CONGRESSIONAL FIELD HEARING ON ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION

A How-To Guide based on:

"Organ and Tissue Donation: Mobilizing Massachusetts Families, Communities and Hospitals"
held September 30, 1996 at Harvard Medical School, Boston

• Introduction
  
• Timeline
  
• Planning Teams
  
• Logistics
  
• Content
  
• Media
  
• A few additional thoughts
  
  
  Appendices:
  • A. Background/Members of the Congressional Task Force on Organ and Tissue Donation
    
  • B. Concept statement 6/20/96
    
  • C. Detailed, minute-by-minute agenda
    
  • D. Planning meeting agenda--co-sponsors
    
  • E. Planning meeting agenda and project overview--donation/transplantation organizations
    
  • F. First press release and flyer
    
  • G. Media advisory from Rep. Moakley's office (please contact The Partnership for a copy)
    
  • H. Sample media coverage (please contact The Partnership for copies)
    
  • I. Final agenda and copies of testimony (please contact The Partnership for copies)

INTRODUCTION

A Congressional Field Hearing can be an important tool for local organizations who are working to solve the organ donor shortage. Such an event can:

• increase public awareness of the need for organs
• increase awareness of hospital professionals about their role in organ donation
• foster collaboration among local organizations and highlight their accomplishments
• develop policy initiatives that will work towards these goals

TIMELINE

Most of the planning took place within a four month time-frame from June through September 1996. The general tasks are described in the month in which they occurred.

MONTH 1

• Confirm who the "anchor organization" will be, that is, the organization responsible for overall coordination of the event. In our case, The Partnership for Organ Donation took on this role, which grew out of previous contacts with both Rep. Moakley and Sen. Kennedy.
• Complete concept statement; come to consensus on "message" and general plan with congressional staff. The need for a clear message cannot be emphasized enough. We focused throughout on the acute need for organs in Massachusetts and the innovative approaches being taken by Massachusetts organizations.
• Finalize date for event with Congressmen's schedulers. But be prepared for anything. When dealing with elected officials, schedules can change right up to the last minute. Sen. Kennedy was unable to attend our event at the last minute because of an important vote in the Senate, but Rep. Moakley was well-prepared to lead the entire event.
• Find a location available on that date. Have the event in a politically neutral setting where the collaborative nature of the event is apparent. Harvard Medical School was the gracious host for our event and the beautiful Waterhouse Faculty Room provided a stately setting for the hearing.

• Confirm any co-sponsoring organizations. Along with The Partnership for Organ Donation, our co-sponsors were Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. These were the groups that did the bulk of the logistical planning.
• Touch base with congressional staff every couple of weeks for input on meeting design and speakers that they would like to see included. The phone lines were continually carrying conversations and faxes between our office and Washington. We can't stress enough the necessity for constant communication throughout the planning process.
• Develop detailed framework agenda with time slots and speaking topics. (See Appendix C.) This was a constantly changing document as we matched the "message" of the event to the speakers who could deliver it most effectively.

• Convene small planning meetings for co-sponsoring organizations. (See Appendix D.) We held three meetings, which included the directors of public affairs at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, key Harvard researchers who have worked on organ donation, and the managing director and communications coordinator from The Partnership.
• Review logistical requirements and designate responsibilities. Harvard Medical School had an event planner on staff who was quite adept at handling logistics.
• Finalize a specific room, based on estimated attendance. The Waterhouse Faculty Room is an elegant room and just the right size for the 70-100 people we anticipated. Harvard was also able to provide an overflow room, although we did not actually use it on the day of the hearing.
• Schedule planning meeting for broader donation/transplantation community. This is important for buy-in. There are inherent benefits to bringing this group together, particularly if they haven't worked together before. For us this included New England Organ Bank, Northeast Organ Procurement Organization, New England Chapter of TRIO, the state branches of the National Kidney Foundation and American Liver Foundation, and the Family Inn.
• Conduct planning meeting including representatives from broader donation/transplantation community. We actually did this at the beginning of Month 4; Month 3 would probably be better. This planning group made specific recommendations about speakers, message points and policy initiatives and was the key to building enthusiasm about the event.
• Draft flyer and press release annoucing event. (See Appendix F.) This brief announcement/press release went into the newsletters of participating organizations, such as TRIO, as well as the national publication, Transplant News. The flyer was distributed by all participating organizations to their board members and their communities.

• Focus the message. What do you want the headline to be following the event? We knew we wanted a few key points to come across: Massachusetts has an acute shortage of organs for transplantation; transplantation works, as evidenced by Rep. Moakley and the members of the Transplant Games team; and hospitals can do more to increase donation.
• Finalize all speaker recruitment. With the help of the larger planning team, we prepared a working list of several speakers for each slot. This was useful when some potential speakers we contacted had previous commitments for that date.
• Provide guidance on testimony preparation. Make sure testimony is consistent with the message of the event. We made calls to all speakers and went over the key message points that each should include. We also offered to help prepare testimony, type it, do cover sheets or whatever else the speakers wanted help with.
• Launch publicity effort. The Congressional offices decided that Moakley's press secretary would release the media advisory. We submitted a draft to her, which she revised and issued on Rep. Moakley's letterhead.
• Finalize all logistical arrangements. All kinds of things came up at the last minute, such as making sure that security arrangements were coordinated between the congressional offices and Harvard's security police. The Harvard event planner coordinated most of the final logistics.
• Assist congressional press office to expand reach of media advisory. We asked the participants on our planning teams to make calls to their own media contacts.

