Policy Clearinghouse

On the Advocacy Field, Success Starts With Structure

 By Shuan Lumachi, President, Chamber Advocacy

In the game of baseball, nothing happens until the pitcher throws a ball. But the pitcher is not the only one with responsibility to ensure that the game is played. Umpires are uniquely positioned to make important decisions based on the structure outlined in the rules of baseball. Under these rules, umpires have the authority to make decisions based on their best judgment at any given time.  Umpires are leaders on the baseball field just like a chamber’s chief executive is a leader in the community. Chamber leaders are uniquely positioned within the organization to make decisions each day based on their best judgment at the time. Those decisions are oftentimes made or not made depending on the CEO’s confidence in the structure of their organization. Drilling down even further, any leader of an advocacy-oriented chamber of commerce makes important decisions every day that ultimately represent the interests of their business community with government. Without a structure in place to make necessary decisions, any coach (chairman of the board), teammate (staff), or fan (chamber member) can force your game (advocacy) in any direction, at any time.

There is a big difference between a chamber of commerce that just informs its membership about public policy and a chamber that goes out there and takes a strong position. A chamber of commerce is the most efficient and effective it can be when its leaders develop a clear advocacy plan outlining who has the authority to do what, when and how.

“If you do not have a solid structure in place, you will find yourself being forced to ‘shoot from the hip’ when reacting to issues,” advises David Kilby, president of the Western Association of Chamber Executives. “It is essential to develop a structure to really be a proactive and influential voice for your business community.”

Build an A-team

If I were ever to write a love story about the chamber of commerce industry, the protagonist would be a chamber of commerce committee. We love committees. It is the way we build consensus, get the work done, and create results. Charles F. Kettering, the late inventor and research chief for General Motors Corporation, once quipped: “If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.” For all the disadvantages of a chamber of commerce committee, it is the process we know well enough to use to get what we want done.

Therefore, the work horse of a chamber’s government affairs efforts is its government affairs committee (GAC). When forming a GAC or even when jump-starting your current committee, I always ask chambers to assess the caliber of the decision-makers who make up their committee. I recommend using a “litmus test” when deciding if the decision-makers are the best: can they invest money; are they politically active and/or are they politically connected; do they understand the issues; and are they committed to being proactive; do they understand what is important to business?

Once the right people have been recruited, your GAC must have what I call “controlled participation” when making decisions. I recommend no fewer than eight voting members and no more than twenty-one. The size of the committee should only be determined based upon demand; if you can secure twenty-one active voting participants, no matter the size of your chamber, then seat twenty-one. However, if you can only get eight, then go with eight. Do not dilute the value of the GAC by opening it up to every person possible. Increase your GAC’s perceived value by limiting the supply of voting seats in order to maintain a demand for participation.

The bottom line: get the best in the room. Do whatever it takes to get them in the room. Keep antagonists out of the room and build a proactive environment. Attract GAC members who sign the front of paychecks, and do not seat elected officials and their representatives as voting members. Finally, your GAC must be the final voice for your advocacy efforts so you all can act smart and fast.

Empower your volunteers

Your GAC exists to be effective in representing the interests of business with government. To be effective, you can’t bog your process down in bureaucracy on every single issue because your effectiveness is in direct proportion to your efficiency. Therefore, any decision that the GAC makes must end at the GAC, not at your Board’s executive committee and then the full Board of Directors. The Board, including its leadership, such as your chairman, must empower its GAC to take positions on issues that align with a Board-approved platform of issues. If an issue does not align, then the Board can act. However, the platform of issues should be flexible enough to limit issues from making it to the Board for consideration. The GAC should be a work horse and not a recommending body. Update the Board accordingly on GAC positions but do not put the GAC in a position of being strangled from reaching the point of action because “that decision needs to go to the Board at its next meeting five weeks from now.”

