impact chemistry

Women In Government Relations:

The CMF Report & Your Advocacy Efforts

Anne DeSeta Darconte

December 2, 2008

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• What Characterizes the CMF Model?– Trustworthy– Authentic– Effective– Efficient

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Grassroots Advocacy is Experiencing a Paradigm Shift in Approach

• What about Technology?

• Back to Basics

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Paradigm Shift– Variety– Targeted– Long-term– Quality

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Paradigm Shift: Variety– Strategy v. Tactics– Quality v Quantity (grasstops/grassroots)– Balance Methods of Outreach– Can a coalition help broaden the

perspective and/or the reach?– Personal is always valuable!

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Paradigm Shift: Targeted– Who do you need for success?– Freshmen Education – ongoing effort for

veteran members too!– Lobbying/Grassroots Coordination– Relationships, Relationships,

Relationships!

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Paradigm Shift: Long-Term– Today’s Freshman is Tomorrow’s Speaker

(or Majority Leader, or Whip, etc.)– Education

• Your Perspective• Your Opposition’s Perspective

– Train Your Activists!

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Paradigm Shift: Quality– Traditionally, quantity was a critical

measure of success– Who is reading what?– Personal Messages and Impacts– Become the Go-To Expert!

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• What about technology?– Grassroots has traditionally been a

people and relationships business– Software for email blasts has altered our

practice– Have we gotten lax?

CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• What about technology? (cont’d)– Is our audience of decision-makers

paying attention?– Do they have the capability to weed

through or process our messages?– Is technology more a recruitment tool or a

communications tool?– I struggle with this!

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Technology - Look at CMF Proposed Model– Aggregate messages (subject, bill

number)– View screen shots of info captured in

CMF-proposed aggregated dashboard model

– Is this the solution?

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Remember the Basics– Relationships, Relationships

Relationships!– Personal Stories and Impacts– Capital v District– GOTV implications

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CMF & Your Advocacy Efforts

• Final Thoughts– Our profession’s future and method(s) of

practice are inseparable from this discussion

– Get and stay engaged in this discussion and in relevant forums with CMF

– Drive the solutions