Before you decide to engage your municipality on any issue, keep in mind the following:
Have a clear, actionable goal
- Make sure you know what you’re asking for
- Be articulate and clear about it
- Know exactly why you want a change to take place
Have a communication strategy
- Craft a clear message and supporting points
- Develop a Question and Answer document
- Have trained spoke people ready
- Know how to engage the media
- Send your message out many times, in many different ways
- Focus on face-to-face communication
- If possible, create a website and put together a social media strategy
Amplify your voice
- Strategically select key influencers who believe in your cause. Community leaders, business leaders, artists, and other celebrities
- Start a petition of concerned citizens going
Identify the right office
- Find out who you should be talking to
- Who will be able to move your issue forward
- Who can make decisions that can impact your issue
- Who's responsibility it is
Document your issue impeccably
- Rely on facts, letters, photographs, laws, and examples, not opinions and grandstanding statements
- Focus on the problem and gather as much supporting proof and as many tools as you can to help get the problem solved
Be professional and understanding
- Approach the conversation as a negotiation
- Be professional, honest, and transparent
- Offer your documentation
- Let them know that if they can't help you, you'd like them to direct you to a department that can
- Get follow-up dates and commitments
- Write down the names of the people you speak to and when you spoke to them
- Get commitments in writing if at all possible
Go visit in person
- Call the official’s office, let them know that you have an issue you'd like to discuss with them, and get on their calendar
- If you can't get a private audience and you want to talk to someone in person, go to the next public meeting, council session, town hall meeting, or open forum for your community
- If you're going to speak in front of a city council, bring whatever supporting documents you want to show off (and copies to give away), and get ready in advance.