“Chamber executives need to look over the horizon and empower volunteers to take on the issues that impact our business community most. I am not afraid to push my government affairs volunteers to act and get engaged. That’s my job,” advises J. David Jameson, president and CEO of the Greater Aiken (SC) Chamber of Commerce. "In my position, it is expected that I use my bully pulpit."

Maintaining long-term committee participation is a common challenge chambers face, one that can be addressed by simply asking, “What policy issue have you solved for the business community recently?” You must be ensuring that your GAC meetings are action-oriented, not report-oriented. Every agenda item must propose taking a position. Simply bringing people together to hear reports from elected officials or reports on the latest and greatest is not enough. The bottom line: you keep people engaged when you give them something to rally behind. Be action-oriented so they understand that each month they are a part of making a decision on issues that impact your business community.

Prepare the GAC to select key issues

In any community, there are myriad issues that impact the local economy and quality of life. A chamber of commerce can find itself being pulled in multiple directions to take on every issue possible. Your GAC should select a limited number of issues that demand attention and understand that your Chamber can’t be all things to everyone.

“To get started in defining the issues you’ll take on,” says ACCE president Mick Fleming, “you might want the Board to sign off on a global policy statement such as: ‘It is the intention of this Chamber to take public positions on issues that affect the competitiveness of this community in relation to other communities or regions.’ Or, ‘It is the intention of this Chamber to work for policies that lower the cost of doing business for all employers in this region.’ Such statements can become the broad parameters—the Christmas trees—on which you AND the Board

hang your ornaments when determining specific positions.”

It is very important for your GAC to foster discussion based on an agenda that adheres to the “ethic of reciprocity.” Confucius might say it another way: "Never impose a GAC agenda on others what you would not want for yourself." I recently received an emailed meeting agenda from a prominent regional government affairs organization. The agenda was sent the day before the meeting and included 22 attachments. Yes, 22 attachments. Do you have the time to read through 22 attachments of information? Who has that kind of time? I don’t. So I deleted the email and never attended the meeting.

“There is a danger associated with throwing too much information at our government affairs volunteers,” says Paul Jadin, president of the Green Bay (WI) Area Chamber of Commerce. “I make sure our government affairs staff prepares background materials in a concise and clear way so we can understand the issues and then take action quickly.”

The bottom line: every advocacy decision starts with a well-prepared agenda. Combine all of your information into one document and summarize as much as you can. The key here is information management, not information overload.

Anticipating challenges

It is an important responsibility of those who lead government affairs-oriented chambers of commerce to know how to anticipate challenges. An advocacy effort is an empirical process that takes time to fine-tune. In other words, anticipating challenges gets easier over time through trial and error.

Practically speaking, chambers that successfully navigate through advocacy-related storms do so because they understand the reason why they decided to go down that path in the first place. The GAC might take a position on an unpopular issue that causes some members to cancel their memberships. The chambers that survive this type of membership backlash do so because they also understand the long-term rewards of their unpopular decision.

“We are not afraid to lose members because they disagree with our positions,” says Randy Gordon, president and CEO of the Long Beach (CA) Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s our job as a Chamber to sometimes take the unpopular path and sometimes take that path alone. I always remind our team that we were put on this Earth to fight for business. We must stand by our decisions to the end, so win or lose, we can prove to our members that we are here for them no matter what challenges we face.”

Success starts with structure

“Picking issues and drafting agendas are really the cornerstones of your advocacy work because for chambers, the mere articulation of your position on a given issue is a powerful lobbying statement,” says Fleming. “Lawmakers know that you have the strength of hundreds or hundreds of thousands of influential people behind every position you take. Just taking the position sends a loud message from the chamber to elected officials.”

In the game of baseball, you will never see a batter hit a ball and then run directly up the middle of the infield to second base. If that were to happen, the umpire would immediately call the batter out. As a chamber chief executive, you must have the ability to keep your government affairs program running under a defined and outlined structure. You must hold everyone accountable to a structure so that decisions and key messages can be determined. Ultimately, you must take action and produce results for your members. Success starts with structure. And structure is the difference between winning most of the time and losing all of the time.

