ACTION PLAYBOOK:

Attend or Organize a Town Hall With Your Member of Congress

Let’s take action.

  • Publicly urge your member of Congress to support your policy priority, and get them to talk about it on the record.

    1. Find a town hall to attend and prepare a question to ask

    2. Or level up! ⚡️ Organize your own town hall by petitioning your member of Congress.

⚠️ If you don’t know who represents you in Congress, start here before proceeding to the options below.

Option 1: Attend a town hall

Attending a town hall can be a great first step toward advocating directly with elected officials. Members of Congress typically hold several town hall meetings per year to speak to constituents and hear their concerns. Town halls are free to attend, locally based, and offer constituents the chance to ask questions. Here are some tips to help make your town hall experience a success:

Research the dates and times of your representative’s upcoming town halls. You can usually find this information on your representative’s website. Find out if they solicit questions in advance for pre-screening, or invite questions live from the audience at the event. If you don’t see that information on the event listing, then call the district office and ask. Congressional staff are eager to help!

Use our playbook Learn Who Represents You to research your member of Congress and draft a clear question. Town halls don’t offer much time for back-and-forth discussion of an issue, so you don’t need to compile as many talking points as you would for a private constituent meeting. If you’re unsure which policy issue to ask your representative about, take a look at our Issue Briefings page.

Here’s a template you can use to formulate your question:

My name is [NAME], and I live in [CITY]. Thank you for speaking with us today. My question is about [ISSUE]. [1 sentence explaining the issue and its connection to the district/state.] [1 sentence expressing why you, as a constituent, are concerned.] What are your plans to [achieve the policy objective]? Do you support [specific policy or bill]?

If you weren’t asked to submit your question in advance, your representative may be unfamiliar with the specific bill you are asking about. Be sure to explain your question as if your audience is hearing it for the first time.

Bring your fact sheet to the town hall and hand it to the member of Congress or their staff.

After the town hall, track your representative’s position on the issue. Their responses at a town hall can be used as a springboard for future social media engagement with them or setting up a private constituent meeting.

⚡️ Level Up! Organize your own town hall

A climate town hall organized by Climate Changemakers and co-hosted by numerous groups is a way to show solidarity between groups and give your representative a chance to engage with constituents on climate issues.

Andrew and Kevin, two changemakers in Virginia, rallied support from other local climate groups to request a climate town hall from their senator. Here are some smart moves from their playbook:

Step 1. Build your coalition

Reach out to connections you may have with local environmental or climate groups (including local chapters of national organizations). In the Climate Changemakers Slack, jump in the relevant regional channel and ask if anyone there is involved in local/regional climate groups or businesses who might be willing to join forces. Think about getting a broad geographic distribution across your state, if you are requesting a town hall with a senator. If your target is a House member, localize to your district as much as possible.

Climate organizations that often have local chapters include Citizens Climate Lobby, Sierra Club, 350.org, Third Act, Interfaith Power & Light, Sunrise Movement, Environment America, and the League of Conservation Voters. When assembling the coalition, consider groups that make sense for your specific member of Congress.

In your communications with other groups, keep the purpose of the town hall generic and clear. Different groups may have different policy priorities, but should agree with the need for climate action.

If those groups are interested, use a single collaborative Google Form to collect signatures from within their organizations. This will help you demonstrate widespread buy-in to the congressional office. Aim for at least 50 individuals interested in attending, but the more the better. The target size may depend on the size of your state or district.

Step 2. Request the town hall

Once you’ve reached 50 interested individuals, reach out to your representative’s staff (and the office scheduler, if you have their contact info). Make your request, citing the number of interested individuals (it may keep growing as the form circulates!) and the groups that have offered to co-host. Specify whether you want the event to be in person at a central location or on Zoom.

Once your member of Congress has agreed to a town hall, you can start collecting questions from your co-host organizers. Ask the individual representing each group to submit 2-3 questions (another Google Form works well for this step). Make sure to coordinate with the representative’s office on the following:

  • Can we promote the event on social media?

  • Are they comfortable with media being present? (This is relevant for Zoom and in person).

  • Can you record the event?

  • What is their preferred way to review the questions ahead of time? Can we leave time for spontaneous audience questions as well?

If your town hall is virtual, Climate Changemakers can provide a Zoom link. Please reach out to advocacy@climatechangemakers.org or post in Slack if you’ve gotten to this stage and require support!

Thank you for taking action!

Help us improve this playbook: info@climatechangemakers.org

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