NCRA - Advocacy

The conference lasted Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I spent the day Friday traveling up to D.C. and I didn't get back home until almost midnight Monday. I have decided that I hate weekend conferences. It was impossible for me to remember what day it was and for some people, attending the conference meant that they had a 12 day work week. Fortunately for me, my boss gave us a couple days off.

The best part of the conference, as far as I'm concerned, was Monday's "Walk on the Hill". NCRA had previously asked for volunteers for this and then they arranged for us to meet with the office of our Representative. The logic behind choosing a Representative instead of a Senator is that the Representatives are reelected every two years - so they are sort of constantly running for office and more likely to listen to their constituency. Also they represent a district instead of an entire state so they're not being quite so overwhelmed.

A couple years ago, the leadership of NCRA went to Washington D.C. and spoke to their representatives. They felt that it was a positive experience and so the "Walk on the Hill" was set up for this year's conference. I went to the office of my local Representative and then, before the day was over, I went with friends to the offices of three other Texas representatives.

The offices of four Representatives in one day - what can I say but DEMOCRACY ROCKS!!! There was a luncheon Sunday to give us the details on the "messages" that we were to deliver (they had clip art from Schoolhouse Rock in the powerpoint presentation - does anybody remember "I'm just a bill up on Capitol Hill" ?) and I conducted myself very professionally. On the advice of my friend, Emmanuel, I didn't take my phone/camera with me to the Hill (too distracting) and (even though theres only one letter difference) I didn't wear my NRA shooter's hat to the Hill. Yes, I did have it with me but thats a story for another post.