Personal contact between individual Key Contacts and legislators can build relationships that will increase the future effectiveness of our Association. With this in mind, PAR offers the following comments and suggestions regarding your relationship with your designated member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly:

• Get to know your legislator. It will help you understand them better.
• There are three types of structure for conversation with legislators:

1. The informal conversation held at social events (such as dinners, plays, sporting events, or concerts) where interaction is personal and subjects discussed are not legislative and/or organizational in nature.

2. The open-ended conversation where the topic discussed will be legislative and/or organizational in nature. You should try to identify the source of differences in opinion, not try to lobby the legislator on specific measures or try to win a debating contest. Remember, you can win the debate and lose the legislator.

3. The specific conversation where you hope to persuade the legislator to a point of view and seek a commitment.

• Legislators are usually willing to discuss points of difference in an intelligent manner. They are much more responsive to information than rhetoric.
• It is important to remember that the legislator will probably have a view that is different from your outlook. The legislator believes that their job is to balance all the views on the bill, and, using the best judgment, decide the issue on its merits. Your job is to tell him how your interests (or point of view) will be affected by the legislation.
• Don’t back off of your conviction. Remember, you may disagree without being disagreeable. Solicit support from other individuals and groups that tend to agree with your position and arrange for your legislator to witness this support. 
• Above all, remember to thank your legislator when they help you or honor a commitment. Legislators are rarely thanked. One veteran legislator remarked that she had received thousands of letters asking her to do one thing or another over the years and only six thank-you notes.