How To Make Your Government Affairs Committee Work

Advocacy Advice from Shaun Lumachi

If I were ever to write a love story about the chamber of commerce industry, the protagonist would be a chamber of commerce committee. We love committees. It is the way we build consensus, get the work done, and create results. The opening paragraph of an 1884 article in the New York Times is a great example of our enduring love affair with committees:

The late inventor and General Motors Corporation's research chief Charles F. Kettering once quipped, “if you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.” For all the disadvantages of a chamber of commerce committee, it is the process we know and use to get things done.  So, the following is a check list of what you should know, at a minimum, about starting or fine-tuning your action-oriented government affairs committee (GAC).

1) Control demand by constricting supply. Your GAC should have a limited amount of participation. I recommend no less than eight voting members and no more than twenty-one. Size of the committee should only be determined based upon demand; if you can secure twenty one active voting participants no matter the size of your chamber then seat twenty one. However, if you can only get eight, then go with eight. The bottom-line: do not dilute the value of the GAC by opening it up to every person in the world. Increase the GAC’s perceived value by limiting the supply of voting seats in order to maintain the demand for participation.

2) GAC members should be the best in your community. When forming GAC’s I always start off with this question: what business person in your community would be impossible to get to serve on a committee but if they agreed to serve would be the absolute best? Use a litmus test when deciding if they are the best: can they invest money; are they politically active or are they politically connected; do they understand the issues; and are they committed to being proactive; do they understand what is important to business? The bottom-line: get the best in the room. Do whatever it takes to get them in the room. Keep antagonists out of the room and build the committee on an environment of being proactive. Attract GAC members who sign the front of paychecks and do not seat elected officials and their representatives as voting members.

3) Results keep people in the room. The single problem chamber’s ask me to help solve is how do we keep volunteers engaged and active. In other words, how do we keep volunteers in the room? My answer: what advocacy issue did you accomplish recently? Nothing? Then why would anyone want to be a part of your government affairs effort! Your GAC meetings must be action orientated, not report oriented. Every agenda item must propose a taking a position on something. Simply bringing people together to hear reports from elected officials or reports on the latest and greatest is not enough. The bottom-line: you keep people engaged when you give them something to rally behind. Be action oriented so they understand that each month they are a part of making a decision on something that will impact your business community.

4) Your GAC agenda must adhere to the ethic of reciprocity. Confucius would say it another way, "Never impose a GAC agenda on others what you would not what for yourself." I recently received an emailed meeting agenda from a prominent regional government affairs organization (not a client of mine). The agenda was send the day before the meeting and included twenty-two attachments. Yes, 22 attachments. Do you have the time to read through 22 attachments of information? Who has that kind of time? I don’t. So I deleted the email and never attended the meeting. The bottom-line: every advocacy decision starts with a well prepared agenda. Combine all of your information into one document and summarize as much as you can. The key here is information management, not information overload.

5) Your effectiveness is in direct proportion to your efficiency. Your GAC’s justification for even existing is because it is effective. To be effective, you can’t bog down your process in bureaucracy on every single issue. Therefore, any decision that GAC makes must end at GAC, not your chamber board executive committee and then the full board of directors. The board must empower its GAC to take positions on issues that align with a board-approved platform of issues. If an issue does not align then the board must act.  However, the platform of issues should be flexible enough to limit issues from making it to the board for consideration. The GAC should be a work horse and not a recommending body. Update the board accordingly on GAC positions but do not put the GAC in a position of being strangled from reaching the point of action because “that decision needs to go to the board at its next meeting 5 weeks from now.” The bottom-line: your GAC must be the final voice on the issues so you can act smart and fast.

In the context of building your chamber’s government affairs program, a government affairs committee (GAC) should be the cornerstone of your chamber’s advocacy efforts. Most importantly, it is where the ideas begin and end in representing the interests of your members with government.

