Advocacy 101 and State Resources

Although you can work individually with legislators, the best chance of accomplishing your goals is to work with your fellow board members to establish district priorities and advocate for them together. The entire board may not agree completely on every issue, but you will build more credibility and be more effective if you speak with one voice rather than at cross-purposes. Involving others from your district or community also adds to your message’s strength.

Specific knowledge about your district is essential. The information you provide must be:

• Understandable — Your legislator probably does not have the same background in education that you do.
• Accurate — It’s OK not to know the answer to a question. Simply say you will find out and always follow through. Don’t be afraid to turn to district staff for help if you don’t know the answers. If you inadvertently offer erroneous information, always contact your legislator and explain the mistake as quickly as possible.
• Persuasive — Always break your proposals down to how they will positively affect children in the classroom. The bottom line is that legislators need to be convinced that your issues matter.
• Prepared — Be prepared when you arrive. Do your homework in advance so you can speak clearly and concisely on the issue. There are many resources for building your knowledge base.

Your starting points should be the OSBA Legislative and advocacy webpage and the Oregon State Legislature website, where you will find a wealth of information:

• OSBA’s Legislative Priorities & Principles
• Look up your legislator
• Local education advocacy opportunities
• Biographies of our senators and representatives.

The goal is to build credibility with your legislators so that they come looking for you when they need information. Offer legislators your address and phone numbers – business cards do nicely. Often when legislators need information, time is of the essence.

Always thank legislators for their time and express interest in keeping in touch, even if they disagree with your position this time.

 
Don’t wait until an important bill is in your legislator’s committee or on the floor to develop contacts. Start early. As President Lyndon Johnson said, “Make friends before you need them.”

Knowing legislators and their staff personally is the first step to being heard.

Attend an event sponsored by your legislator. Don’t miss the chance to visit with your legislators in your district at town hall meetings or other events. OSBA’s Opportunities for advocacy webpage maintains a listing of events hosted by state legislators.

Set up a meeting and introduce yourself. This is especially important if the lawmaker is new. Stop by their offices in Salem, even if you are just passing through. Legislative schedules can be tricky, so make an appointment if you can, and make sure to develop contacts with the legislators’ staffs. Floor maps of the Oregon State Capitol are available to help you navigate the building.

Welcome them to your district. Don’t assume that just because legislators grew up in your district or have children in your schools that they know how you would like them to vote on every education issue. In coordination with your superintendent, give legislators tours of your schools often, at least on an annual basis. Show them the good things that are happening in your schools. Explain the challenges your district faces and show them the areas where your district needs additional support. Invite them to school events and make sure they are on the mailing list for your district’s newsletter. They won’t be able to attend every function, but the more time they spend with you and the students, the more likely they are to support your cause.

Take the time to get to know your legislator. The Oregon State Legislature website features a Find Your Local District and Legislator tool that will allow you to verify your legislative district and individual legislators. Here you will find links to your legislator’s state webpage, which has contact information, biography, newsletters and a list of committees on which they sit.

Establish a friendly relationship by finding common friends or interests, especially if the legislator has any connection to your schools, such as children or a spouse. Be sure to address legislators as “Representative” or “Senator,” always thank them for their time and express interest in keeping in touch, even if they disagree with your position this time.

 
Building relationships with your legislators takes time. By regularly contacting your legislators and developing a relationship, though, you will be able to influence their decision-making.

Contact your legislators prior to the legislative session to introduce yourself. Establish a relationship so that when you call about an issue during a legislative session, your legislator will be more willing to consider your point of view.

Phone calls may be best when time is of the essence, such as when a bill is up for a vote or to express appreciation immediately following a favorable vote.

• Give your name, title and the school board on which you serve. Ask to speak with the legislator but be prepared to talk to legislative staff. Staff are the keepers of all things the legislator does, so treat them with respect and work with them to speak to your legislator.
• If you have spoken to or seen the legislator recently, remind him or her of the contact. Legislators meet with many constituents and may not remember precisely when they saw or heard from them last. This can help to break the ice and lead into your reason for calling.
• Identify the specific proposal you are calling about, by bill number if possible. Call about only one issue at a time. Briefly state your position and how you’d like your legislator to vote.
• Ask your legislator’s view on the issue or bill. If necessary, offer to provide information the legislator needs to make an informed decision. If the legislator is unsure of a position or vote, offer to follow up the phone call with another call or visit.
• Always thank legislators for their time and express interest in keeping in touch, even if they disagree with your position this time.

