Advocacy Tip of the Month, March 2007

Attend a Spring Town Hall Meeting

The most effective method of influencing members of Congress is an in-person meeting. Their Spring District Work Period in early April is a great time for you and your colleagues to discuss international education issues with your elected official at a town hall or other local meeting. Because members of Congress and their staff hold these events for the purpose of meeting constituents and learning about their issues, attending a local meeting is an easy and effective way for you to bring the value of international education to your policymakers' attention. The more your member knows about the importance of our issues, the more likely they will provide legislative support in the future.

At these events you can ask questions or simply introduce yourself to your member of Congress and tell him/her about your university’s activities and issues. When speaking with your member, be specific about the impact of international education on your institution. Tell them how many students you are sending abroad this year or the number of international students currently at your school. Or better yet, bring study abroad alumni along with you so they can share their personal experience first-hand. Give the member of Congress a copy of NAFSA’s Agenda for the 110th Congress and your state’s Economic Impact Statement to demonstrate your state’s share of the $13.5 billion that international students contributed to the U.S. economy in 2005-2006.

You can find out about any scheduled town hall meetings in your area by contacting your Representative's local office or by emailing Kari Lantos, Associate Director for Grassroots Advocacy at grassroots[at]nafsa.org. Contact information for your Representatives local office can be retrieved by entering your zip code in the 'Congress and President' section of the Take Action Center.

Action Steps:

1. Prepare for attending a local meeting by reviewing 10 Strategies for Using Town Hall Meetings to Advance Your Legislative Agenda (Source: Knowlegis).

2. Report back on your experiences. Let us know if you had any success educating your elected officials about international education issues. E-mail grassroots[at]nafsa.org to share your experiences.

3. Complete your ACT profile if you haven't already done so. Take a few minutes to review your ACT profile at www.nafsa.org/act to ensure you indicated which of nine issue areas that you want to receive action alerts about. NAFSA wants to ensure that members only receive action alerts on their designated interest areas and many people have not yet selected these areas.


View previous issues in the Tip of the Month Digest
The Advocacy Tip of the Month is meant to help further your knowledge of grassroots advocacy while offering tips to effectively engage your elected officials. Each month, we will give you information on the tip with action steps to take relating to that month’s tip. This information is distributed to all registered users of ACT and posted in NAFSA.news.