By Brad Fitch

Conducting a fly-in with your supporters or members can be one of the most difficult, challenging, pull-your-hair-out part of a government relations job.   Actually, conducting a fly-in is like doing three things at once:  directing a play, hosting a party, and running an election campaign.  It has the “directing a play” aspects, in that you often have to line up speakers and stage aspects of a one or two-day event.  It has certain “party” features, such as finalizing attendee list and organizing meals.

But the most important part of a fly-in is the “election” aspect: getting a majority of a target audience (Congress or a state legislature) to SUPPORT your position.  Yet the logistical demands of the event often overcrowd the primary purpose of the fly-in.

The Knowlegis suite includes the Advocacy Event Manager, which helps our customers manage their fly-ins and stay focused on their legislative goals. In working with them, we’ve learned some best practices:

• Establish Clear Goals: It’s important that your whole team, and all attendees, understand how success will be measured. Is it getting 20 additional cosponsors to a bill? Getting 50 legislators to support funding for an initiative?  If everyone is on the same page, a successful outcome is more likely.

• Quality Assurance of Meeting Arrangements: Some groups set up meetings for their supporters, others have the supporters do it.  In either case, you need to ensure that all the details have been covered.  Make sure supporters don’t schedule too many meetings in a day, and that they know exactly who they’ll be meeting with.

• Teach Civics 101 to Attendees: Even fly-in veterans need a reminder of best practices for meeting with legislators, especially those targeting Congress.  Remind them of the do’s and don’ts for these meetings.

• Prepare Attendees for the Environment: For many participants, this will be their first visit to Congress or a state legislature.  It is important for attendees to be prepared, as legislators schedule 10-15 meetings a day, in 15-minute blocks

• Encourage Attendees to Build Relationships with Staff: Staff play a significant role in the policy process, especially in Washington, D.C.  Your supporters’ meetings with staff is not just an opportunity to lobby them today, they are a chance to develop a relationship to be activated again tomorrow.

• Get Total Feedback from Attendees: Without feedback from attendees, government relations professionals lose a valuable accountability opportunity.  If your supporter doesn’t tell you that the congressman agreed to vote for your bill, how can you later hold his feet to the fire or thank him for his support?

Brad Fitch is the CEO and co-founder of Knowlegis. For more details or a product demonstration of Knowlegis online suite of data and tools, please call  at 703. 289. 9816.