I don't post often.
I read a few times a week.
I saw NYCEVE's diary on her invite to the Hill and wrote a long comment, just as it vanished.
A former Hill Staffer, fellow Kossack, and current employee of mine insisted I post my long comment as a diary.
My current employee now works for me, BECAUSE, I gave good briefs on the Hill they attended when they worked there.
Below...
ANYONE HEADED TO THE HILL...
But using NYCEVE as a case study...
I have briefed on the Hill many times. It is part of my job. Including Conyers staff on other subjects.
Brief length will depend on the format you are being invited to present in. But you will likely have 15-45 minutes. Sometimes less. Find out how long they are giving you in advance and the format.
In 95% of the cases it will be a crowded conference room, with piles of boxes full of "who knows what" correspondence and reams of reports the staff may or may not ever get to.
In 5% of the cases it will be "Lunch and Learn", or "BrownBag Brief". These are gravy slots and usually are run by coordinated lobby shops who bring in brown bag lunches and drinks etc. It is unlikely you are getting this slot, but...Conyers staff is known for highlighting the unexpected. If they can get you a BBB, please let the DC Kossacks know. We can arrange the Brown Bag Lunch to arrive and allow you to focus on your story.
It is best in these cases to NOT have a PPT, unless you have PICTURES WHICH CHANGE THE STORY. I have only taken PPT to the hill twice. Both times to illustrate highly technical things which words could not communicate well, and in both cases it was for a BBB where i had more time and tech support. The Hill is a 18th Century Animal. It is Verbal. If you do get a BBB a PPT may be good. Otherwise, it isn't.
The staff is generally very young, very smart, and very committed. They get paid little and work insane hours. 7AM - 11PM 6 days a week is common for LAs (Legislative Aides). Only one of the LAs, maybe two, in the room will have any depth of knowledge on your subject. The others will have a broad brush understangin and they are there to support the committee chair and come away with enough talking points and basic understanding to make sure their Members does not get blindsided and/or can answer basic questions. Most of them do two hours of paperwork in the AM. Attend 6-10 hours of meetings, and then have to convert what they learned into lines of legislation and talking points for members after they are done with that.
All of them have heard Industrial Health Care Lobbyists present them slick cover stories many, many, many times. And within 24 hours of your appearence, every one of those staffer will get several phone calls from the Lobbyists of Industrial Health with detailed counterpoints to whatever you bring.
So be specific. Be highly factual. Be clear.
Example:
BULLET: Citizens need Health Care, and Healthy Lives, not Wasteful Private Health Insurance.
FACTS: X% of money in US Health Insurance is Profit. Y% is used up on the admin and process of Health care itself. In Total Z-Billions a year is spent on these companies with NO HEALTH BENEFITS to citizens
Etc.
Here is what I have found works best. And again. I have briefed, well, over 100 times on the Hill.
Arrive 10 minutes early. Give your card to the receptionist and tell them you will wait in the Hallway until called. The offices are tiny, and while they have "waiting couches" or sometimes just one chair, the staff find it chilling to have a person waiting who they don't know, and don't know how to speak in front of. Let them work. Just hover in the Hall. Hopefully you will have a friend or fellow Kossack with you, and go over your high points again. Have them down cold.
In your hands will be a folder. That Folder will have enough copies of a ONE PAGE BRIEF.
The brief will have your contact data, date and appt time at the top of the sheet. It will then have subject key points, listed in bullet form. No more than Five.
Then you will have ONE SHORT PARAGRAPH, even just one good Sentence, and one good fact to support each of those points.
If you provide this sheet. 90% of the people you brief will use it. Those key things you have put there WILL end up in many many speeches and talking points.
If you provide even TWO sheets. You die. Few of the staff there have time to figure out the 3-5 key high points.
That is your job.
Then touch the points, but don't read them. Say: "I have brought you a key-points sheet with some core talking points for your Members. Thank you for the time. I know how insanely busy you all are. I was told we have X mintues, has that changed? Or do we still have X minutes? "
(They will likely give you a new number, and they will really respect that you asked.)
Then say: "While you review the One Pager, I will better flesh out the key points and facts here, by sharing with you some larger themes, annecdotes and cases of the "Death By Spreadsheet" being inflicted on the public."
And then let it rip. Don't be scared. The Hill is not for the scared. It is loaded with Type A, Brilliant, Busy and Tough humans. The kids sitting in front of you...and most will be kids...have been briefed 100s, perhaps 1000s of times and they see every possible horror, opinion, lunacy and pablum possible.
You are passionate, a little extremist, definitely progressive and a tinge angry. Let the ALL out. Be you. And let it rip. And do not be afraid of being extreme. Remember. You are likely to be the ONLY fly in the soothing ointment of 10-50 briefs that run counter to you. Don't shy away from getting hard hitting in the VERBAL part of the brief. The written one...short, clear facts.
The verbal one, hard hitting, graphic, rich.
Then, in a seperate folder you will have a 5-20 page "heavy" brief. (Which in my opinion could just be the best of your posting here.) At the end of your X time, which is likely 15-30 minutes AND DO NOT GO OVER...they are booked to the gils....you offer it to anyone who might want it to have a hard copy of the heavy brief, or you will follow up to everyone who wishes with an emailed copy.
If it goes well. Over the next month. You will have the bizarre experience of seeing/hearing the bullet points you have written come out of the mouths of electeds and spokesfolks in many places.
Good Luck.
KSP.