Meeting Etiquette Louise Suter, March 12th
The three House Office buildings are connected by underground tunnels. Similarly, the three Senate Office buildings are connected by underground tunnels. You are encouraged to use these tunnels to go between meetings to avoid having to go through security again. Please note that in order to walk from the House buildings to the Senate buildings, or vice versa, you must walk outside. You cannot use the Capitol Building’s underground tunnels unless accompanied by a Member of Congress or congressional staff.
Visiting offices • You will need to go through airport style security, food, bottles of water, laptops are ok • Remember there will lots of walking and you may need to carry lots of packets with you. • Dress: Business professional. • Be sharp and well-groomed. It communicates respect, i.e. you respect them enough to take the effort to present yourself well. • Don’t try to be flashy • Don’t change/finish dressing in the offices/halls (e.g. shoes, ties, jackets – don’t laugh, it has happened more than once before!) • Don’t wear anything political (e.g. a red tie is OK, a red tie with a pattern of little elephants is not. A U.S. Flag pin is OK, a U.S. Constitution tie is a little too far)
• You will need to go through airport style security, food, bottles of water, laptops are ok • Line may be long • If you leave if can take a while to get back in • If you can try to cluster meeting on house or senate side. • Use the tunnels to go between buildings, by going down to the basement • You will also find cafeteria- our general meeting place - plus gift shop, coffee shop, post office • Can be confusing! Keep checking the map • There is also a train to go between house and senate side • Mixed opinion on how useful that this.
House side Important! For Rayburn and Longworth first digit of room number is building number 2 = Rayburn, 1 = Longworth i.e. 1314 is 3rd floor of Longworth Cafeteria under Longworth
For House offices, you can tell the building and floor by the room number. Cannon House Office Building (CHOB) • Any three-digit room number • The first digit indicates the floor • Example: 327 CHOB is on the third floor of Cannon. Longworth House Office Buildings (LHOB) • Four digit room numbers beginning with “1” • The second digit indicates the floor. • Basement room numbers begin with a “B”. • Example: 1223 LHOB is on the second floor of Longworth. Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB) • Four digit room numbers beginning with “2” • The second digit indicates the floor. • Basement room numbers begin with a “B”. • Example: 2449 RHOB is on the fourth floor of Rayburn.
Dirksen and Hart are basically the same building Also cafeteria (and gift shop) in the basement both better than the house side Cafeteria under Dirksen
For Senate offices, you will need to know the building as well as the room number. In all buildings, the first digit indicates the floor. Dirksen Senate Office Building (DSOB) • Three digit room numbers proceeded by “SD”. • Example: SD 145 is on the first floor of Dirksen. Hart Senate Office Building (HSOB) • Three digit room numbers proceeded by “SH”. • Example: SH 320 is on the third floor of Hart. Russell Senate Office Building (RSOB) • Three digit room numbers proceeded by “SR”. • Example: SR 216 is on the second floor of Russell.
Note: Meeting in Capital are rare, but rules are stricter. You will need an appointment and they will call to confirm when you try to enter No food or drinks allowed
In teams of two we visit offices of congresspeople and representatives, generally meeting with staffer. Call primary and secondary Bring with us a packet of material on HEP, to help support our message and your discussion 10
Meetings with Senators and Representatives offices Go to each meeting in pairs • Primary: the tripper with a connection to the member or district. Responsible for “running” the meeting. This is the person who should do most of the talking (the one with whom the member scheduled a meeting and wants to listen to!) • Has to do research on office! • Needs to make notes on each meeting immediately after you leave, to be submitted later as a meeting report. • Secondary: Plays a support role in the meeting: fill in a little in areas with more expertise than primary, keep a somewhat detached eye on the meeting (are the staffer’s eyes glazing over? Wrap up and make a graceful and grateful exit.), etc. • You should also take notes and submit trip reports 11
DC trip wiki • Please make an account, it has lots of useful in on the trip • Its important that we have everyones on the trip contact info so you can contact your primary/secondary if something goes wrong • Please go here and fill in your details http://www.fermilab-uec.org/mediaWiki/ index.php?title=TripAttendees2017 • Email me if you can’t edit the pages and I can change your account preferences 12
Dress nice, wear sensible shoes • Dress code is business • That means ties if wearing a suit • There is a lot of walking be prepared • You may have to carry 10+ packets around for most of the day, bring a (smart) bag • Most people wear a suit, if you don’t own one ask a friend if you can borrow one. 13
Dress nice, wear sensible shoes If you have uncomfortable dress shoes consider bring a second pair to wear while walking 14
• Also consider bringing • Water bottle - lots of talking • Watch - easy to check time with out puling out your phone • Phone charger/battery pack - you will need to be contactable • Bandaids - have your worn in your shoes • Spare tights • Breath mints • Deodorant • Notebook and pen - decide on your best way to quickly take notes • But do not bring a huge bag of stuff! You will be on your feet for a lot of the day and mostly you will retreat it • Some people bring laptops • Great for additional research, reading notes on districts • Can add a lot of additional weights • tablets, if then have them, can be a nice compromise • Note: there is no where to print on the hill (we know about) • Be careful of branding. Look at your stickers on your water bottle or laptop, if political in any way. Don’t bring it. • DO not wear partisan badges, ties, hats. • Wifi passwords: House: HousePublic , senate: Public???? (changes often)
Should be warmish May rain Will be cold at night, will probably want a coat and an umbrella
• It is very important to practice. Recommend practicing with non scientists • Research your offices! • What is in their districts • Look what policies are important to them • The staffers job is to meet with people visiting the Hill like you all day • These people are from a wide range of topics, teachers, doctors, vets, gun control eta. • You want the staffer to remember you and to think that your ASK to work bring to the congresspersons attention. You want them to advocate on your behalf to the congressperson. • Not all office will have HEP as a priority. Most office will agree that its worthwhile but if you can make a connection beyond that this will go a long way
Meeting with congresspeople • Most meetings will not be them • First of all be thankful and respectful • These might go a little different than normal. • If you do have them scheduled be aware they might be longer than normal unto an hour • These meeting might go off topic more than with the staffers, go with the flow, pull it back to the HEP as much as you can • If they say things which are incorrect about science, do not tell them they are wrong • This is your opportunity to make a long lasting connection and advocate for HEP in congress. • Be excited about your work and physics and make a good impression!
Researching the offices • This is the primaries responsibility • Read the trip reports on the wiki and on whips • Look on their website - what do they list under issues - look for science, stem, national security eta - use it to steer the conversation to something they care about if needed. • State/District Funding: VERY important. Find the DOE and NSF funding for the state. This information is crucial for them to justify support in many cases. • DOE HEP - department of energy high energy physics • DOE SC - department of energy office of science • NSF MPS - National Science Foundation, Maths and physical science • This is broader than the scope of our advocacy but our ASK is an all NSF ask and does let you tie back to smaller districts without a research program in them. • Michael Baumer’s HEP funding tool – this gathers HEP related funding data very conveniently. However, one caveat: the “SC Contract” numbers do not include university grants from non- HEP DOE SC offices (e.g. Nuclear Physics, BES, etc.) https://mbaumer.github.io/ us_hep_funding/
• https://mbaumer.github.io/us_hep_funding/ You must print this information and bring it with you! If have a meeting on senate include all info on the state If visiting on the house side include info just on that district Rob and Breece have sent nice formatting
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