LA Lobby - Ready!

With eighteen Congressional seats in Los Angeles County alone, it was time to get the Los Angeles ONE team together to generate action around the August Recess. Over forty volunteers showed up at Wednesday night’s LA ONE Volunteer meeting, including two staff-members from Congressman Adam B. Schiff’s office and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich’s publicist, as well as the Founder-Director of Friends of The United Nations.

All attendees had the opportunity to express why they signed up for the ONE Campaign and what they hope to accomplish by being a volunteer. Although most were new to the lobbying world, there was a definite interest in letting their member of Congress know that they care about extreme poverty and global disease. We discussed all pertinent pieces of legislation that ONE is focused on, including the Education for All Act, The Global Child Survival Act, the GROWTH Act and Jubilee Act. We also talked about ONE Vote ‘08 and the importance of engaging Presidential Candidates (see the Candidate Trackr) when they are in town.

Lead volunteer Amy Quinn was by my side assisting with the meeting, and ONE member Jeanine, who was new in town from Maryland, was a great help in facilitating as well. Thanks to all of you who took the time (and braved the LA traffic) to join the meeting and learn more about ONE. Let’s keep the momentum going and let all eighteen Representatives know that we care about extreme poverty.

Special thanks goes out the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for donating the meeting space and a consistently gracious and accommodating staff.

Wrap-up from Last Night’s Conference Call

Last night, 150 ONE members from across the country joined on a ONE conference call to learn more about lobbying their member of Congress during the upcoming August recess. Joining the call from ONE HQ was Josh Peck, Internet Director; Erin Erlenborn, Director of Government Affairs; and myself from our Field department.

Here are the highlights:

• Lobbying your Member of Congress is one of the most powerful ways to use your voice in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.

• We walked through step-by-step how to set up a meeting with your member of Congress. You can find that information here.
• During this August recess, ONE is pushing four pieces of legislation: the U.S. Commitment to Child Survival Act, the Education for All Act, the GROWTH Act, and the Jubilee Act.
• While it may be intimidating to set up a meeting, remember that your member of Congress wants to hear what you have to say and it’s not as hard as it looks.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined. For those of you that missed the call, check out the August recess lobbying page and set up a meeting with your member of Congress today.