Congressional Company Visits Rod Reinertson Director of Automation, Van Meter Industrial President-Elect, Iowa/Nebraska Chapter
Who are your Congressmen and Senators? Agenda: Who are your Congressmen and Senators? How do you contact them? Do you know your Congressional districts? Why is that important? What do they know about ESOPs? What is there position on ESOPs? Shared capitalism is a significant part of the U.S. economic model What do they know about your company? ESOP History & culture How do you get them to visit your company? What to do when you get them there?
Go to http://www. house. gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State Go to http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml to find yours! Iowa’s1st District – Bruce Braley, 2nd District – David Loebsack, 3rd District – Leonard Boswell, 4th District - Tom Latham, 5th District – Steve King Note: Loebsack is also a member of House Education and the Workforce Committee
Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin Goto http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm for yours! Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin
Goto http://www.esopassociation.org/pdfs/Advocacy_Kit.pdf or http://www.esopassociation.org/pdfs/Congressional_Visit_Kit.pdf
Prepare a one page handout on your company and ESOP Other key items: Find the contact person (Administrator, Scheduler or Aide) of the Congressman's or Senators office nearest you. Discuss best time for a visit Be flexible Write a letter Prepare a one page handout on your company and ESOP Get employee owners involved Queue up employee owners to share stories Take pictures Send out press release announcing the visit Follow- up letter after visit Visit them in DC while at ESOP Annual Conference
VMI’s One page handout
Create an agenda for the visit 9-9:30am: Company history 9:30-10am: ESOP history and ESOP Communication committee activities 10-10:30am: What employee ownership culture means to us? Engagement; How that affects our customers and our community. 10:30-11:30am: Tour facility and meet employee owners 11:30am - 12:30pm: Lunch and give opportunity to speak on their position on ESOP and any activity they are aware of in their respective offices and DC in regards to ESOPs. Note: It may be hard to get this much of their time
Senator Chuck Grassley’s visit to Van Meter Industrial – “The Perfect Tour”
Congressman David Loebsack’s visit to Van Meter Industrial – “The Perfect Tour”
Finally…Be persistent If all else fails….visit them! Thank You, Rod Reinertson rreinertson@vmind.com