Photo by: Joshua Hoover

HOW TO
ORGANIZE A
MEETING WITH AN
ELECTED OFFICIAL
Speaking with an elected official is a great way to lift up your community’s power to realize
change. Please note that the process for speaking with elected officials depends on the
local context, and please use your judgement and common-sense precautions if speaking
with officials is unsafe in your area.

If you have any questions about your screening event, please contact us at
movie@laudatosimovement.org

Find your local Officials and how to reach them..................................................................................2

Invite the official to meet..............................................................................................................................2
Template outreach email..............................................................................................................................3
Meet your elected official............................................................................................................................4
Follow up...........................................................................................................................................................5
Don’t forget.......................................................................................................................................................5
FIND YOUR LOCAL OFFICIALS AND
HOW TO REACH THEM
Local officials have the authority to make policy changes that care for our common
home. Your event is an opportunity to convey that constituents support urgent and
ambitious action. Elected officials are often eager to hear from constituents and
your meeting can help promote better care for creation in your community and
beyond.

Meeting a local or regional official is often more impactful than meeting a national
official, as local leaders are more receptive to the feedback of local community
members.

A quick search online will identify your local or regional elected officials (such as
the mayor, city or county council members, the governor, or regional legislators)
as well as their contact information. You may wish to reach out to a few officials, in
case one of them does not respond.

INVITE THE OFFICIAL TO MEET

It’s important that the official understands why your outreach matters to him or her.
Write an email or prepare talking points for a phone call to explain why the official
should get involved.

• Begin by giving a brief summary of your film screening event. Be sure to include
the name of any community groups that areW supporting the event (such as the
place of worship, university, school, or NGO that is helping to organize it) and what
kind of people you expect to attend (such as church members, students, parents,
or educators).

• Briefly describe how your values connect with the urgent need to take action
on the ecological crisis. If you are focusing your screening around a specific
campaign or action, highlight this in your message.

• Finally, ask for the official’s involvement. You might invite him or her to attend
the event and offer opening words, or to meet separately and discuss his or her
plans to address climate change and nature loss. Highlight this as an opportunity
to directly engage the local community and to speak with highly interested voters,
and to share how they will take action to accelerate the transition to renewable
energy, support divestment from fossil fuels and protect indigenous rights.

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 Photo by: Joichi Ito

TEMPLATE
OUTREACH EMAIL

Dear Mayor Flowers,

On January 1, Oak City Church will host a screening of The Letter, a documentary film about how our
spiritual values call us to take action on the ecological crisis. The entire church community is looking
forward to this event, and we are sharing the news about it via our newsletter and social media page.
In addition to our head priest, the director of our religious education committee, parents, and other
members will attend. In total, we expect to reach about 200 people, either directly or through word of
mouth.

We are hosting this film event because taking action on the ecological crisis is important to us. Urgent
action is needed to introduce legislation to accelerate the transition to renewable energy in Australia,
to support the divestment of fossil fuels and to protect Indigenous rights. As people of faith, we respect
and honor God’s creation. Beyond that, we are aware that the ecological crisis will affect all of us, and
is indeed already affecting many of us. It is the need to protect and care for the members of the human
family that strongly calls us to take action.

As the mayor of Oak City, you have a special role to play in ensuring that this issue is addressed. We
would be grateful if you could attend the event on January 1 at Oak City Church at 12:00 noon. We would
be happy for you to make opening remarks before the film, if you can share only a few minutes, or to
speak at a panel event after the film. This would be a wonderful way for a highly engaged and interested
group of constituents to hear from you directly.

If this time is not convenient for you, the Oak City Church social committee would like to meet you
privately to learn more about how your administration will ensure that Oak City plays a part in the better
future we are building together. In particular, we would like to ask you about how your administration
will accelerate the transition to renewable energy, support divestment from fossil fuels and protect
indigenous rights.

It would be ideal for our committee to meet with you before the date of the screening, as our church
community is eager to learn more about your plans. We suggest the week of December 15. Would that
be convenient for you?

Oak City Church is looking forward to the opportunity to hear from you, and we thank you in advance
for your response.

Sincerely yours,
Reginald Brown

3
MEET YOUR
ELECTED OFFICIAL

If you’ll hold a separate meeting with your elected official, rather than inviting
him or her to your event, it’s important to have a plan.

• Before the meeting, identify a policy issue that can make a big
difference in protecting our common home. You might simply do an
Internet search for the name of your area + environmental policy, or you
might connect with a local NGO that can provide guidance.

• Start your meeting by stating why your screening event is important

to your community. It’s important that the official has a solid sense of
your community’s values and the reach of your event. Bring photos of
the event or of any community group that is supporting it, newsletter
clippings or newspaper stories about previous ecological activities, and
an estimate of how many people your event will reach through both
word of mouth and direct attendance.

• Show your awareness of the elected official’s actions by mentioning

specific statements or votes on environmental policy that he/she has
made in the past. Encourage the official to take action on upcoming
policies, with a specific request for support of a policy that you have
identified.

You may find that your elected official is dismissive or unsupportive of action. It
is especially important that these officials hear that community members want
action.

Reviewing this guide to challenging conversations in advance of your meeting

can help.

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FOLLOW UP
Encouraging elected officials to take action is
a deeply meaningful way to put your values
into action. These encounters can have long-
term ripple effects that protect the people
and places you love.

After your meeting, share a report with

members of the community. Let them
know how your official responded to the
conversation and decide on next steps
together. Perhaps you’d like to create a
committee to monitor local policy choices,
schedule a follow-up meeting with your
elected official, or schedule additional
meetings with other officials.

DON’T FORGET
We hope that this initiative is helpful
in opening the doors to conversations
with elected officials, and we’d really like to
know how your conversation went. Please
email us at movie@laudatosimovement.org
to let us know that you met with an
elected official and how the conversation
went.