Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

The Role of Health Education Associations in Advocacy 313
appointees, or other senior executive - branch officials regarding federal legislation,
federal rules or regulations, the administration of a federal program or policy, or the
nomination or confirmation of a person subject confirmation by the Senate. Lobbying
activities are broadly defined to include any lobbying contacts with persons covered
under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, as well as any preparation, planning or
research, and background work originally intended for use in contacting there persons.
If lobbyists make lobbying contacts, they must register under the Act and report information
about the contacts to the Internal Revenue Service and information about any
lobbying activities. If a person engages in lobbying without contacts, however, no registration
or reporting is required (Ballantine & Ross, 1996).
In addition to the legal issues governing the amount of political activity an organization
may undertake, many other considerations will affect a group ’ s policy advocacy
involvement, such as
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Budget — Amount of funds committed to advocacy versus other organizational
priorities;
Offi ce location — Accessibility to policymakers, which may require having a satellite
office if the organization is not headquartered in Washington, DC or state/
local seat of government;
Staffi ng — Employing lobbyists or trained government relations staff to maintain
ongoing contacts with policymakers and their staffs, monitor legislation and policies,
draft positions on proposed legislation based on organizational policy, plan
and implement strategies to influence policy, form coalitions, and the like;
Organizational structure for policy development — Clarifying the role of advocacy
within the organization ’ s mission and strategic plan and establishing internal
structures/committees for developing resolutions or other papers to guide organizational
policy;
Communication support — Developing a communications plan with members,
Congress, the media, and general public to support the advocacy goals; and
Advocacy priorities — Identifying what issues are important to the organization ’ s
leaders and members and making strategic decisions about which issues to pursue
(Golden, 1996).
One of the most difficult but important tasks for any association is establishing
priorities among the myriad of important issues related to its mission. To help set priorities,
it is vital to conduct an environmental scan on each potential issue that includes
information on the (1) importance of the issue to the organization and its membership;
(2) economic, social, environmental, health, or other impact of the proposed issue;
(3) existing science - base supporting the proposed policy or issue; (4) current organizational
resolutions or policy statements on the issue; (5) likelihood of being successful
at this time on the issue given the current political climate; (6) nature of the opposition