Retired congresscritter offers communication tips to scientists.

The congresscritter in question being Sherwood Boehlert, who represented New York's 24th Congressional district (1983-2007), and chaired the House Science Committee (2001-2007). Boehlert offers this advice in a video called "Speaking for Science: Bringing Your Message to Policymakers," available for download from the American Chemical Society website.*

The video presents two scenarios in which a group of scientists meets with their Congressional representative (who happens to be a member of the House Science Committee, played by Boehlert). As you might guess, the idea is to contrast the effective meeting with the disastrous one.

The bad meeting comes first.

A lot of the problems, it seems to me, don't stem from a lack of a sophisticated understanding of communication strategies. Rather, they reflect a basic lack of self-awareness. The three scientists in the bad meeting turn up late for their scheduled appointment and seem to have no clear sense of what the meeting is supposed to accomplish. They talk down to the Congressional staffer, they babble on about issues that are at best tangentially related to their mission, and they keep dodging the Congressman's repeated question, "What can I do to help you?"

The video offers some commentary on ways to avoid meetings like this. Among other things, scientists should have a definite goal (an answer to the question, "What can I do to help you?") that guides what they communicate to policymakers. They should let their congresscritter know -- with actual numbers -- how this goal will impact the congresscritter's constituents. And, they should do their homework, making sure they know their congresscritter's track record and the essentials of how the process works on the legislative level. (For example, authorizing funding for scientific research is only half the battle -- the appropriations committee also needs to be persuaded to appropriate the money for spending that has been authorized.)

The advice to be prompt, well-prepared, concise, and clear is then illustrated in the video with a second less cringe-worthy meeting of scientists and congresscritter. It's not a perfect meeting -- the scientists could probably be clearer about just what they hope to accomplish in it -- but the three scientists do a much better job keeping things focused and connected to the Congressman's own interests in his district.

In light of Boehlert's experience being on the receiving end of lobbying from scientists, this seems like advice worth listening to.

I just hope most of his meetings with scientists as Chair of the House Science Committee weren't as bad as the first meeting portrayed in this video.

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*I should note here that I wasn't able to get the video player software on my computer to actually show me the video -- I just got the audio. I suspect it's intended for a Windows video player of some sort. Also, the audio cuts out for me at about minute 17 of the 23 minute playing time. Communication is hard, sometimes for purely technical reasons.