Shaun Lumachi is President of Chamber Advocacy, a professional consulting firm that builds and maintains results-oriented government affairs programs for chambers of commerce.

What’s So Tough About The Times?

Advocacy Advice from Shaun Lumachi

A friend emailed me the following article a few weeks ago. I can’t source it because even he does not remember where he got it. Nevertheless, in these “troubling times” I firmly believe that if you think and act as if times are tough, then times are tough. Or, you (as I have) can take a different approach to how you view the current tough times. This article should make you think a little differently about what you say about these tough times.

Bouncing back from deflating times

Failure is all too common in business.  Anyone who has ever ran a business wakes up regularly with nightmares about the what-ifs.

Successful business people, however, know that even if adversity strikes, they can work around it.  They are resilient.

Tylenol currently controls about 35 percent of the North American pain reliever market, but in 1982, you couldn’t give Tylenol away.  A psychopath put cyanide into some Tylenol capsules, causing eight deaths.  Although it was clear that Johnson & Johnson had done nothing wrong in the manufacturing of the pills, the company accepted responsibility and pulled more than 31 million bottles form the shelves at cost of $100 million.  The company also offered to exchange the capsules for tablets, taking another financial hit.

But their response, putting customer safely before corporate profit, helped restore confidence in both the company and the brand.  The CEO- Jim Burke said, “it will take time, it will take money, and it will be very difficult; but we consider it a moral imperative, as well as good business, to restore Tylenol to its pre-eminent position.” Sales recovered quickly.  Resilient? You better believe it.

Sure this is an extreme example, but if those companies can bounce back on such a large scale, they should inspire those facing smaller challenges,

Sales slumps, production slowdowns, labor issues and changing customer preferences affect many businesses.  The strong survive not because they are determined to conduct business as usual, but because they find ways to rise above the issue at hand.

Remember, you can’t live life with an eraser.  You can’t anticipate every possible problem, no matter how hard you try.  But you can resolve to face challenges as they arise.  Keep your mind wide open for solutions, listen to those around and under you, reprogram your brain for success and dig in.

It is better to bend than to break.  Companies and workers who can bend and not break have the gift of resiliency that let them bounce back from adversity.

Morale:  Don’t let hard times turn into end times.  Let them lead to your best times.

-- Shaun

Shaun Lumachi is President of Chamber Advocacy, a professional consulting firm that builds and maintains results-oriented government affairs programs for chambers of commerce.  For more information about Chamber Advocacy go to http://www.chamberadvocacy.biz/index.html

Five Years Later: LongBeachAdvocacy.biz Still Helping Business Do Politics

One of my proudest accomplishments in my professional career came when I served as Vice President of Government Affairs at the Long Beach (CA) Area Chamber of Commerce. During my tenure, I built the Chamber’s advocacy web site, www.LongBeachAdvocacy.biz. The Web site is celebrating its fifth year in 2008.

Since its introduction on February 3, 2003 the site has reached over 250,000 visitors and has collected thousands of letters in support and opposition to issues impacting the local business community. The Long Beach Chamber’s advocacy web site serves as the model in the chamber of commerce industry and it is also the first local chamber of commerce web site of its kind in the world.

LongBeachAdvocacy.biz is designed to interconnect all functions of the Chamber’s award-winning government affairs program and communicate directly with the regional, state, national and global business community. In late 2003, ACCE noted that the Long Beach Chamber’s advocacy web site, “is considered a first in the chamber world. But it certainly won't be the last. It’s by far the most effective means…for communicating with legislative and regulatory bodies.”

The goal of LongBeachAdvocacy.biz is simple. It coexists with users committing the Chamber government affairs staff to be responsive to feedback; it provides advertising opportunities for Chamber members; it is content driven, updating on a daily basis; and, it empowers the Chamber to find new ways to effectively communicate the importance of involvement in public policy development.