Putting your thoughts in writing is important when you are introducing a complicated topic. It will allow your legislator time to mull over the issue before responding and will help you to organize your thoughts so that you can explain them more clearly when you meet.

• Put your mailing address and phone number on all correspondence so that the legislator can easily contact you with questions or for more information.
• Keep your letters to one issue, short and to the point. Refer to the issue specifically or by bill number, if possible. Be informed about your board’s stance and your legislator’s position. Clearly state what it is you want them to do, such as supporting a bill on the floor, opposing a bill in committee, or drafting a bill or an amendment. Offer specific information on why it is important. What is the bottom line on this issue for your district? Always bring it back to students and tell them how a proposal or bill will impact schools in their community.
• Timing is critical. If the letter arrives too early, it may be forgotten before the vote. One or two days before the vote is taken is generally the best.
• Always thank legislators for their time and express interest in keeping in touch. Legislators appreciate thank you notes, as they often use them for newsletters or other materials mailed to constituents.

Take the time to get to know your legislator. The Oregon State Legislature website features a Find Your Local District and Legislator tool that will allow you to verify your legislative district and individual legislators. You will find links to your legislator’s state webpage with contact information, a biography, newsletters and a list of committees on which the legislator sits.

 
The Oregon State Legislature website contains multiple options for finding pertinent information on bills, an indispensable resource for researching and tracking legislation of interest.

For broad searches use the “Find Bills” button or the “Search Bills” field located in the right-hand column of the Oregon State Legislature home page. The “Find Bills” and “Search Bills” options are perfect for keyword searches and yield results for the current session. Boolean operators can be used to refine your search.

For more detailed searches use the Oregon State Legislature Information System (OLIS).

• To search by bill number, key word search or bill sponsor, use the “Bills” icon at the top of the page. This search is a more advanced version of the “Find Bills” and “Search Bills” options listed above and will yield more specific results.
• To search by committee, use the “Committees” icon at the page’s top. This search will yield the best results when generally looking for education bills. The Senate and House each have education committees. Once a committee has been selected, the “Overview” tab will list what is happening on the current day and the “Assigned Measures” tab will list all the bills that have been assigned to that committee.
• To search by hearing date, the OLIS home page provides a list of the meetings being held that day under the “Meetings Today” accordion and identifies the times, locations and agendas for each meeting. This list can be modified to provide hearings scheduled for other days by using the “Pick a new date” option in the top right corner or by selecting a different session using the “Session” icon located at the top of the page. This page also includes lists of bills scheduled for first, second and third readings; committee referrals and reports; and the day’s legislative publications.

Once a bill has been located, use the bill’s “Overview” tab to find summary information, measure history and an upcoming events schedule. The measure history section of this tab will identify where the bill is in the legislative process, provide the results of any vote that has occurred and support access to hearing videos. To access these recordings open the “Measure History” accordion, click on the “Committee Agenda” icon to the right of the listed hearing, click on the “Recorded Content” icon to the right of the bill number listed in the “Meetings” column located in the right navigation pane, then click on the “Play” icon in the left navigation pane.

The “Meeting Materials/Exhibits” tab houses all written documentation associated with the bill that has been submitted as public record. You will find submissions that have been provided by the public and all written testimony, floor letters, impact statements, staff measure summaries and various reports.

All other tabs contain the Legislature’s work product. The “Text” tab yields the introduced, amended, engrossed and enrolled bill versions. The last in the list will be the most recent. The “Analysis” tab offers nonpartisan staff reports, including staff measure summaries and impact statements. The “Amendments” tab contains all submitted bill amendments. Not all amendments that have been drafted will be submitted for consideration.

OLIS can be a powerful tool for legislative information, and the more familiar you are with it, the more useful it is.

Keep abreast of Oregon’s legislative activities by subscribing to Capitol e-Subscribe, an automatic email notification service hosted by the Oregon State Legislature.

