Reflections

Take a look at p 184 in NFGW and re-read the sub-section “Specific details”. Take this opportunity to brainstorm the sort of details you remember form the work you did in the course and what you learned. Provide an anecdote if you wish; talk about causes, such as what caused you to write one way of the other; compare some writing you’ve done before to the sort of writing you’ve been asked to do in the course; and, give examples.

Post your set of details and then respond to someone else’s post. Don’t just say you agree or disagree but connect to what they’ve said in a personal and intellectual way.

Three approaches to the 3Prop Paper

(See discussion question at the bottom of this post)

3Prop-Commonwealth (conservative)

MEMO
To: Staff of Commonwealth Lobbying
From: Stephen Fantorum, Managing Partner
Re: SWPCCA request for assistance on “Renew”

We received a phone call from Frank Buck, a representative of SWPCCA, asking for help on the “Renew” bill that is now in committee. He took pains to say how important this bill is for his group of CCs and asked us to plan a lobbying effort that would help influence the make-up of the bill. He thinks the bill should pay a lot more attention to how CCs can help bring green jobs to the area and at the same time help business move more successfully into the alternative energy sector of the economy. Please work up this proposal related to the green jobs and CCs as soon as possible so that we can move to help these folks. Thanks.

[Start with an anecdote about a community college-green job’s program]

Commonwealth Lobbying, in its position as lobbyist for SWPCCA, a consortium of community colleges in south-western PA, support them in their fight to provide green-training job programs for their area students. We believe that the best way to help this consortium is by persuading the congressman and woman who are writing the “Renew” bill to give community colleges priority in the allocation of funds for these programs. However, we believe that the bill goes too far in its current form and would rather insist on a partnership between Gov’t and local business to fund these programs. It is clear that our client’s need to be a priority participant can contribute to the potential for job growth but the Gov’t should not do all the work here. Area business have to be persuaded to become involved, too. In fact, as we see the bill, it should only provide seed money but then local business should take control, motivated by tax credits and other incentives, and help these colleges move to implementing their green job programs on their campuses. Let me explain how it would work . . .

3Prop-Rep. Modigliani (moderate)

MEMO
To: Staff
From: Margaret Modiglian, US Rep. District ##, Chester Co
Re: Jerome S. Parker, President ’s request for assistance on “Renew”

We received a phone call from Jerome S. Parker, President of Delaware Co Community Colleges, wondering what our position was on the “Renew” bill. He took pains to encourage us to support his college’s attempts to influence the bill. He thinks the bill should pay a lot more attention to how CCs can help bring green jobs to the area. Please work up a proposal that I can present to him about this matter during our upcoming meeting next month. Thanks.

Proposal
[Start with an anecdote about a community college-green job’s program]

This proposal has as its goal to suggest how you, Rep Modigliani, can position yourself in the debate that is going on now around the “Renew” bill that is presently being debated in congressional committee. Several community colleges (name them) in Chester Co have signed onto a consortium which is lobbying for priority treatment when it comes to funds the bill wants to allocate for green jobs program. We want to encourage you to take this consortium seriously because it would be in your best interest to see these programs grow. At the same time, some want to increase Gov’t support and give incentives for business to cooperate. We think that this is a good idea in the short term but long term Gov’t involvement should be curtailed and the support of business should be increased. The community colleges in the county are well positioned to take advantage of this program if it is made law but some might think that prioritizing funding is too much of an overreach by Gov’t. We suggest that the market can do a better job of seeing who might come to the fore to provide these educational programs. One reason we believe this is if the programs get started and there are no jobs then we will have failed. These people will tend to blame you if this happens because you are their representative. So we would like to encourage a balanced approach. This is how it will work . . .

3Prop-Minerva (liberal)

MEMO
To: Staff of Minerva Ctr
From: Dr. Constance Smith, Chairperson
Re: SEPCCA request for assistance on “Renew”

We received a phone call from a Jan Fisher, a representative of SEPCCA, asking for help on the “Renew” bill that is now in committee. She took pains to say how important this bill is to them and asked us to lobby those writing the bill to be symphatic to their needs. She thinks the bill should pay a lot more attention to how CCs can help bring green jobs to the area and at the same time create jobs for area residents who have lost their jobs or have had to take lower paying jobs. Please work up a proposal outlining arguments to help Jan and her organization in this matter. We need to start contacting congresspersons associated with the bill ASAP. Thanks.

