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Concurrent Sessions

Participants listening intently during one of the sessions. During three days,

NCIV offered seven sets of concurrent sessions with five options during each time frame.

George Brown, Ph.D., Friendship Force International, Marianne Scott, Our Voices Together, and Peggy Parfenoff, International Visitors Center of Chigago discuss "the Power of Partnerships"

Moderators and panelists sometimes broke sessions into smaller groups to create interactive discussion and generate new ideas. subsequent evalutions confirmed theusefulness of such engagement

Advocacy Training Session Stresses Building Strong Relationships at the District Level as well as in DC

by Jason Yarashes, NCIV Staff

As the primary domestic constituency for the U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), it is essential that the NCIV network make every possible effort to continue to build and strengthen relationships with members of the U.S. Congress. Two concurrent sessions on the opening day at the 2008 NCIV National Meeting, “Building Partnerships with Elected Officials (‘Beginners’ and ‘Advanced’)” shed light on this topic emphasizing the need to work with Congressional staffers at the local and state levels.

The overall message is clear: there is overwhelming evidence that exchange programs are an effective means to improve the diminished U.S. image abroad. Exchanges and the firsthand exposure they provide serve to shatter negative stereotypes. Indeed, the IVLP has been ranked first by U.S. ambassadors in repeated surveys among the public diplomacy programs at their disposal. But how do we as a network go about communicating this to elected officials? How do we even begin to forge these relationships with elected officials on the district, state, and federal levels? And once we have initiated communication, how do we strengthen these relationships?

In “Building Partnerships with Elected Officials (Beginners),” participants were treated to the insight of panelists from an array of backgrounds that sought to “demystify” the process of communicating with members of Congress and their legislative aides. Moderator Kyle Moyer, President, Kyle Moyer & Company, made clear that it was a necessity for our network to increase our advocacy efforts. Michael McCarry, Executive Director, Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, encouraged participants to become involved and underscored the importance of doing so, noting that members of Congress truly value the opinions and needs of their constituents. In addition, participants were given an “insiders” perspective to the Congressional process by Todd Patterson, Chief of Staff, Office of Russ Carnahan, and Cassandra Woods, State Director (Detroit), Office of Senator Carl Levin. The simple yet often forgotten nuggets of advice they offered, from developing a relationship with the office scheduler to making sure with each visit you have an “ask” to thanking the staffers for their time, were both enlightening and useful.

The “Building Partnerships with Officials (Advanced)” session later in the day was moderated by Carol Engebretson Byrne, President, Minnesota International Center, and featured Mr. McCarry and Chuck Ross, Vermont Director, Office of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy as panelists. The panelists offered a wealth of knowledge in the advocacy field and explored the avenues in which CIVs can strengthen relationships with Congressional offices in an effective manner, especially in light of changing ethics rules. Recognizing that NCIV has community organizations in 90 different locales across the country, panelists put a special emphasis on working through district and state offices encouraging CIVs to invite staff members to their events, put them on newsletter lists, and meet with them from time to time.

NCIV is continuously making strides to improve the network’s advocacy efforts and will send Action Alerts at key moments in the appropriations process in the weekly online update, as well as on the website at http://www.nciv.org/gi_advocacy.asp. Each CIV is encouraged to have an Advocacy Committee prepared to respond promptly to these alerts and maintain relationships with the offices of their members of Congress.

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