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By Aaron Stetter and Joshua Habursky
The 116th Congress, like any new Congress, brings forth a new set of advocacy challenges and opportunities. ICBA has a history of considerable advocacy success on a bipartisan basis due to the efforts of thousands of community bankers who effectively tell their story and showcase their importance to lawmakers in a variety of different ways. ICBA is committed to continuing to foster relationship building between community bankers and elected officials and providing the training and resources to do so.
ICBA is proud to announce a new partnership with the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has been building relationships and improving how Congress functions since 1977. CMF will work with ICBA to provide new training opportunities for community bankers and research to better communicate with government. “CMF is thrilled to partner with ICBA to increase community bankers’ understanding of and engagement with Congress,” said CMF President and CEO Bradford Fitch.
Training Opportunities. ICBA’s partnership with CMF will include videos, infographics, research reports, webinars, and in-person training sessions. These efforts will be coupled with ICBA’s own resources and independent training offerings throughout the year. ICBA will also conduct several in-person regional advocacy training sessions across the country to equip personnel throughout the bank with community bank grassroots advocacy tools. The first regional advocacy training is tentatively scheduled for Richmond, Va., in March, and the first CMF webinar is slated for 3 p.m. (Eastern time) this Thursday, Jan. 31, on “What to Expect in Meeting with a Member of Congress.” You can register for this training here.
“The tireless community banker commitment to grassroots advocacy has led to many policy victories in Washington, but we must continually look for new ways to maximize our outreach,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. “ICBA’s partnership with CMF will ensure community bankers have the advocacy resources they need to maintain their successful track record in the nation’s capital.”
Congress is evolving, and the volume of communication is increasing at an exponential rate. We need to continually refine our advocacy communication, personalize it, and build up the ranks of both grassroots and grasstops concurrently. Filling out the ICBA “State of Advocacy” survey and registering for our first CMF webinar is a good start to get community bank employees at every level ready for a year of much-needed outreach to Congress.
If you have any questions about the CMF partnership or ICBA’s advocacy training offerings, please contact ICBA Assistant Vice President of Advocacy Joshua Habursky at [email protected].
Aaron Stetter is ICBA executive vice president of policy and political operations. Joshua Habursky is ICBA assistant vice president of advocacy.