under-represented constituencies, and engage them in the political process. Be sure to pay attention when planning these forums that they are accessible to the targeted constituency - geographically (where do people congregate?), culturally (do you need an interpreter?), and logistically (during a time of day when people are available?)

C. Media - It is much easier to get earned media as an elected official than a candidate. Use it to influence the public debate.

1. Newspapers

  • Publish opinion pieces in community paper
  • Send or have volunteers send letters to the editor in support of you or your agenda
  • Send press releases out about forums, events at the legislature, etc.
  • Take photos at community events and send them to local papers to keep on file

2. Public Access TV
  • Encourage cable access stations to cover and broadcast community events where you are present

D. Community outreach - Use your office to build your base of supporters and reach out to those not typically involved in the political process
  1. Community events - have a presence at important community events and identify constituents who can be leaders on issues you are working on.
  2. Community group meetings (Neighborhood Associations, PTAs, American Legion, student groups, etc.)
  3. Doorknocking - face to face conversations with constituents is important, and sometimes you'll need to go to them. Doorknock in an area in advance of public events or before major legislative or policy decisions. Track these conversations in your database.

E. Website and E-mail - It's important to have an online presence and be able to get information to constituents quickly and cheaply
  1. E-mail newsletter - regularly update constituents via email on recent/upcoming votes, key issues up for debate, and your positions on those issues. Promote email list and collect email addresses at community events.
  2. Website - provide key contact information, position statements, news and updates, etc.
  3. Social Networking sites - use myspace, Facebook, etc to reach a demographic that can be very hard to communicate with through traditional means.

F. Databases - Just as you would for a campaign, figure out how you will track and manage different types of constituent contact.
  1. Volunteer database - maintain your campaign volunteer database, keeping it up to date with volunteers from your constituent base.
  2. Voterfile - maintain your campaign voterfile, keep it up to date and use it to target mailings based on issue interest.
  3. New residents - keep an up-to-date list of all new residents, including the basic biographical information available from city/town hall, the month they were added to the list, the date a welcome letter was sent, and any notes.
  4. Constituent contact - track contact with your office and include an identification number so that such information can be integrated into other databases when need be.