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Maximize your voice and spread your opinion
If you are passionate about a goal and have a personal or organizational connection to a problem or concern, then raise your voice as part of a layered plan - at public meetings, behind the scenes with officials, using letter-writing campaigns, in social media, online publications, newspapers, magazines and broadcast - with anecdotes and evidence that can help bring others to your cause. Along the way, you will be building your identity as a thought leader and positioning yourself as a reliable source for writers, editors and producers when they want to find a spokeman to address or explain an issue.
Why make the effort? For nearly anything you want to achieve with official or legislative action, getting the word out is a powerful tool. Nonprofits are cause-driven, so the idea of advocating is baked into their bones. But for-profit businesses can be affected by new situations or governmental decisions as well. Classic examples include zoning, parking, regulations and taxes, as well as beautifying a community or addressing other quality-of-life issues.
In Cold Spring, businesses and the Chamber of Commerce recently took action about proposed parking regulations that they viewed as potentially harmful to their operations. A survey of people visiting Main Street was conducted, and the results sent in a letter to the Cold Spring Board of Trustees as part of an overall campaign that included appearances before that body. These efforts resulted in a reduction of parking fees.
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