Speaking at a public meeting can be intimidating, and the process often seems opaque. When
you have only two or three minutes during a public meeting to advocate for your cause, how do
you prepare and make the best use of that time with your elected or appointed officials? Because
public meetings are often the final chance is to change the outcome, building your skills for this
critical moment in time before the final vote is cast is an essential part of your advocacy toolkit.
 
This highly-interactive workshop, drawing upon the presenters’ experiences preparing and
delivering short presentations in public hearings and working with elected officials, is designed
to help you break down that process, piece by piece, from figuring out which group controls
what function of your library to preparing to speak to an item or under open public comment.
You’ll find plenty of tips, and you will have time to prepare and critique presentations you can
incorporate into your own advocacy work on behalf of libraries and the communities they serve.
Join us for this the latest highly interactive free 90-minute California Library Association Ursula
Meyer Library Advocacy Training project online workshop via Zoom with Monterey County
Free Library Director Hillary Theyer and Paul Signorelli, author of Change the World Using
Social Media, on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 from 10-11:30 a.m. PT. Among the items to
be explored are what we hear from elected officials; how we condense complex messages into
brief, engaging presentations; and how we can use brief public presentations to further strengthen
the positive relationships we nurture with elected officials.

Goal and Objectives:

Participants, by the end of this session, will have a simple framework that helps them prepare
and deliver brief engaging presentations in public meetings to advocate for libraries and the
communities they serve.

Upon completing the workshop, you will:

• Be able to describe at least three steps you can take to prepare brief, effective
  presentations during public meetings and hearings
  
• Have learned at least three things that officials appreciate hearing from their constituents
  during public meetings
  
• Have prepared a draft of a presentation you can use during a public meeting or hearing
  
• Be able to cite at least three resources you can use to further strengthen your own ability
  to develop and deliver brief presentation during public meetings and hearings
  

Pre-Session Resource:

An interview with Monterey County Supervisor Christopher Lopez on the topic of what he looks
for when hearing comments from constituents during public meetings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aa4M3kh4K4&list=PLdrlIGxgBLmXyjrj1cHsWCcSm5vlP
iXa8&index=1

Presenters:

Hillary Theyer, Director of the Monterey County Free Library, has extensive experience
speaking at public meetings and working with elected officials. She serves on the CLA Board as
Secretary and has served on the Finance Committee, Leadership Development Committee,
Interest Group Committee, Advocacy Committee, Bylaws and Governance Committee, and is a
lifetime member of CLA. She is Chair of the Ursula Meyer Endowment Committee (2025) and
was involved in the project at its inception, when she was one of the first two committee
members working with the CLA executive director and Ursula Meyer Library Advocacy
Training project manager to organize the initial four-session pilot program and oversee the
program’s growth during its first two years.

Paul Signorelli, a San Francisco-based writer/trainer-facilitator/presenter/consultant, is project
manager for the CLA Ursula Meyer Library Advocacy Training project; has spoken at numerous
public meetings as an advocate; and is author of “Change the World Using Social Media”
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).

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 September 2025 session is
scheduled for the third Wednesday of the month to accommodate the presenters’ schedules.
The series honors the memory of Ursula 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 the training 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. Archived recordings of
previous sessions are available on the California Library Association YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/@californialibraryassociati2705/videos.

To support the series through a donation, please visit the CLA website at https://www.cla-
net.org/donations/fund.asp?id=23440.