This service is popular with lobbyists, legislators and members of the public. Subscribers receive automated emails for selected items, including notifications regarding committee agenda updates, legislator press releases and newsletters, and individual bill alerts that track movement through the legislative process. Bill notifications are set by bill number and include 15 possible actions that can trigger an alert. All notification categories are easily refined so that subscribers only receive the information important to them.

During session, hundreds of emails go out every day. OSBA recommends starting with the general Legislative News and Press Releases and the specific Member News and Press Releases for the legislators who represent you. Consider only adding additional notifications that are most important to your district. It is easy to modify an account even if the password is forgotten.

Use this link to sign up of Capitol e-Subscribe.

The Legislature establishes the Legislative Calendar at the previous session’s close through resolution. The Legislative Calendar can be found in the right column of the Chief Clerk of the House webpage of the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS). The calendar contains the following important dates:

• Legislative Days – The time between sessions is called the interim. The Legislature convenes periodically during the interim for special meeting days, called “Legislative Days.” These happen approximately every eight weeks and last four days. During Legislative Days, committees may hold informational hearings on topics that could lead to legislation in upcoming sessions, hear updates on implementations of past legislation, hear reports from state agencies and task forces, and keep current on the subject areas that affect Oregonians. During Legislative Days, the Senate may also convene to make executive appointments.
• Legislative counsel deadlines – Legislative counsel deadlines make up the timeline for bills to be requested, returned by the counsel and introduced. After these deadlines, drafts and introductions count against per-legislator limits.
• Session deadlines – Session deadlines establish the timeline for bills to be posted for work sessions, then voted out of policy committees in the first and second chambers. Although there are exceptions, bills not posted for a work session or not moved out of a policy committee by these dates generally cannot be moved out of the committee and are considered “dead.” Session deadlines do not apply to rules, revenue or joint committees.
• Legislative session start and end – Regular Legislative Assembly sessions convene in the early part of each year and may last 160 days in odd-numbered years and 35 days in even-numbered years. Floor sessions are scheduled on all weekdays during the legislative session and are announced by the Senate president or House speaker.

Although the legislative process is long and complex, all laws begin as ideas. Ideas for a law can come from anyone.

A bill’s path, from the time it is just an idea to the time it arrives at the governor’s desk for approval, is pocked with possible detours. For a bill to become law, it must be passed by both legislative chambers in the identical form. Find out more about how an idea becomes a law on the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS).

By statute, state agencies must file bills before the session. During session, only a legislator or a legislative committee can introduce a measure to the House or Senate for consideration.

If deadlines are missed, the Senate Rules Committee or the House Committee on Legislative Rules must approve requests for drafting and/or introduction. Appropriation or fiscal measures sponsored by the Joint Committee on Ways and Means are exempt from filing deadlines and may be introduced at any time.

The Oregon Constitution provides that laws become effective 90 days after adjournment of the Legislative Assembly unless the bill indicates otherwise. Some bills contain a clause that specify an effective date. Bills may have emergency, sunset or referendum clauses attached.

The Legislature’s committees do the work on bills, but the chamber floors are where bills pass or fail. Passing a bill involves a series of technical steps required by the Oregon Constitution.

Bills must be “read,” meaning literally read from the dais. “First reading” signifies the introduction of the bill to the Legislature. The reading clerk will read aloud on the chamber floor the measure number and title. The president of the Senate or the speaker of the House then refers the bill to a committee.

After work in a committee, a bill is “second read.” The second reading notifies the public that the bill has completed its process in committee and is back on the floor for a vote. The reading clerk will again read aloud the measure number and title.

A bill’s “third reading” allows a vote on the bill. The reading clerk will again read aloud the measure number and title and is also required to read the entire text of the bill, commonly referred to as a “full read.” The vote is cast, and the bill moves through the legislative process as appropriate.

The Oregon Constitution requires a full read, but it is time consuming. Generally, it takes the reading clerk two to three minutes to read each page of a bill. Bills can be more than 100 pages, taking hours. With consent of two-thirds of the members of either chamber (20 of 30 in the Senate or 40 of 60 in the House) the bill can be read “by title only,” just like the first and second readings.

Another procedural option, with consent for bills that need to be moved quickly, is to second and third read on the same day. Generally, this is used narrowly for consensus bills, like agency budget bills, or to finish bills toward the end of a legislative session.

