Priorities and Principles

One of the hardest things to do is to determine your organization's policy agenda. You hear the same questions pop up -

• What if people become upset?
• What are the issues?
• What do we address first?
• What is politically possible?

You can address each question, and spend hours going in circles not making any progress. Alternatively you can follow a path to get the answers to these, and other questions, that will define your road to success.

WHAT IS OUR MISSION?

The first question you have to ask is, what is the mission of your organization? Your policies should mirror your mission. If your organization's mission is to improve business opportunities, consider what hindrances exist for businesses.

Identify 3 major policy objectives that accompany your organization's mission. In the above example, you could consider suggestions along the lines of:

1. Support legislation that encourages business attraction and job creation.
2. Work to abandon policies that have proven ineffective or have been obstructions to business growth.
3. Create opportunities for businesses to connect with local employment bases.

These three models offer opportunity to define your policy priorities based off of your organization's mission, which will help grow the support of people affiliated with your organization.

What Issues Might Affect Us?

There are many ways to find out what legislative proposals might affect your organization.

• You could look to similar organizations to see what their concerns are.
  
• You could look to industry organizations you work with to see their priorities
• You could follow and track legislation manually
• You could hire a lobbyist, or a political tracking firm to follow issues.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you know what you need to be involved with, and try not to over extend yourself. Many bills are introduced, very few become laws, and only some of those are going to have a real impact on your daily procedures.

What Can We Offer?

Your organization wants to make a difference. So do so. Identify some laws that could change to make things better, and bring them forward. Build a team of supporting organizations. Make your positions clear as to why you are interested in these issues, and what the benefit to everyone would be if your position were adopted. Make others want to buy into your vision.

Who Are Our Champions?

No matter how good your organization is, you are going to need help. If for no other reason than you can't introduce a bill in the legislature unless you are elected to do so!

Identify some key politicians that can be your supporters, your champions, and arm them with the information to help them be successful on your issue.

By the way, you should do all you can to help showcase their success with your issue as well. Not only is it nice to be recognized, the more recognition one politician gets, the more the other politicians are going to want that recognition as well! So do press conferences, events, and promotional efforts to show what a great job that elected official did for you!

What Could We Do Next?

Success breeds success. As people buy into and see your vision, bring them along. Make sure they see your long term vision, what you could eventually do if given the opportunity, and why others would want you to succeed. There is always something that could be improved upon, and you are the right organization to make that happen.

WHAT IF...?

Everything else is circumstantial. You may not be able to introduce laws in the order, or to the extent you'd like to see them go in your first swing, but that doesn't mean you aren't doing the right thing. And if people get upset that you are having success... its because they are disappointed in the results of their own efforts, don't sweat it!

Your job is to WIN, not worry about other people's feelings.