Thursday, July 30, 2009

it's been a while

Ok, so the summer is here and it's been pretty quiet. So what does a self-employed lobbyist do during the off-months?

I've been having a few meetings with legislators for clients, meeting with potential new clients, meeting with staff and other interested parties.

Since Indiana's session of the General Assembly doesn't start again until January, it's really about setting things up for next year at this point. Since we had a special session that lasted until the end of June, I've pretty much been staying out of legislators hair. However, this week, I've started setting meetings up for August & beyond.

Legislators are regular folks (for the most part). They want to have some down time as well. I've also found that when you do want to visit with them, they appreciate it when you take the time to go visit with them in their districts.

So I'll be putting a few miles on the Tacoma over the next few months as summer morphs into fall.

If anyone stumbles across this blog and has questions, feel free to drop me a note (mike@lobbyistfinder.com) and I'll respond to your inquiry.

Summer sure is swell, but I'm looking forward to ramping up again for next year.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

unrelated posting

Ok, not directly related to lobbying, but I just thought I'd like to say it publicly. Last year, when there were massive floods and mother nature's wrath in Indiana, I was fortunate enough to volunteer at disaster recovery sites throughout the state. I saw the good and the bad in people, but I wanted to take this platform to just say that if someone is considering a donation to either the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, my strong feelings are that the salvation army is the better of the two.

I'm not affiliated in any way, shape or form with either group, but I saw them in action. The reason I say the Salvation Army is the better of the two is simply that they were local residents volunteering their time, while the Red Cross workers were all flown in to work at the sites. Admittedly, both were doing positive things for the communities, but it just doesn't seem to make ANY financial sense for a charitable organization to fly people in from around the country, put them up in hotels, and give them stipends, when you have people locally who can do the same thing. Taking it even a step further, the Red Cross also did the same thing for college students to help unload their trucks, planes, etc. Rather than hiring local kids, the Red Cross spent funds on flying people in.

I know it's trivial and definitely not related to lobbying, but I just was reminded of the two groups and needed to put this out there for anyone that stumbles upon this article.