One of the duties we all have in common is a need to encourage our members to communicate regularly with their legislators on our issues. If we ever really used our combined power on those issues on which we agree, we could be assured of passage of all our legislative goals. So many people are reluctant to talk to their state representative or state senator because they are concerned they may be asked a question for which they have no answer, or worried that they will get an argument. So all our organizations have conferences, workshops, and seminars just like the one I attended, and while we say similar things, they are words that bear repeating. For that reason, I am providing you my notes from the IEA conference.
Legislators are human.
They do not know everything about every issue. But they cannot avoid the public, as we can avoid them, so they have developed defenses which may frustrate us when we talk to them. We must remember the first two sentences of this paragraph, and we must continue to communicate with them or they will never know what we know. Legislators are representative of their districts. In wealthy communities, they are probably wealthy.