Establishing positive, long-term relationships with your legislators is an essential element of advocacy—and something you don’t have to tackle without support and guidance from your peers. Through annual Day in the District meetings designed to foster positive, productive conversations between library advocates and the elected officials serving those advocates’ districts, members of the California library community and elected officials have an opportunity to discuss the shared interests they have. Join us for this highly interactive workshop featuring experienced Day in the District participants discussing what they do and answering your questions about how to open doors through participation in Day in the District 2023.

Goal:

By participating in this session, you will learn, from peers, how you can foster positive, productive relationships with your elected officials and begin identifying how to effectively take part in Day in the District activities this year.

During the session, you will:

• Identify at least three ways of gaining your legislators’ attention

• Learn how to incorporate, into your own advocacy work, at least three practices followed by peers who work effectively with legislators to meet community needs through libraries

• Develop a brief plan of action to participate in Day in the District 2023

Session Facilitators:  

Deborah Doyle, Chair of the Sonoma County Library Commission and member of CLA’s Advocacy and Legislative Committee

Crystal Miles,Public Services Manager at Sacramento Public Library and member of the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Training Committee and the CLA Advocacy & Legislation Committee

Paul Signorelli, CLA Library Advocacy Training Project Manager and author ofChange the World Using Social Media (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021)

Yolande Wilburn,Director, Santa Cruz Public Libraries and a former member of the CLA Advocacy and Legislation Committee

About the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series

This program is part of an ongoing series of monthly online sessions organized offered through the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series; sessions are generally held online on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning at 10 am PT. The series honors the memory ofUrsula Meyer, 1977-78 CLA President, California Library Hall of Fame inductee, longtime director of the Stockton-San Joaquin Public Library, and fierce advocate for library services and intellectual freedom. The Ursula Meyer Fund was established to provide for thetraining of librarians in all stages of their careers, and library supporters, in political advocacy and political action, in honor of Ursula’s belief that librarians need effective political skills to advocate for library support at all levels of government.