ACTION PLAYBOOK:
Meet With Your Elected Official
Request a meeting with your elected official, then start preparing for a productive conversation.
Step 1: Start with a speed training
Constituent meetings with elected officials might sound intimidating at first, but they don’t have to be! The more you know about what to expect, the easier it will be. You do not need any prior experience, and someone on Climate Changemakers staff will support you to go in prepared.
The first step in that preparation is completing the constituent meeting training linked below. Please complete the training if this will be your first meeting with Climate Changemakers, even if you’ve participated in constituent meetings with other organizations.
Note that this training was designed for meeting with congressional staff, which is often a more formal experience than meeting with state or local officials, where the experience varies greatly. It’s still useful —at worst, you’ll be over-prepared!
Step 2: Select an elected official & find their contact info
Decide which elected official you’d like to meet with. This playbook can be used for any elected official at any level of government. Common targets include:
Members of Congress
State Legislators
Mayors
City Councillors
Enter your address in the usa.gov database. Write down the phone number, email, and social media handle for your elected official. You may have to click through to their official website to find all the contact info!
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State Legislators: You should have state senator(s) and a state assembly member (also called a “representative” or “delegate” in some states).
If you live in Nebraska, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, you only have one representative in the state legislature.
If you live in Washington D.C., there is no state legislature, so pick a different level of government or a state where you formerly lived or have close ties.
County Officials: Every county is different, so look for titles like County Commissioner, County Executive, County Administrator, etc.
Heads up: Some states don’t have counties at all, or the county exists but completely overlaps with the city. If you don’t see any results, try Googling [name of your county] + county commissioner or alternative to county government. If that doesn’t work, pick a different level of government or a state where you formerly lived or have close ties.
City/Municipal Officials: Every municipality is different, but look for your mayor and/or city council member(s). You can ignore the other local officials. And don’t worry if you don’t see a mayor listed, some cities don’t have one.
If you have a uniform town council that is not subdivided by district, you can contact any city council member(s) you want! If you don’t see any results, try Googling [name of your city/town] + mayor/city council.
Step 3: Get to know their priorities & record on climate action
The ultimate goal of a constituent meeting is to build an authentic relationship with the elected official or the staffer. This starts by learning more about them. When you know what issues they care about and their history of climate action, you can tailor your outreach to resonate with them personally.
Follow this worksheet to research your elected official:
Pro tip: Save the file to your computer so you can add to it over time. Build it out with research on other elected officials, and update it as you learn new information.
Step 4: Request a meeting
Once you know which elected official you want to meet with, it’s time to request your meeting.
There are 3 ways to go about this:
Email an existing contact: If you’ve already corresponded with someone in the office, reach out to them directly. This is typically most efficient.
Submit a webform: Some elected officials (usually members of Congress or very organized state legislators) have a meeting request form on their website. Poke around on their site to see if yours hasone.
Call the office: Call their office during business hours and say these magic words: I am a constituent who would like to request a meeting with [elected official] or staff to discuss climate issues. If you don’t speak to a live staffer, leave a voicemail and follow up with a short email.
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Location: In the post-COVID era, constituent meetings can happen on Zoom, in person in the district, or in person at the capitol. Suggest whichever method you prefer and can reasonably do. All options are equally effective, and research shows that elected officials and staff don’t have a preference.
Date: Expect to meet at least two weeks out, if not three or four. Float some dates you know you are available, but get ready to work around your elected official’s busy schedule. Weekdays and weekends are both fair game.
Process: If scheduling via phone, the staffer may schedule the meeting on the spot, or they may prefer to coordinate over email.
What to say: Don’t start making policy arguments during your scheduling request conversation! Be brief, direct, and courteous. Save the substantive conversation for the meeting.
Follow-up: If you don’t hear back after a few days, send a polite follow-up email or call to bump up your request. If it’s still crickets after your second nudge (three attempts), try a different number/email or move on to one of your other elected officials.
Step 5: Recruit up to 4 fellow changemakers to join you.
