Dear Association Executives - Now that we're just over a month away from Hill Day, we want to share some updates on registration and Hill meetings. We also want to send a big thank you to those of you also serving as state captains!
Registration:
After targeting National Council members with continued outreach, we have 300 members registered and excited to come to D.C. and advocate!
Reallocation process/attendee cap:
To help ensure a balanced representation of attendees from around the nation, we initially had an attendee cap of 15 people per state. However, now that we're one month out, we are reallocating some slots from states with lower registration numbers to make more slots for states with high demand. Here's what the allocations to higher-demand states look like:
- States currently between 50% and 80% of the 15-person cap: Each of these six states will now have their cap raised from 15 to 20 available slots, to accommodate any additional people who register in your state in the next week: California, Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, West Virginia.
- States currently between 80% and 100% of the 15-person cap: Each of these eight states will now have their cap raised to 25 available slots, to accommodate any additional people in your state who register in the next week: Arizona, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia.
If your state is not listed, you currently have less than 50% of the initial 15-person cap filled, and plenty of room for more registrants.
In this week's registration update, Peter Delia will re-share this information, including how many slots your state still has available.
May 6 is the cutoff date for guaranteeing a discount on hotel room rates.
Registration open to nonmembers:
We're also opening registration to include nonmembers - primarily National Council Advocacy Partners.
- Our valued Advocacy Partners are able to register starting April 30.
- The National Council will send a marketing email to our broad contact list to encourage registration.
Book hotel by Monday, May 6
- Please make sure your hotel is booked by May 6 to ensure you receive the discounted rate. If you are a Board Member, you should have received information on hotel registration yesterday from Board Liaison Maureen Thompson.
Hill Meeting Scheduling
As you may be aware, the House will now be in recess on June 6. Not to worry! Staffers in House offices will still be available for meetings. This is a common occurrence and is actually very beneficial - you'll meet with the people working directly on our issues. It's a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with the folks responsible for policy decisions.
All States:
- The National Council will send a "warm handoff" via email, introducing State Captains to their registered delegations the week of May 6.
States working with Soapbox:
- Soapbox will be joining the next State Captain call on Monday, 5/6 at 2:00 p.m. ET. They will discuss their scheduling process, walk through planned touchpoints between now and June, discuss what to expect day-of, etc. They will then call all State Captains individually across May 7 and May 8, which is your opportunity to share scheduling considerations (personal connection to an office, making sure certain people are flagged to attend multiple meetings, etc.).
States not working with Soapbox:
- If you haven't already received it, the National Council will share the complete list of your state's registrants with you (including addresses for scheduling purposes).
- Template materials to help assist the scheduling process can be found in the State Captain Toolkit. (We'll re-share it upon request!)
- National Council will send you a spreadsheet template so you can record your meetings scheduled, and we can track the number of meetings and attendees nationwide.
As always, please reach out to the following people with questions:
- Hotel and registration: Maggie McDonnell
- State captains, state delegation rosters, event program: Connor McKay, Peter Delia
Thank you - Reyna
Reyna Taylor
Senior Vice President, Public Policy & Advocacy
Policy Department
National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Direct: 202-774-1651
ReynaT@TheNationalCouncil.org
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Neal Comstock
Director of Membership
National Council
NealC@TheNationalCouncil.org202 748-8793
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