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SC Post Session Engagement Toolkit
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Post-Legislative Session Accountability, Engagement & Follow Up :

Organization and Best Practices

1.        Introduction

This toolkit serves as a guide to volunteers in becoming involved in our state’s legislative process by participating in local “wrap-up” town halls held by state legislators following the conclusion of the General Assembly’s yearly session. In the case that legislators are not hosting a town hall, this can help you plan your own town halls. These meetings offer an important opportunity to continue to make our voices heard and hold legislators accountable to constituents!  

We can discuss what went right and wrong during the recently-completed session. We also can join with legislators in looking forward to what may be accomplished for the environment in the next year’s session.

Each year, the Maryland Sierra Club advocates for the passage of progressive environmental legislation in Annapolis. The legislative team, composed of volunteers and staff members, works closely with the Maryland Sierra Club’s Conservation Committee, the Club’s issue committees (Beyond Gas; Energy; Natural Places; Public Health; Water; and Zero Waste), and the Club’s county-level Groups. We advocate in particular for a small number of bills that our state Executive Committee designates as priorities, and we also submit testimony and lobby on dozens of other bills affecting the environment.

The Maryland General Assembly session takes place for 90 days each year, from early January to early April. At the end of the legislative session, most legislators hold local follow-up meetings.

Every year, we have some victories and losses. Our long term success depends on us building and growing each year, using both victories and defeats to strengthen our resolve and our relationships.  Just as our victories are attributable to our grassroots support, our work following the legislative session is also lead by our volunteers. In order to build on this success and do even more to protect the environment, the Sierra Club needs people like YOU! There are many opportunities to get involved. The only requirements are a desire to contribute, enthusiasm, and some time.

2.        Finding or Planning a Meeting

Before you engage with your elected officials in public, you need to find out who they are.  Go  to www.mdelect.net to find your state legislators and get a link to their official websites.

Now that you know who they are, the next step is to meet with them! There are two ways to do this. You can attend a legislator’s town hall, invite your legislators to a Sierra Club group meeting, or you can plan your own town hall and invite your legislators!

  1. Attending a Legislator’s District Town Hall

    Some legislators plan town halls or legislative session debriefs in their district. These meetings are an opportunity for the     legislator to connect with constituents and discuss the various bills they did or did not support that year. Find out when your state legislators’ next district meeting will occur. The meeting may be announced on a website, Facebook, or in newsletters, but the quickest way to get this info is to call your legislators’ offices. 

If you find that your district does not yet have a meeting scheduled, call your state Delegates and Senator directly to find out more. When you call, be friendly and say to the staffer, “Hi, I’m a constituent, and I’d like to know when his/her next district meeting will be.” On the fifth tab on the top is a list of senators and delegates and their contact information.

  1. Invite legislators to speak at a local Sierra Club Group Meeting.

A great option is to invite your legislators to a public meeting organized and hosted by your local Sierra Club group. This can be an already planned meeting or a new one, but the meeting should have plenty of time for attendees to ask questions of the legislators.

  1. Planning your own Town Hall

Another great option is to conduct your own town hall and invite you legislators. The best way to do this is to work with your local Sierra Club group and our legislative district captains to invite the legislator to a meeting. You can find a list of the local Sierra Club groups and contact information from each, here. If you’d like to connect with your legislative district captain, email admin@mdsierra.org. The group may already have a plan to meet with the legislator or you may be able to help them plan one.

3.        Researching your Elected Officials

Once you have a meeting scheduled, it is time to prepare. Here are some resources to find out how your elected official voted, and to learn more about them. We recommend compiling what you learn into a document that you can share with others.  

A.        Find their voting record

We’ve compiled a Vote Tracker that shows every elected official’s voting record and sponsorship on Sierra Club’s top environmental priorities. If you don’t know who your elected officials are, you can find it at www.mdelect.net.

B.        Media and Social Media

Click here for a collection of social media accounts for your Maryland state legislators. (It’s the 5th tab on the top) It may be missing some, but it’s the best collection we could find (since we put it together ourselves).  And while you are at it, follow them or friend them, it’s a great way to stay in touch.

C.        Official Bio and Legislation

On the website of the Maryland General Assembly you can find a short bio on each representative, including what committees he or she sits on. You can also see what legislation they introduced or co-sponsored.  You can search by district, county, or find them by name.