[Start with an anecdote about a community college-green job’s program]

The Minerva Group has agreed to help a consortium of community colleges in south-eastern PA (SEPCCA) in their fight to provide green-training job programs for their area students. We believe that the best way to help this consortium is by persuading the congressman and woman who are writing the “Renew” bill to give community colleges priority in the allocation of funds for these programs. However, we believe that the bill does not go far enough in its current form and will insist that more money be allocated for these programs. Many of the college presidents that we have talked to see their campuses as hubs for green job training. Not only that, but the bill could also provide incentives to local business to hire graduates. The bill also needs provisions that give incentives like tax breaks and export assistance to the companies that participate in this program. In fact, as we see the bill, it should provide more funds for a sophisticated set of programs that would make our community colleges a bastion for smart green technology by helping these colleges move toward implementing these green job programs on their campuses. Let me explain how it would work . . .

Discussion questions:

Instructions: Post your answer to the question below and then read and reply to another class member’s posting. Do not merely agree/disagree but give reasons why you think the way you do.

Q. What language in the proposals above signal the lobbying firm’s/congressional office’s political stance? Explain.

Posting your LobSim Profile

Now that you have your staff profile "in hand", so to speak, you need to post it to your staff Profile page in LobSim. But before you do that you will want to revise it one more time to take care of any problems noted in my comments to your paper and to conform it to the details of your particular org.

As you should now know the congress org is now centered around Rep. Modigliani of Chester Co. PA, the lobbying org is run by Mr. S. Fantorum, x-senator from PA, and the watchdog org is headed by Prof. C. Smith, a Soc professor at Temple. Your profile will now have to reflect these changes; its purposes now must reflect the purposes of your org as they become clear on its home (wiki) page in the next few weeks.

You will be evaluated on how well your profile describes the work you do for your org in the Final Portfolio stage of the course. The deadline for revising and posting your profile to your staff page is Wed. Oct. 20th.

Do I write in general about bill topics--education, health care, alternative energies, or pollution?

The very short answer is NO! Let me explain.

Every paper you will ever write in college will ask you to narrow your topic and the 2Research Report is no different. In fact, in this case you should be more conscious of narrowing your topic because your clients want to know about your expertise. You must sell them on the information you have that will help them. Information comes in discrete bits that is transform by thinking into knowledge. You need the information first before you can offer solutions to a problem. That's what you are being asked to do here.

But you have to start somewhere and that somewhere are the sites that I've put up for each of the bill topics--see the link at the top of your LobSim org page. These are sites that describe a bill that is currently being debated in the congress. In my example (see the 2RR sample) I've taken the green-jobs bill and started to try to find my (and my org--Minerva's) place in the conversation. We are a grassroots watchdog organization that exists to help those who are powerless or those with very little power. Therefore, we will be trying to lobby those writing the bill to include items in it that will help our clients. In my example, I will want to continue researching green jobs to see who is out there training people for these jobs and if they fit into our mission statement then we will try to promote them. But before we can help anyone we have to find the information that's current about green jobs so that we will have the facts and figures and arguments ready to deploy with those (in this case the congress) who have the job or making laws.

As a staff member in your org, You are between the lawmakers who want to craft a bill (e.g. the green jobs bill) and your clients who you want to support. You are the expert who channels the desires of your clients by way of the information you gather into viable arguments that will influence the passage of a bill. Information is power. What you know can be transformed into knowledge that can then become rules (laws) that everyone who is affected must comply. And if a particular bill has the potential to hurt your clients then you have to gather the information necessary to influence amendments to that law. On the other hand, if the bill being proposed is what your clients want then it is up to you to persuade lawmakers to pass that bill and you then need information to prevent those writing the bill from adding amendments that will change or dilute the law that you want. Either way you are the person who both the congress person and your clients need because you have the information that can be used to support the arguments for passage of the bill or for amending the bill, or for stopping the bill. Information is power.

Information needs also to be specific, detailed, and appropriate if it is to be effective. You need to find an aspect of these broad topics (education, health care, alternative energies, pollution) and carve out for yourself a place where you can be an expert. An expert drills down deep into a subject and comes up with information that is not readily available to the ordinary person. Experts know dates, they know people, they know statistics, they know trends, and they know the conversation, the gossip, the backstory intimately. In other words, a lobbyist cannot be a generalist because he/she will be ignored. "We already know that. Tell us what we don't know and most of all tell us what we can use to help our cause." That's what your clients will say to you. And detailed information is what you need to find and put into your report for this assignment.

