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All about TwoCents

Do you to know some degree of certainty where a particular Member currently stands on this issue? To determine most usful allocation of limited resourcs, it would be helpful if you could provide that here.
Name
State
Which House?
Which Committee? (for multiple selection use Ctrl or Shift key)
Position
Nature of the Contact:
You may select All that are applicable It would be useful also to know what type of contact(s) you have had with that Member
Written - letter, email etc Staff Member
Telephone Conversation Telephone Message Left
DC Office visit District Office visit
Visit to your site Off-site interaction


Accessing information about your elected officials:
We have found the CSPAN Congressional Database particularly useful to support
  • identifying elected official(s)
  • to determine their Committee memberships
  • to access relevant contact info
  • to identify staff contacts etc.
Educating the Congress:
A critical part of any SBIR Political activity MUST be education of Members and - perhaps even MORE important - of their staffers, in DC and in the constituency.

After every election, an important percentage of both Houses will be new to the system. Even more dramatically, the turnover of staff can be substantial. In consequence, many who are making important decisions about SBIR often know remarkably little about the program; some literally don't have any idea at all about what it is, where it came from or how it works. Except for a very few key players, it is safe to assume that most Members and their staffs have minimal understanding of why SBIR is so important

  • to the small business community
  • to technology development and
  • to the health of economy.
Every Member needs to become familiar with
  • the SBIR and STTR programs in general
  • and in particular, the impact of these programs on small firms
    and others in their districts AND
  • on other matters of national consequence.
Of the very highest priority is education of those Members who sit on committees which have some level of jurisdiction over the agencies which are part of the SBIR program - the Small Business Committees in the House and the Senate, but also Armed Services/ National Security; both Science Committees, and some of the Appropriation sub-committees etc.

Make it YOUR job: If you're an awardee (know one, or work with some) for whom the program has made a difference, begin to think about how to tell that story.

  • If its appropriate, invite your elected officials to visit your facility - most of them will come
  • Make an appointment to talk to them in their office when they're home - much easier than in DC.

    If the only appointment you can get is with a staff person, do it anyway and be well prepared. especially inthe District Offices, they have much more time available and, if what you tell them is interesting, they'll tell their boss.

  • At the very least, let them know when you get an award. You might want to do it with a bit of a flourish and, ideally, let them make the press announcement for you .... and, by the way, don't forget to let your Program Manager know you did this, being sure to give them acknowledgement in the published story.
The local press often loves this type of story and, if the name of elected official is in there too, you've killed two birds with one stone.

Over the next weeks and months, we'll try to help the less experienced among you put these presentation(s) together and show you how to get them before MEMBERS. It is not nearly as hard as you think - because what you have to say is usually very interesting.

A request for help:
Those of you have have already been this route are encouraged to help others to the task - sometimes a little daunting to the less politically experienced. You might want to post your suggestions, ideas and stories here in the ....in my opinion area.