I continue to urge all Chambers to have a Web-based tool at their disposal to communicate their legislative issues and priorities. Doing so will allow you to do a better job of instantly educating your business community on issues that impact them directly. In today’s world of instant communication you must be ahead of the curve in utilizing the internet to increase the power of your message.

Card Checks Prevent Democratic Process In The Workplace

I am posting an article by Randy Gordon, President and CEO, Long Beach (CA) Area Chamber of Commerce who talks about the proposal to make it easier for workers to unionize and its impact on the business community:

One of America’s greatest electoral practices is the secret ballot vote. Each person, free from the influences of outside interests, when in a polling booth can vote without anyone knowing their choice. This has been how this country does business since its inception. These same rules apply in many meetings and elections that take place in the private sector, including how union organizing is done.

Currently, if employees wish to unionize, a secret ballot vote can be arranged and conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) or its state equivalent. This gives both sides the opportunity to influence the labor force on whether or not unionization would be the best for them. Then the individual employees vote in a secret ballot session. If a majority wishes to unionize, they become a union and start collective bargaining procedures. If a majority does not wish to unionize, they stay non-unionized.

Sounds fair, right?

Well two pieces of legislation threatens to change this. California’s AB 2386 (Nunez, D-Los Angeles) and Congressional bill “Employee Free Choice Act” (which is a misnomer) or EFCA are currently circulating in their respective legislatures. Both of these would change current labor laws to allow for a process known as “card checks” for unionization.

This method would allow union organizers the option of sending out “support cards” that the workforce simply has to sign saying they wish to unionize. If a majority sends it back to the NLRB, then they will automatically become a union.

The problem with this method is that these organizers have been known to intimidate, harass, and bother individuals until they sign off on his card. The pressure is often times relentless and employees do not have the freedom of a secret vote.

The Long Beach Chamber stands ready to defend the rights of employees to have a secret ballot vote on whether or not they wish to unionize. We officially oppose AB 2386 and are working with the United States Chamber of Commerce to help fight the “EFCA”. In the coming weeks, we will be launching a letter-writing campaign to prevent AB 2386’s passage. However, on a federal level, we need your help. We need you to contact your local congressional and state legislators to let them know that card checks is the wrong approach.

Recently, former United States Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern penned an article in the Wall Street Journal urging his party to move away from card checks and that it goes against the democratic way of doing things. If McGovern thinks that these policies are too extreme for him, they probably are.

- Shaun Lumachi

Make Your Newsletter Matter

If no one knows what you are doing, then why do it at all?

I ask chamber leaders this question every day, and I ask it to remind them that communication is one of the most important things a chamber must do to meet their member's expectations.

Keep your newsletter stories concise and your headlines bold and large. I recommend that articles not exceed 150 words and your headlines should be no less than 20-point font.  Remember, the number one goal of a newsletter is for your members to read it. Sometimes we get caught up in the trials of producing the newsletter and we forget to focus on whether or not our members will actually read it.

In this day and age, you and your members are bombarded with thousands of communications per day via the internet, television, newspapers, etc. So take a risk and be bold with your communication and get members to read your messages.

The best way to be bold with your communication is to highlight chamber efforts that matter to every member on the front page of your newsletter. This often means that advocacy should be the front page of practically every newsletter.

Hundreds of members do not really care how much fun a handful of members had at the last golf tournament.  Golf tournaments and pictures of your board of directors are important, but not important enough to be on the front page of your newsletter. Those types of things belong beyond page two.

The only message that should be on the front page of your newsletter are the things that matter to every member. Economic development, advocacy, how you are solving local problems and impacting the your economy; are things that every member cares about.  Fluffy golf tournament pictures and stories only matter to the few when the purpose of your communication effort is to convince the many that your chamber really matters.

- Shaun Lumachi, President, Chamber Advocacy

For more information about Chamber Advocacy, click HERE.

Stop Hugging Elected Officials. Start Holding Them Accountable

Publishing a vote record on your elected officials is one of the most important tools a chamber government affairs program can provide the business community. Your chamber's vote record is the only public link between your position on proposed laws and how your elected officials voted on those potential laws.