• Brainstorm with those involved on what worked and what didn't. Knowing that we were going to prepare this guide, we took the time to talk among ourselves and make calls to co-sponsors, planning team members and the Congressional aides. All agreed that the event was a success, but specific feedback was extremely valuable.
• Write thank-you notes to all speakers, congressional aides and involved staff of co-sponsoring and participating organizations. Do not forget this step, particularly since the links established by this event should continue in future collaborative initiatives. Saying thank you was really easy--everyone had worked hard and had been enthusiastic about the hearing.
• Follow-up with calls to media who covered event, offering to assist with future stories. Even the most hard-boiled reporter appreciates hearing that his story was well-written and that he's done some good by informing the public about the value of organ donation. One such call to the Boston Globe resulted in interest by the reporter in doing another story a month later on the hospital role in organ donation.
• Follow-up with congressional staff on policy recommendations generated at the hearing. The hearing enabled to us to establish a really warm and productive working relation with Rep. Moakley's and Sen. Kennedy's staff. They are eager to continue working on this issue.

PLANNING TEAMS

As soon as word got out that a Congressional field hearing was being planned , we began to receive numerous phone calls from individuals and groups who wanted to be involved. Clearly, if we had tried to convene everyone from the start and had tried to reach a consensus on every planning decision, the event would never have taken place! Therefore, we identified three distinct planning teams, each with an important role in making decisions about the hearing:

Congressional Aides & the Anchor Organization

Who: This team consisted of two Congressional health policy aides--one from Rep. Moakley's office and one from Sen. Kennedy's office; the managing director and communications coordinator from The Partnership; an aide from Sen. Kennedy's Boston office; and Rep. Moakley's press secretary. Key decisions were made by this group prior to convening either of the other two teams.

How: All decisions were arrived at through regular phone conversations, including one conference call, and were made by consensus.

Tasks:

• Make key decisions about date, format, location
• Create overall concept statement, including purpose, goals, audience, potential speakers, key message points (see Appendix C)
• Gather testimony in writing from all speakers at least four days in advance of the hearing

Co-sponsoring Organizations

• Make sure all relevant organizations are involved in planning the event
• Review purpose, goals, background, structure of hearing (see Appendix E)
• Discuss and develop policy recommendations
• Make final selection of speakers
• Invite speakers; distribute samples of written testimony to speakers
• Distribute flyer and first press release (and map of location, if necessary); publicize in organization newsletters and to various constituencies
• Expand invitation list and discuss who should extend those invitations
• Make follow-up calls after media advisory is released by Members

LOGISTICS

• Venue--It is important to secure a venue that is centrally located, large enough for the anticipated audience, and one with the general air and dignity that is associated with a congressional event. In our case, the Harvard Medical School, one of the hosting organizations, had a suitable room that could accommodate 70-100 people, with room for broadcast and print media.
  
  
• Room arrangement--Typically hearing rooms are arranged with two tables facing each other. The Member(s) of Congress sit behind one table facing the room; the panelists sit at the other table facing the members with their backs to the rest of the audience. In our case, we had an area to the side of the tables that was available for broadcast media and photographers. A tip: we recommend designating some preferred seating for the print media and other special guests that is away from the broadcast media. A "Reserved" sign should be put on the seats.
  
  
• Accessibility--Make sure the building is wheelchair accessible and that arrangements are made to accommodate special needs.
  
  
• Overflow room--We were fortunate to have a facility where people could be accommodated with closed circuit TV if the main room filled up. This may not always be possible.
  
  
• Security--Check with the staff(s) of the Member(s) of Congress to make sure that any security considerations are addressed.
  
  
• Microphones for panelists as well as the congressional representative(s)
  
  
• Refreshments--coffee and cookies, for example
  
  
• Sign-in sheets for attendees with name, affiliation, address, phone
  
  
• Photographer
  
  
• Water for speakers
  
  
• Name cards for all speakers--Prepare "tent" style cards that sit on the table, printed with name on both sides so it is visible to the Member(s) as well as the audience.
  
  
• Easel--for speakers using graphical displays to accompany their testimony
  
  
• Tape recording, either audio or video
  
  
• Timer device for the speakers. In our case it was nothing fancy. We designated one staff person to be the timekeeper. Each speaker was allotted four minutes. After three minutes, the timekeeper held up a yellow sign indicating one minute remaining. After four minutes, she held up a red "stop" sign. This is to be used as a reminder; it is realistic to expect some speakers to go slightly over time.
  