Your LobSim Org Home (Wiki) Page

The main home page of each LobSim org will function as a wiki for the organization. A wiki is different from a blog. A blog gathers new information in reverse chronological order. A blog is good at establishing and maintaining a relationship between a writer and his/her audience. A wiki archives and manages information. I allows visitors to add, edit, and change material. A blog can be seen as taking the place of a bulletin board where a wiki takes the place of a project binder. (source: http://mplictechtrain.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-is-difference-between-blog-and.html)

You will help your fellow staff members to construct and maintain a knowledge base concerning your organization that will begin on the first page of your org's LobSim site. At the top of each org home (wiki) page I have posed the question: What is your (leader's) stance on the four bill topics. Start with possible answers to this question. In this way, you will construct a knowledge base by submitting data to the page that follows the personal and political point of view of your particular org and its leader. The information that you add has to be consistent, topical, and reliable.

The first stage of making this knowledge base is to have all the members submit information that appears to be a part of an answer to the question: What is Xs stance on . . . . The second stage is to take that information and organize it into fields and categories, creating new pages if necessary. And the third stage is to revise the information already in the categories and add more information.

You start this process by going onto your org page, selecting Edit this Page (in the top right corner), posting your information under the bill topic categories that have already been placed into the page, and then hit Save (again in the top right corner). Do this for every submission you make. Initially add a line space between your submission and the others on the page. Changes to the page will be logged in Recent Site Activity in the left frame of each page.

You must try to detach your ego from your writing on a wiki. Someone will be going onto the page changing, reordering, and/or eliminating what you have written. This is the nature of the work in a wiki. You must do this kind of editing and it will be done to your writing, too. Get used to it and use it to your advantage. Your writing will resist changes by others if you do it in an exemplary fashion. Simple as that. Working in a wiki is a matter of the crowd coming to a consensus. Note: Each change to the home (wiki) org page is recorded in the history section of each page.

LobSim Org Clients and LobSim Blogs

Who are the clients for these three orgs? The congresswoman's clients are of course her constituents in Chester Co. Mr. Fantorum's clients are a series of businesses that include banks, for profit educational firms, energy companies, and drug companies. Prof Smith and Minerva work for consumer protection agencies, environmental orgs, green energy business, and the AMA.

How does all this affect the writing you will do? It affects mainly the process toward producing the writing, esp the proposal/arg piece that will lay out the bill you and your org want passed. The scandals and opportunities, the clients and their wishes all go to produce the context under which the proposal you write is constructed. Here is one example: If there is a scandal for Mr. F then those you who work for him must fend off those in the other orgs who will want to criticize your lobbying firm and him and by implication your justification for some part of the bill that you all are pushing. Therefore, you have to be aware of what the other orgs are proposing as well.

Staff members of each blog must read the other two blogs and the research reports that they are writing. You want to help or discredit the other org so that your proposal gains strength. The resources you will use to help your clients to get what they want from the legislation your are proposing will include statements about what the other org is doing or not doing to affect change.

Much of this pre-proposal writing is going to take place in the blogs the three different orgs produce. The news about scandals or successes of the three orgs is going to be broadcast on the LobSim Portal page and on Twitter. If you miss a juicy change in the status of your employer and do not act accordingly to help him or her weather a storm or take advantage of a positive outcome, you will be put into a negative position. Be alert and react immediately on your blog or on Twitter to the changes that will be posted on the LobSim Portal site.

LobSim Org PICs (People in Charge)

Who stands behind the heads of the orgs: Rep. Modigliani, Mr. Fantorum, and Dr. Smith and speaks for them? I do. Your retiring, soft spoken instructor. I am the dynamic Maggie Mo. I am the fiery Mr. Fantastic. I am the demure but scathingly direct Prof Smith. Not only will I speak for them to you but I will have as only the supreme being does, control over their lives and fortunes. I can give Rep M a nervous breakdown. I can give Mr. F a male lover. I can give Prof. S a scandal where she is accused of misappropriating funds. I can also give Rep Mo's opponent (Mr. Singleton) a major misstep (e.g. he belonged to a satanic cult in h.s.) in the election where she now sees a way to bring him down (with your help) and be reelected. I can give Mr. F a very rich and anonymous donor who is ready to give him millions if only he ??? I can give Prof S a juicy report by a whistle blower high in the employ of a rapacious corporation. You will have to respond to these events with stategies to help your employer and his/her clients.