OPENING PLENARY SCRIPT - American Fraternal Alliance

“I’m talking about your fraternity? I thought that’s why you were in town.” (I was a Phi Delt when I was in
college.)
I said, “Dad, I’m not here for my fraternity, I’m here for fraterNALS.” And at about this point we’re pulling
off the Edens Expressway at Peterson and we’re going up Cicero and we’re passing the Polish National
Alliance building. And I said, “Dad, that! That’s what a fraternal is.”
And he looked at me and he said, “The Polish National Alliance? Why, we’ve known about them for
years! We’ve lived just a mile away from them. They do wonderful things in our community. I had no
idea that they were a fraternal.”
And THAT is the problem that you guys are having in Washington, D.C. I like to call it the “Wow, You
Do Really Great Things But Nobody Knows It Syndrome.” So what we’ve been tasked to do is help you.
So when we set out to help the association, we had two program goals: Generally, we want to help all
public policy that impacts fraternals.
But, really, specifically, we want to maintain your 501(c)(8) tax-exempt status.
Now, this is going to be difficult, as Mike pointed out before, we are in a VERY turbulent election
season. I think turbulent is my nice, Saturday-morning way of saying it; I’ve heard many worse
descriptions. Elections are November 2. The outlook, again: grim for Democrats; that’s an
understatement. Everyone thinks the country is headed n the wrong direction. Right now there are a lot
of different opinions about whether the Republicans are going to take back the House and/or Senate.
Suffice it to say, it’s going to be a very turbulent November.
The nice thing is, what we’ve really set out to do is to have some fundamental tactics that you guys can
use that won’t change. Won’t change whether Republicans are in power, whether Democrats are in
power or whether you hate both Democrats and Republicans equally.
And so what we’re doing and what we’re working with, not only with the executives but all of your
members, is building out these fundamental tactics. And that includes building out your brand on
Capitol Hill and really explaining what fraternals are, helping people like my father understand: Wow,
you people do great things. We’re doing that through targeting key Members of Congress; we’re
bringing in executives to talk to Members; and we’re also doing In-District Events. So, let me go through
these very quickly.
Building your brand: As Mike said, it’s all about persuasion and power. Luckily, you guys have both.
You have members across the country, members who vote across the country, and you have a great
story, once you tell it. Once you explain what you do and how you do it, it resonates across the party
spectrum, Democrats and Republicans both like you. The key is: we need to target Members of
Congress. As Mike says, you need to build your ammunition. I came from Chicago and we like to say,
you build your stable of support. And how we do that is: by identifying folks in your fraternal footprint, by
targeting leadership and by key Congressional Committees. Let me explain that.
Fraternal Footprint: these are people who represent you. Your part of that upper part of the pyramid
that Mike talked about. You register to vote. You do vote. You may or may not contribute money and
that’s fine. You vote! That’s the most important part. These are people who should be supporting you.
Key Committees: these are folks who write tax laws. They’re going to be directly responsible for writing
the bill that’s either is going to make your happy or make you sad.
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