The GCSAA Legislative Action Center (LAC) is an exciting grassroots lobbying tool that gives chapter leaders the power to play an active role in the political process. It is a one-stop shop to help you manage your chapter's grassroots campaigns. In only a matter of minutes, the LAC allows you to:
- respond to emerging issues affecting the profession,
- read the full text and check the status of bills being tracked by GCSAA staff,
- identify and contact three levels of government officials, and
- reach local, state and national media contacts
The interactive tool is located on GCSAA Online, underneath the Resource tab, in the Advocacy section.
The LAC is an efficient time saving tool for those who wish to participate in the advocacy process. It takes the time and energy spent searching in various locations for information on elected officials and pending legislation and condenses it into a single location and format that is easily accessible. The LAC makes it possible for you to become knowledgeable on the issues pertinent to the golf industry and those responsible for lawmaking from the convenience of your home or office.
An interactive and self-paced tutorial is available on the GCSAA Web site to help show you how to effectively use the LAC. It provides step by step directions for navigating each section of the tool. The tutorial even allows you to open a secondary window so you can not only read the instructions but also simultaneously put them into practice.
In this and the next four issues of Chapter Connection, you will get an in-depth look at various features of the LAC and how you can use it to enhance your advocacy efforts. Future articles will concentrate on how to track state and federal legislation, how to contact media outlets and individuals, and how to construct action alerts. The November issue will present two case studies on how GCSAA has used the LAC to respond to emerging issues. This month's article focuses on the Elected Officials feature found within the LAC.
Elected Officials
One of the most advantageous aspects of the LAC is its ability to allow you to easily search for and make contact with your local, state, and federal elected officials. Simply use your 5-digit zip code to quickly locate who your elected officials are and what district they represent. In an instant, you'll have access to lawmaker information including personal data, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and staff contact information. You even have the opportunity to contact your elected official via letter or e-mail right from the site.
The tool has the ability to show information so specific that you can see how officials have voted on previous legislation and what committees they happen to serve on. Not only that, within the Elected Officials feature, you have the ability to pull up a list of all major local and state government officials including state agency heads and personnel. If you want specific information on a particular state agency, links are provided to the home page of each state agency web page where more research can be done.
The LAC can serve as an integral tool in your chapter's government relations program. Have you ever been caught in a situation where you needed to take quick action to respond to a piece of legislation? The Elected Officials feature can help you quickly get letters out from your chapter members to their elected officials. If you have a chapter roster which includes a zip code listing, you can cut down the time on getting letters out the door. You can use the zip code feature to look up your chapter members' elected officials rather than taking time on the phone to find out this information. You can also use a chapter meeting to show your members how to use the LAC themselves. The Legislation Action Center represents a tremendous opportunity for your chapter to enhance its current government relations efforts.
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- For more information about the "Issues and Legislation" section in the GCSAA LAC, contact Nathan Littlejohn, government relations coordinator, at (800) 472-7878, ext. 4493 or nlittlejohn@gcsaa.org.
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