The Congressional-Company Visit Kit: Practical Steps For Unparalleled Results
What you need to know
Part 2
The ESOP Association will be running every Tuesday for the next seven weeks, tips for putting together a Congressional Company Visit. All of the information that will be featured in these excerpts is available on the Association’s website – http://www.esopassociation.org. The full Kit is available on the homepage under News.
First Steps
The ESOP advocate will first want to contact the person who is the so-called District Administrator if the Congressperson’s main district office in your area, or the Office Director if the Congressional office near you is a satellite office of his or her primary district office. Given that Congressional personnel frequently change, it is not fatal to not know name of the person. The name is usually on a member of Congress’s web site, or call The ESOP Association. Congressional staff change rather often, thus it is not unusual for a website to be out of date. If you know the staff person’s name, use it. A Senator has one main state office, and several regional offices as a rule. If her or his main state office is near you, you will ask to speak to the state Administrator, and if a satellite office, the Office Director.
In seeking an appointment through the District or State office, the best tactic is to call first to nail down who in that office might handle the member’s schedule when s/he is home. Set forth below is a suggested telephone script.
“Congressional Office Phone Answering: Hello, [Congress][woman][man][Senator] [name] office. May I help you?”
ESOP Advocate: Yes, I am [name] and I work for [name of company]. We are an employee-owned, or ESOP company. We are located over on [street address, community, etc]. (Tip: Make it vivid where you are located in order to create a visual image. Remember, the person you are talking to probably has driven by, or has heard of your company – you are speaking to a fellow local citizen.) As an employee-owned company, we are required to comply with several federal laws and thus we are subject to being judged by Congress as to whether we are complying with the intent of those laws. I would like to speak to someone about having [Congress][woman][man]/[Senator] [name] visit our company in the near future and meet our people.
Congressional Aide: [Name] handles the [Congress][woman][man]/[Senator’s] schedule whiles/he is in the [district] [state]. I will see if s/he is available.
Person Handling Schedule: Yes, this is [name]. May I help you?
ESOP Advocate: Yes, I am [name] and I work for [name of company]. We are employee-owned, our [number] employee owners are more than aware that our employee ownership, through an ESOP, is subject to federal law, particularly Federal tax and retirement laws. We are located over on [address].
We would like to invite [Congress][woman][man]/Senator [name] to our company to see what we are doing and how the employee ownership program, through our employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP is benefiting our people and company. We would be honored for such a visit, and of course, we would at that time take a brief moment to highlight some of the key issues pending before Congress that might affect our employee owners negatively.
Congressional Aide: Well, I do not have the schedule for the [Congress][woman][man]/
Senator’s next visit to our area, and I would have to review you invitation with him. It would be helpful if you would make your invitation in writing.
ESOP Advocates Response to This Response: Yes we intend to formalize our invitation in writing, and were seeking input on where the letter should go and to whose attention.
Congressional Aide’s Response to This Response: Okay, please send the letter to [name of Congressperson/Senator, at this office, marked to [my][name of someone else’s] attention, setting forth the information you just gave on the phone here. Or, if the schedule is handled out of DC, Well the schedule is handled out of DC, and write the [name of Congressperson/Senator at his/her DC office, and make it to the attention of his/her scheduler [name].
ESOP Advocate: I appreciate that information, and we will get out that letter today. Your time and attention to this matter is very much appreciated.”
Note: Since the anthrax attack on Congress, letters are tested and gassed before being delivered to a Congressional office. This process can take up to one week. But emails and faxes are frequently ignored if arrangements are not made ahead of time to email or fax a staff person directly. So when discussing the formal written invitation, ask if you can email it directly to the person handling the member of Congress schedule. If you are not given a specific person’s email address, rely on a letter. If faxing, only fax to the person who has told you, “I will expect your fax.”
Suggested Letter of Invitation for a Company Visit
Name of Member of Congress/Senator
Local Address/or DC is so instructed
City, State, Zip
Dear Representative/Senator [name]:
On behalf of the [number] employee owners of [name of company], located in [name of city] I spoke with [name of person you spoke to] about your visiting our company when you are home.
We are proud of our employee ownership through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP and we also know that Federal laws govern the program. We are also aware that pending before the Congress is both positive ESOP proposals and negative ESOP proposals.
We believe that the best way to judge the value of employee ownership is to see and meet those who are working with the ESOP in a company, and who are participating in the ESOP at a company.
We would be honored to host you at our office as your schedule permits and hope you can make time to meet with us in the near future.
As we know demands on your time are high, and you receive many requests for visits and appointments, we hope that you and your staff would not mind our checking on the status of this invitation in the weeks ahead. All of us would be honored to have you come.
Your consideration of our request is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Name: Tip: having several signatures on this letter is helpful.
cc: [Name of Person Who You Talked To On Telephone]
Note: If you have made arrangements to email or fax, the message is the same as the above letter.
How to Find Congressional Contacts
1. You can call The ESOP Association, and the information will be provided; or
2. Go on The ESOP Association’s website, www.esopassociation.org and click on “Government Affairs.” Once on Government Affairs, click on “Capitol Links.” Once there, you can click onto the website of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. You can get the list of members, once you have yours, click to her or his website for addresses, telephone numbers, or often staff names. (Note, soon this site will have software for direct contact, or letter writing to these offices.)
3. Use the Congressional Handbook provided by The ESOP Association.
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