workingforyou Behind the Storm T

We Storm for You Every year, MOAA lead- ers from all 50 states storm Capitol Hill to visit nearly all 535 represen- tatives and senators in support of key legislative priorities. Watch video coverage of the annual event at www.moaa.org/ we-storm-for-you.

48 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2016

Considerable planning by national and state MOAA leaders goes into organizing the annual Storming the Hill lobbying event each spring. By Col. Mike Barron, USA (Ret)

The start of the new calendar year also kicks off the planning process for MOAA’s most intense and most visible legislative effort of the year — Storming the Hill. This event, usually planned for the first

half of April, is conducted in conjunction with a meeting of MOAA’s 36-member board of directors and the annual Council Presidents’ Seminar, which brings MOAA leaders from each state to Washington, D.C. After confirming who will attend, the

Government Relations staff puts together a list of 60-plus teams who will visit their states’ legislative delegations. A constituent from the state, typically

the MOAA council president, heads each team. States with larger numbers of legisla- tors require additional teams to divide up the office visits — up to four teams for Cali- fornia and Texas. MOAA board members from the state usually head the additional teams, and if there aren’t enough state- resident board members, additional council and chapter members are brought in. The teams are supplemented by mem- bers of MOAA’s headquarters staff and MOAA’s Currently Serving Advisory Council and Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Council.

In the end, each team has at least two

members, and some three or four, depend- ing on the state residences of the advisory council members and inclusion of some spouses who play active roles in the state councils and chapters.

After the president’s budget is released

in early February, MOAA’s board of direc- tors approves the final Hill-storming top- ics, and MOAA sends initial fact sheets on these issues to the storming teams. Each state council leader allocates their state’s team(s) a list of legislators to visit, and team leaders contact legislators’ offices to ar- range appointments for Hill-storming day. Meanwhile, the Government Relations

staff works to finalize fact sheets, bro- chures, and other information for storm- ers to provide their legislators. Stormers are brought together the afternoon before the event to review these materials, get briefed on the topics, and receive updates on the extent of their legislators’ support for the issues. They’re provided folders of information to leave with each office and a short bottom-line “elevator speech” on the issues in case their time with a legislator is brief. Hill-storming day starts early with a

group photograph in front of the U.S. Cap- itol. Then teams move off to begin a long day of office calls — broken only by lunch to share progress and cross-feed answers to any questions from morning visits. That evening, stormers return to a local

hotel, tired but with a great sense of accom- plishment, closing out another successful Storming the Hill operation.

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— Col. Mike Barron, USA (Ret), serves as a deputy director in MOAA’s Government Relations Department.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK