Washington DC Lobbying Issues

Dr. John V. Lombardi, President

Now that the University of Florida has full-time representation and will shortly have an office in Washington, D.C., we need to be sure that we manage our contacts and other support activities appropriately there. The key to success in this is to ensure that our representative has an opportunity to help and coordinate our visits. One of the things that the members of our congressional delegation have often complained about is the lack of coordination from the University of Florida. They tell us that it is not helpful to have our representative show up on Monday and talk about some projects for UF and then on Wednesday have the Dean show up and talk about somewhat different projects, neither of our representatives having any information about the presence or agenda of the other. Sometimes, the reverse occurs, but in either case, rather than two strong presentations in support of UF projects, we get a reduction of impact and a dilution of our message.

What we must do is be sure to notify Mr. Randy Moore with as much lead time as possible when we expect to be in Washington DC, what we think we are doing there, and who we expect to see. It is often the case that our representative can provide some useful background about the flow of events in DC that will help faculty, deans, vice-presidents and others shape their conversations. It also is often the case that our representative will delay his planned visit in order to coordinate with us and ensure that we get the maximum benefit from the conversations we have.

With the speed and efficiency of email, there is no practical reason why we can’t manage this form of communication and collaboration.

Mr. Randy Moore is on-line regularly at: Moorer@ufl.edu

Mr. Moore will have our UF Washington Office and phone set up soon, and we will forward that to you when it is available.

Please be sure you check in with Randy before arriving in DC.

Thanks.