Your group should be small and intimate — and everyone should be a constituent. There are up to 5 speaking roles (1 facilitator, 1 correspondent, and up to 3 storytellers) in a constituent meeting, though one person can easily do all of them successfully. Additional constituents are welcome to join but should mostly listen.
Invite fellow changemakers to join you by posting in the #action-constituent-meetings channel and the #us-regional channels in Slack. Here’s a sample message:
I’m scheduling a constituent meeting with [elected official] about [topic]! Would anyone else in [relevant city, district, or state] like to join? Respond in the thread and I’ll loop you in on prep!
Friends and neighbors outside the Changemakers community can join, too! They just need to read & sign the constituent meeting training before getting looped into the prep sequence below.
Step 6: Prepare your meeting materials
Whether or not your meeting is confirmed yet, you can start planning. Nearly all of the prep work will happen in two Google Docs that cover much of the same information, just presented and formatted differently.
Document 1: The Leave-Behind: A 1-2 page document to share with your elected official at the end of the meeting. It should summarize all that you covered at the meeting and include links or resources to learn more.
Document 2: The Meeting Outline: An internal document that you and your group will use during the meeting to coordinate roles, share talking points, and take notes.
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Use these resources to personalize your meeting outline and leave-behind.
NOAA State Climate Summaries: An amazing resource that not only provides state-specific climate impact data but also narratives and key messages that can be integrated into your outreach.
Climate Costs 2040: For coastal districts, calculate how much taxpayers will be on the hook for building seawalls alone.
Yale Climate Opinion Maps: Use the drop-down menu to sort by survey question and the buttons on the left side of the map to see congressional districts. Pay particular attention to the questions “Worried about global warming” and “Congress should do more to address global warming,” and then try to choose a question relevant to the issue you’re advocating for.
Data for Progress: View district- and state-level data on “Support for congressional climate action.” (Make sure it is selected from the drop-down menu on the bottom).
Climate Opportunity Map: Shows projected job creation and cost savings by congressional district.
Key stakeholders (Google search): See if you can generate a list of key stakeholders who support this policy from your state (we have a playbook for that!). They could be environmental groups, prominent public officials (e.g. mayors, state reps), business leaders, trade association, religious or community organizations, researchers and academics, etc. You don’t need to exhaust this list during the Hour of Action, but it’s very useful to have going into a meeting.
Oil & Gas Threat Map by state/county
Energy Consumption by type/statefrom the U.S. Energy Information Administration
Impact of Clean Energy Growth by congressional district, from Clean Energy Progress
2050 Projected Renewable Energy Mix by state, The Solutions Project
Climate Signals map from Climate Nexus: how climate change is affecting your area in real time
Earnings loss for outdoor workers by state
Step 7: Schedule two quick support calls with Climate Changemakers Staff
Once you have ✅ confirmed a date & time for the meeting and ✅ completed your Leave-Behind and Meeting Outline:
Send your materials to advocacy@climatechangemakers.org with “constituent meeting” in the subject line,
Schedule a 15-minute prep call, and
Schedule a 15-minute debrief call.
Try to choose times that all participants with speaking roles can attend!
Step 8: Checklist after your meeting
Send a gracious thank you note. Personalize the email in the Meeting Outline template.
Share a summary in Slack. Write up a couple of sentences on what was covered and how it went. Share it in the #action-constituent-meetings channel and/or #wins-and-shoutouts. This is essential for tracking our network’s collective impact and giving fellow changemakers in your area additional insight.
Monitor and follow up. The staffer/elected official is busy and probably won’t circle back with you. Monitor their activity, and send a “thank you so much!” email if they take action! If it’s crickets after about a month since your meeting (this is typical, don’t worry) send a polite follow-up email. A simple “Hello! I hope you are well. Is there any update on [topic]?” should do the trick.
Cultivate the relationship! Aim to meet with or communicate directly with the elected official or staffer once per quarter. Treat this relationship as you would a professional relationship. You may even get to the point where you can ask for their insight or advice on future advocacy efforts. That said, don’t inundate them with emails.
And that’s it, playbook complete! Feel accomplished.
Thank you for taking action.
🎉 Close out this action with confetti! Sign your name + click the button 🎉
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