If you do not keep a vote record, you are not holding your elected officials accountable for their votes and how those votes impact the businesses you represent.

Most people think raising money and playing politics is an elected official's job. Not true. Elected officials have one primary responsibility: to vote. Your chamber, therefore, has a responsibility to hold elected officials accountable to your business community by comparing their votes with your positions.

Many other organizations hold the same elected officials accountable to the people they represent, maybe that is why they get more of what they want and you get less of what you want.

- Shaun Lumachi, President, Chamber Advocacy

For more information about Chamber Advocacy, click HERE.

Chamber Government Affairs Programs that Work

Each year, at every level of government, policy is enacted that affects the business community. As the representative of the business community, chambers of commerce are responsible for having an active voice in the creation and implementation of such policy. Ask yourself this question: was our chamber at the table? You must answer affirmatively.

It is incumbent upon a chamber of commerce to have an active and effective government affairs program to add value to membership.  Moreover, it is imperative that a chamber of commerce drive policy, not simply watch as policy is created. 

There are four fundamentals to creating a program that will bring the necessary level of advocacy to your chamber.  They are:

1. Local, regional, statewide, and national public policy development.  Having a well developed policy platform from which to advocate is crucial to effectively driving public policy.
2. Actively track issues that impact you membership. Creating a system to follow every development regarding pertinent policy issues is paramount.
3. Expand your reputation as a respected advocate.  By establishing a policy platform and actively monitoring the issues affecting your membership  your presence in the community will be heightened.  Become the “expert” on issues.
4. Creating a membership that is aware of how the political process impacts their business.  Communication with your membership is vital to the success of your program.

An effective government affairs program should motivate your members to engage in the political process and impact issues, legislation and elections. Creating grassroots activism is the goal for any program. To educate and mobilize your grassroots base, each of the preceding fundamentals are vital.

“Government affairs,” “policy platform,” and “grassroots advocacy” may not be the sexy buzz words that typically motivate your membership.  They are, however, the key to protecting your member’s from onerous policy that could directly impact their ability to grow their business and create jobs.

- Shaun Lumachi, President, Chamber Advocacy

For more information about Chamber Advocacy click HERE.

The Future of Chamber of Commerce Advocacy Efforts

Nearly five centuries ago, the political philosopher Machiavelli said, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

Even five centuries later it is still a difficult and uncertain task to introduce a new thing.   For some chambers of commerce, adopting an effective advocacy program is a new thing, fraught with difficulty and uncertainty.

However, I believe that the future calls for chambers to be the very best at representing their member’s interests with government. That demands an unprecedented investment of time and effort by chambers in implementing a government affairs program or taking their current program to an even higher level.

As President of Chamber Advocacy, a professional firm that builds government affairs programs, I am fortunate to be part of award-winning advocacy programs that serve as a model in our industry. That model is based upon a belief that chambers of commerce must build advocacy programs that empower their membership and increase their relevance in public policy discussions and decision-making.

To that end, I believe that an effective government affairs program is founded on four basic principles:

1. Tracking pertinent local and state legislation and issuing vote records on local elected officials as it relates to business.

2. Fostering grassroots involvement, from the board to the government affairs council, to develop and advocate the chamber's priorities.

3. Staff must serve as an advocacy resource for the chamber's membership always willing to represent the business point of view from city hall all the way to the halls of the statehouse.

4. Constant maintenance of communication strategies such as a Web site solely dedicated to advocacy efforts and the commitment of the entire front page of the chamber's newsletter to advocacy in every edition, all year long.

To learn more about the four principles of effective government affairs programs and get ideas and advice for how to energize your advocacy, look for my posts on the ACCE Policy Clearinghouse Blog.  Also, feel free to log in and post questions about your government affairs program.

- Shaun Lumachi

For more information about Chamber Advocacy click HERE.