ATSSA Signal Jan/Feb 2019

American Traffic Safety Services Association 10 Government Relations Since the development of its State Government Relations Program, ATSSA has been working with association chap- ters to plan and coordinate advocacy days. These involve meeting with state legislators to inform and educate them that ATSSA chapters are available as re- sources when they encounter import- ant transportation bills or issues. The route that most chapters take when they would like to hold a state advoca- cy day begins with developing a survey, either formally or informally, for the chapter to see what the level of interest is. Chapter liaisons are available to help members craft a formal survey; how- ever, sometimes members conduct in- formal surveys at chapter meetings. Assuming that the survey results are positive, and members want to move forward, they form an advocacy day planning committee, a crucial step in planning the advocacy day. This com- mittee is in charge of planning and co- ordinating the advocacy day with the ATSSA Director of State Government Relations Ashley Wieland. The committee typically consists of about five members and includes the chapter president, the president-elect, and the chapter’s government relations liaison, provided the chapter has one. The plan- ning committee typically holds a call between committee members every two weeks for two to three months lead- ing up to the advocacy day. “The members of the advocacy day plan- ning committee are in charge of procur- ing meeting space near the state Capitol, and I do the reaching out to legislators,” Wieland said. “ATSSA national helps with promoting the event by coordinating the registration and scheduling meetings with legislators. The advocacy day plan- ning committee helps develop the talking points, which they do in conjunction with me.” According to Wieland, often the pur- pose of these events is to build rela- tionships with legislators and generally educate them on ATSSA and the chap- ter and the importance of roadway safety infrastructure. “We also normally discuss the impor- tance of transportation funding, partic- ularly funding for hardware safety and infrastructure investments,” Wieland said. “We have also discussed work zone safety and any rises in fatalities on a particular state’s roadways and how ATSSA member products can help to curb those trends.” The committee works with Wieland to look at bills that have already been in- troduced and decide if the chapter wants to take a position on any of those bills leading up to the advocacy day, which can then be an additional talking point. Recently, the California and Ohio chap- ters have held events. California’s ad- vocacy day was well-received, according to Wieland, and the chapter has used the advocacy day as a springboard for other state government relations activ- ities. They typically have a legislator at one of their Sacramento chapter meet- ings and have partnered with state co- alitions to help protect the gas tax that they advocated for. As a result of their partnerships, they get invited to testify at hearings, and have bolstered their relationship with legislators and their association visibility in the legislature as well. The same can be said of Ohio. After their advocacy day, the chapter hosted a leg- islator at a subsequent chapter meeting and the chapter president was invited to attend a stakeholder meeting on a transportation funding bill. Their inter- est in keeping themomentumgoing and doing another one in 2019 remains high. Future advocacy days include the Texas Chapter of ATSSA, which is planning an event in January and Pennsylvania is planning an advocacy day in April. Geor- gia is going to hold an event in 2020. In- diana and Ohio have both expressed interest in hosting events. “Advocating for the industry is so im- portant because it is going to affect their bottom line at the end of the day,” Wieland said. “It is going to affect their businesses. The decisions that these legislators make are impactful; we can choose to ignore themor we can choose to be a part of the conversation. There’s a ton of other groups out there making their positions known, and if we don’t let these legislators know where we stand as an industry, then we’ll just be overlooked. It’s so it’s important to have those relationships and continue this conversation.” Advocacy Day ‘how to’ How ATSSA chapters can act on important transportation legislation and strengthen ties with legislators ATSSA national helps with promoting the event by coordinating the registration and scheduling meetings with legislators.