Upon first reading, the bill is considered “introduced.” If a committee adopts an amendment(s) with its recommendation of do pass, before the bill can proceed to its next destination, it will detour to the legislative counsel office, where the text of the bill will be updated to include the adopted amendment(s). The bill is then considered “engrossed. After the bill has passed both houses, it is signed by the Speaker of the House, the Senate President, and the Chief Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate, and is now considered enrolled.

The enrolled bill is then presented to the Governor for action. The Governor has five days to take action, if the Legislature is still in session, or 30 days, if the Legislature is adjourned. The Governor may sign the bill into law, allow a bill to become law without his/her signature, or may decide to veto the bill. If signed, the bill becomes law on the date indicated in the bill or on January 1. If not signed, the bill becomes law on Jan. 1. The signed enrolled bill, is then filed with the Secretary of State, who assigns it an Oregon Laws chapter number and the Legislative Counsel’s office then insert the text of the new law into the existing Oregon Revised Statutes.

You can find bills using OLIS and see where they are in the process. Click on the “Overview” tab for a bill page and expand the “Measure History” section. This section provides a complete chronicle of the path a bill has taken through the legislative process.

The Legislature can do things in addition to creating, amending or repealing laws. Legislators can send a message to national leaders on behalf of the state, propose changes to the Oregon Constitution or offer honors to notable Oregonians. They accomplish this through written documents called measures, as explained on the Oregon Legislature’s website. There are six types of measures: bill, joint resolution, concurrent resolution, resolution, joint memorial and memorial.

A bill is the proposal for the creation, amendment or repeal of a law. With few exceptions, statutes must be enacted through a bill and must be passed by both houses in identical form.

Generally, resolutions are used for internal business, either within the respective house or within the state of Oregon, and memorials are used for external business – at a national level.

A joint resolution must be passed by both houses in identical form and are used to:

• Propose a constitutional amendment;
• Create an interim committee;
• Give direction to a state agency;
• Express legislative approval of action taken by someone else;
• Authorize a kind of temporary action to be taken;
• Authorize expenditures out of the legislative expense appropriations.

A concurrent resolution must be passed by both houses in identical form and is used to express sympathy or commendation or to commemorate the dead.

A resolution is used by the Senate or House to take an action that would affect only its own members.

A memorial must be adopted by its house of origin and is used to make a request of or to express an opinion to Congress, the president of the United States or both. A joint memorial must be adopted by both houses.

A bill is the proposal for the creation, amendment or repeal of a law. With few exceptions, statutes must be enacted through a bill and must be passed by both legislative chambers in identical form.

Reading a bill is easier when you understand the following characteristics:

• Measure Number: Measure numbers are assigned by the secretary of the Senate or the chief clerk of the House and are used to identify the bills during the legislative process.
• Summary: Legislative Counsel drafts a short summary of the bill that briefly identifies what the bill does.
• “Relating to” clause: By Oregon Constitution, all bills must contain only one subject that must be expressed in the title of the bill. This subject is stated within the “relating to” clause. Once the bill has been assigned a measure number, the clause may not be altered during the legislative process. Almost any other part of the bill may be altered by amendment.
• Italicized and bracketed language is being proposed for deletion.
• Bolded language is being proposed for addition.

A complete Guide to Reading a Legislative Measure can be found on the Oregon State Legislature’s website. We encourage you to take a look at it.

The Honorary Page program inspires the leaders of tomorrow by presenting students with the opportunity to engage with today’s legislators and providing hands-on experience in the legislative process.

Historically, the title “page” identified the entry level position of a knight’s apprenticeship. Pages received scholastic, social and military education during their service. “The term ‘honorary page’ is applied to our guest attendants today because it recalls the honorable status and goals of pages in history,” according to the Oregon State Legislature website.

Honorary pages, generally 12-18 years old, are selected through an application process and are assigned to serve for a single day during the legislative session. The day begins with a tour of the Capitol. Pages will learn about Oregon’s rich history and the legislative process and become familiar with the building’s layout and inner workings. When the floor is in session, pages may be invited to participate in some of the ceremonial activities and be given the chance to meet with Oregon’s legislators. The afternoon is typically devoted to helping legislative staff with basic clerical duties.

To participate in the program, contact the senator who represents your district or the House Honorary Page Program.