AALEP PROVIDES A ROOF FOR THOSE WORKING IN BOTH DIRECT ADVOCACY AND NON-ADVOCACY POSITIONS

The Public Policy Advocacy landscape does not just include 'lobbyists' (interest representatives) as meaning parties paid to have a direct personal communication with government officials with the objective to influence policies and decision-making processes.

The reality is that today the public policy advocacy process has become much more sophisticated and often involves large teams of individuals and organizations with various specialties e.g. from lobbying to advocacy strategizing to grassroots management to monitoring and analysis of regulatory and legislative issues.

• Communication and Media Experts
• Political Affairs
• Political Consultants
• Political Strategists
• Political Advocates
• Political Monitors
• Coalition Coordinators
• Grassroots Organizers
• Public Affairs Communicators
• Issue Managers
• Legislative monitoring and tracking
• Policy Researchers
• Policy Analysts
• Policy Advisors
• Regulatory Affairs Counsels

All these parties work in conjunction with those making traditional direct personal contacts to influence official's positions.

One of the primary component of a successful public policy advocacy programme is comprehensive tracking and effective communication to the organization’s staff and members on all legislative issues and regulatory developments important to the sector. Monitoring of issues is imperative to any organization’s ability to respond in a timely manner to relevant legislative or regulatory proposals. Communication with the client's staff is critical to any programme. This may include summary reports, researching answers/analysis to legislative or regulatory questions; participating in meetings and discussions with the client's staff to develop a winning political and regulatory strategy best suited to voice their views and exchanging information and insight on important issues. Communication also is important between the clients and  EU officials on where the industry stands on proposed legislation. This includes correspondence, one-on-one meetings, and organizing important visits between the organization's members and  EU officials. Analysis of each issue needs to be done to ascertain its specific impact on the client’s industry. While knowledge is very important, just as relevant are the actions taken by the organizations based on this knowledge. Assisting  clients and their staffs develop effective and proactive public policy strategies to achieve their legislative and regulatory goals is important for a successful government relations, grassroots, and public relations programme.

AALEP provides an umbrella for all working in direct advocacy and non-advocacy positions.