the government depend upon the voters to elect them and then decide if they get to keep their jobs. For that reason, leveraging the power of a general constituency can often get elected officials to be responsive to your message. My path toward forming FCNMHP began with a relationship with the Mayor's Chief of Staff through serving on a task force on animal control with that individual and others while working with that task force. This undoubtedly eased my ability to begin a relationship with the animal control department chief. If you are working in animal welfare, a good relationship with the local animal control is going to be important to your success. How do you make this happen? Think about the way you act, look, smell, talk, dress; all of these things are important. If you are not the type of person that other people want to get to know and be around, then your task is going to be very difficult. This is not to say that you have to be the Prom Queen or Football Star, but you do have to be interesting and interested. If that's not one of your skills, perhaps someone else in your organization should be in charge of relationship building. Do you already know the animal control director? How is your relationship with him or her? Even if you have had a negative relationship in the past, you still may be able to salvage it, remember Nixon went to China and John