Structuring the Foundation of a Government Affairs Program

With any government affairs program it's important that you create a transparent system for your members, non-members and elected officials so everyone understands where you stand on issues on behalf of your membership.

If you are transparent, no one can get angry on the positions you take on behalf of your membership.

That's what we do as Chamber executives on behalf of our members.

It's our job to fight for our small business members before the local Zoning Commission, City Council, State Government and even the Federal government when appropriate.

I've said it before, we should not be in the "parade" business.  We should be in the advocacy business and not shy away from it.

Your members will appreciate your taking a stand for them before the appropriate elected body to look after their best interest.

Never forget that that's the business we're in!

Communicating Your Message with Impact

Institute faculty member Tony Rubleski at Mind Capture taught the COPE theory of communications, "Create Once Publish Everywhere!"

I recently read an article on using three words to describe your business (see that previous blog post HERE).

In addition, I wrote another blog post on effective messaging that will resonate with your audience based on an interview that AssociationNow did with James Carville.  You can find that HERE.

And by the way, right or wrong, left or right, James Carville knows what he's talking about when it comes to communications.

Put another way, keep it simple, or put another way, less is more!

I totally agree that the key is to keep your message consistent over all your communication vehicles and keep it simple.

Which goes back to the opening sentence of this blog post.

COPE!

Don't recreate the wheel with the different social media platforms you may be working on to get your message out.

"Create Once Publish Everywhere."  COPE!