Doing Your Part for Tomorrow's Libraries
You, Too, Can Be a Successful Reception Host

Gretchen McCord Hoffmann

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. -- Aristotle

Since 1988, District 8 of the Texas Library Association has offered library supporters in the greater Houston area the opportunity to share in the government of their state, in particular as it affects libraries. October 1996 marked the fourth biennial District 8 Legislative Reception. The task of holding successful receptions has become substantially easier over time as we build on our previous experiences. This article is intended to encourage and assist other TLA districts in planning their own legislative receptions.

The value of activities like this lies not in the wooing of legislators, but in getting to know legislators on an individual basis and in educating them about library issues to the point that they recognize our names and faces and know what we stand for. Our success in achieving these relationships revealed itself at the 1996 reception when four legislators, in their speeches, identified individual librarian constituents as being responsible for their awareness of library issues and their attendance at the reception.

The District 8 Legislative Reception is held approximately one month before election day. Legislators and candidates for office at the state, congressional, Governor, and Lt. Governor levels are invited (from here on, any reference to "legislators" should be understood to include candidates for office as well). Legislators receive personal visits from constituents inviting them to the reception and delivering TLA's legislative issues for the coming session. As many as thirty legislators and candidates for office and 250 library supporters attend each reception.

An attempt is made to reach as many librarians and library supporters in the area as possible to encourage them to attend as well. The first half hour of the two-hour reception is a time to mingle and greet legislators, while the remaining time is used for legislators to address the audience about any of TLA's issues.

Each district will have to make its own choices according to its situation, but hopefully the following checklist will help in your planning:

Committee

  1. Begin your planning at the district meeting at annual conference.
  2. Select committee members from all types of libraries as well as support groups.

Funding

  1. Determine how much your district will be able to contribute.
  2. Compile a list of likely contributors in your district, including Friends groups, vendors, and individuals.
  3. Letters of solicitation followed by more personal contact make an
  4. effective combination.
  5. Give a deadline well ahead of the reception.
  6. Many donors seem to wait until the last minute to send in their contributions. If funds are still short once the deadline has passed, use those personal contacts!
  7. Encourage contributions of services as well as money (for example, absorbing printing or mailing costs).

Date and time

  1. Select a date far enough ahead of the election that legislators won't be in the final rush of campaigning. Try to determine, by checking with legislators' offices, if other events are already scheduled that might compete with yours.
  2. Select a time that is likely to have fewer conflicts for legislators and supporters (4:30 - 6:30 has been successful for District 8).
  3. Know that no time is good for everyone.

Facilities

  1. Select a sight that will be as convenient as possible for as many as possible.
  2. Investigate all of your options concerning catering, set-up, pricing, billing, parking, etc.
  3. Plan a registration area, with room for circulation, outside of the area where legislators will be speaking so that late arrivals will not disturb the program in progress.
  4. Plan for a riser or stage with podium and sound system, seating for guests, room to circulate around the refreshments, and necessary signage.
  5. If guests must pay for anything (parking, bar, etc.), find a way to make these services complimentary for legislators.
  6. In planning refreshments, remember that it is better to have some leftovers than to run out.

Legislative contacts

  1. Contact Sam Stone, TLA Legal Counsel, for a list of all registered candidates.
  2. Recruit at least one constituent from each member's district to contact the legislator and candidates from that district. A list of your district members by state representative district can be obtained from the TLA office.
  3. Information to be delivered to each legislator should include: TLA Legislative Issue Statements (available from the Legislative Committee), invitation to the reception, explanation of how the reception will work (time limits, etc.), and any other information supporting libraries (such as the newly-created resource sharing brochure).
  4. Give each contact a copy of the same information as well as their legislators' record of supporting TLA issues.
  5. Each contact should call her representative's office to schedule the reception as soon as possible and to make an appointment to visit the legislator in person.
  6. Follow up the visit with a reminder shortly before the reception.

Invitations

  1. Create simple, flier-style invitations, including a brief summary of the major issues, for supporters which can be bulk mailed through the TLA office.
  2. Send invitations to all District members, all library directors, and all support groups in your district.
  3. Create more formal invitations for legislators.

Publicity

  1. Try to recruit a librarian in each library or library system in your area to be responsible for publicity in their own library.
  2. Identify any meetings or events that would provide contact with library supporters and get on the agendas. Program
  3. Decide when you will begin the program and how long each legislator will speak. (We allow each legislator and candidate three minutes, and any representative sent in their place two minutes.)
  4. Select a non-politician, non-librarian moderator who will be able to control time limits.
  5. Write an introduction that will include the purpose of the reception, an overview of the issues, and an introduction of any honored guests, such as TLA officers.
  6. Have people available to greet late-comers and to thank and say good-bye to those leaving early.
  7. Plan a system for letting the moderator know which legislators are present, including those who arrive after the program has begun. Registration
  8. Create name tags for legislators and honored guests before the reception. There should be some way to distinguish the name tags of legislators from a distance, and to distinguish the name tags of legislators from those of candidates.
  9. Provide blank name tags for supporters.
  10. Plan to look up district numbers and representatives for supporters as they sign in; many will not know who their representatives are. Strongly encourage guests to look for and speak to their legislators.
  11. Have a printed list of invited legislators available for signing in so that you can tell who has attended.

TLA has had great success in gaining legislative support in recent years. For example, none of the resource sharing projects now underway--TexShare, Project Link, Texas Library Connection--would have been possible without the legislative participation of TLA members. Our success is due to activities including participating in Legislative Day, maintaining contact with legislators, including legislators in our Association's activities, and holding receptions like District 8's.

The key is personal contact, personal contact, personal contact. It takes time to build any relationship, and relationships with legislators are no exception. So far, this investment of time has greatly benefited the libraries and library users of Texas. It will only continue to benefit our users if each of us continues to play a role in the process.

Holding receptions is only one way to do this. Begin by getting to know your legislators at home. Take part in TLA Legislative Day in February (see the Fall 1994 issue of Texas Library Journal for an idea of what that experience is like for someone who has never been politically active). Keep in touch with your legislators about issues important to you and your patrons. Make it your personal goal for each of your legislators to know your name, your face, and what you stand for--the libraries and library users of Texas!

Gretchen McCord Hoffmann is coordinator of library instruction for the University of Houston Libraries.

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Last Modified: 3/25/1997

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