4.        Before the Event

After establishing a date and time for your district’s meeting(s), send out a notice of the town hall to your local Maryland Sierra Club Group, and get commitments from members to attend.  If possible, try to distribute information on your Delegates’ and Senators’ voting records, as well as prepared questions.  

Prepare several questions ahead of time. Your questions should be sharp, fact-based, and focused on your state legislators’ voting in this past legislative session.  Send the questions to your participants ahead of the meeting.

Contact admin@mdsierra.org for help connecting with local Sierrans.  Let us know what we can do to help.  

5.        At the Event

  1. Get there early, meet up, and get organized. Meet outside or in the parking lot for a quick huddle before the event. Distribute the questions, and encourage members to ask the questions on the sheet or something similar.
  2. Get seated and spread out. Head into the venue a bit early to grab seats at the front half of the room, but do not all sit together. Sit by yourself or in groups of two, and spread out throughout the room. This will help reinforce the impression of broad consensus.
  3. Make your voices heard by asking good questions. When the floor opens up for questions, everyone in the group should put their hands up and keep them there. Look friendly or neutral to encourage the chair of the meeting to call on you. When you’re asking a question, remember the following guidelines:
  1. Stick with the prepared list of questions. Don’t be afraid to read it straight from the printout if you need to.
  2. Be polite but persistent, and demand real answers. Legislators are very good at deflecting or dodging questions they don’t want to answer. Ask follow-up questions, and if they aren’t giving you real answers, then call them out for it. Booing and applause in support is appropriate if your questions are or are not being answered.
  3. Don’t give up the mic until you’re satisfied with the answer. If you’ve asked a hostile question, a staffer will often try to limit your ability to follow up by taking the microphone back immediately after you finish speaking. They can’t do that if you keep a firm hold on the mic. No staffer in their right mind wants to look like they’re physically intimidating a constituent, so they will back off. If they object, then say politely but loudly: “I’m not finished. The legislator is dodging my question. Why are you trying to stop me from following up?”
  4. Keep the pressure on. After one member of the group finishes, everyone should raise their hands again. The next member of the group to be called on should move down the list of questions and ask the next one.
  1. Support the group and reinforce the message. After one member of your group asks a question, everyone should applaud to show that the feeling is shared throughout the audience.  Whenever someone from your group gets the mic, they should note that they’re building on the previous questions — amplifying the fact that you’re part of a broad group.
  2. Record everything! Assign someone in the group to use their smartphone or video camera to record other advocates asking questions and the legislator’s response. While written transcripts are nice, unfavorable exchanges caught on video can be devastating for state legislators. These clips can be shared through social media and picked up in the media. Please familiarize yourself with your state and local laws that govern recording, along with any applicable Senate or House rules, prior to recording. These laws and rules vary substantially from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

6.        After the Meeting

  1. Write up a report

How did it go? Who came?  What did the elected officials say?  Please write up your notes, especially any contacts you made (with contact info) and email admin@mdsierra.org 

  1. Share reflections on social media out to media, during and after the town hall.  Direct quotes, pictures, and videos are best.  

Example Twitter outreach:

I was at @delegatetulkin town hall in Springfield today. Large group asked about his vote on the pipeline & water protection act. I recorded his response here. #MDGA19

Ensure that the members of your group who are directly affected by specific threats are the ones whose voices are elevated when you reach out to media.

  1. Share everything. Post pictures, video, your own thoughts about the event, etc.,to social media afterward. Tag the state legislators’ office and encourage others to share widely.

7.        Plan your next steps

So what do you want to do now? If all went well, you’ve met some other great activists from your district, educated yourself on different state issues, and hopefully caught the attention of your elected representatives. But what’s next?

Keep the momentum going and keep pressure on your elected officials:

But my officials voted 100% for the environment?

If you’ve been blessed with great legislators who voted for all of our issues, congrats—but you’re not off the hook! For all environmental issues, you may think your work is done. But with more federal rollbacks coming soon, we need to be vigilant in moving Maryland forward. This is a great time to encourage your leader to continue to be bold, and to help them shape their priorities for next year.

This toolkit was created using materials from the Indivisible Guide with permission under Creative Commons. This guide differs from the Indivisible Guide in that it addresses state-level rather than federal-level action, and leaves out large portions of the material in the Indivisible Guide. In addition, links were added for state-specific meetings and legislator contact information.