  
• Table for copies of testimony and other hand-out materials
  
  

CONTENT

General comments:

In our view it is extremely important to have strong consensus between the hosting organization(s) and the key congressional staff about the goals of the event and the key issues to be addressed (see section on Concept Statement). An event like this cannot address all issues and will lose impact if too many issues are tackled at one time.

• Create a concept statement early (see Appendix B) and review it in detail with the appropriate congressional staff. This will set the overall framework for the event.
  
  
• Draft agenda: Create a rough agenda based on the concept statement with a few key points that you want each speaker to address.
  
  
• Chose person(s) to open the event and deliver welcome statement.
  
  
• Provide assistance as needed drafting speaking points for welcome statement (example points: history of the Congressional Task Force on Organ Donation, local need for organ transplants, re-cap of the Member of Congress' specific involvement with the issue, etc.).
  
  
• Brainstorm possible speakers:
  • Push yourself to identify new voices, people with direct experience who can present it well.
  • Check with congressional staff for their recommendations, requests.
  • Use your network to get others in the community to help you identify good speakers.
  • Be attentive to reflecting the community you are in. If minority donation is an issue you plan to address, make sure you have speakers who can address it with authority and first-hand knowledge.
  
  
  
• Prioritize your speaker invitations, and identify best person to extend the formal invitation to speak.
  
  
• Confirm all speakers, and update draft agenda to reflect actual participants.
  
  
• Provide background and clear guidance to invited speakers:
  • Copy of current agenda with brief summary of topics to be addressed by each speaker
  • All logistical details (where, when, etc.)
  • Key points you want the speaker to address in their testimony
  • Examples of previous testimony
  • Time limit on their remarks
  • The need for written testimony as well as oral statement
  • Request a one-paragraph biographical statement to be passed to the congressional staff for use when the Member introduces the speaker at the hearing
  • Deadline for submitting written testimony (The congressional staff will want this a few days in advance of the event.)
  • Explain that the Member(s) may ask questions after the testimony is delivered.
  • The importance of highlighting policy implications or recommendations, if this is an agreed goal with the congressional staff
  • Instructions to bring multiple copies of the final testimony to the event for distribution (We advised bringing 60-70 copies, based on the predicted attendance.)
  
  
  
• Support to speakers: Speakers will differ in the support they want. Examples of support to offer include brainstorming the content and structure of their testimony, reviewing their written draft, assisting them in crafting their oral statement, actual rehearsal of their spoken testimony.
  
  
• Follow up prior to testimony due date to make sure speakers are on track.
  
  
• Gather copies of written testimony for congressional staff.

MEDIA

Before the hearing:

• Write first press release to announce event and distribute to trade media and newsletters of local donation and transplant organizations.
  
  
• Produce flyer about event and distribute to all those with an interest in the event-local transplant centers, medical schools, transplant organizations, OPOs, etc. (Appendix F)
  
  
• If possible, set up mass-faxing technology for distributing media advisory, flyers, etc.
  
  
• Designate media spokespersons at all hosting and participating organizations.
  
  
• Work with Congressional press secretaries to draft media advisory and coordinate publicity.
  
  
• Release media advisory on Congressional letterhead 4 or 5 days before hearing. (Appendix G)
  
  
• Participating organizations should send media advisory to and call their own media contacts.
  
  
• Make follow-up phone calls to media.
  
  
• Send media advisory to national trade media with a promise of providing follow-up materials, including copies of testimony.
  
  
• Post notice of hearing on TransWeb, Web sites of participating organizations and other related Web sites. Be sure to consider space available and whether this might create too large an audience for the event.

• Make necessary arrangements for parking media vans at hearing, providing electrical outlets, etc.
  
  
• Have an appropriate area in the front of the room designated and set up for broadcast cameras, paying attention to lighting, sound and electrical considerations.
  
  
• Have a separate area available for print reporters near the front.
  
  
• Hosting organizations should have person designated who will greet media and tend to their requests.
  
  
• Have a sign in sheet at the hearing and make sure you add media names to your media database for future press releases.
  
  
• Assemble at least 10 complete sets of testimony for attending media.

• Call or write notes to media who ran stories and suggest further follow-up stories. (Appendix H)
  
  
• Send packs containing a follow-up press release and complete sets of testimony to trade media and others who requested this. (Appendix I)

A FEW ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

In reflecting on our experience, here are some things that we felt worked well and that we would want to do again:

• Build enthusiasm among all of the participants, sponsors and attendees. Enthusiasm is infectious, and will help to make the event successful.
  
  
• Have a clear point of view about the purpose and goals of the event. No event can address every important issue. By selecting a focus and sticking to it, the event will be more coherent and will leave a lasting impression on those attending.
  
  
• Be prepared for anything. When dealing with elected officials, schedules can change right up to the last minute. Have a back up plan ready, as well as a plan for communicating last minute changes to everyone involved, particularly people who are traveling some distance to attend the event.
  
  
• Draw on people's real experiences. Encourage case studies, accounts of real people doing real things that illustrate the overall points you are trying to emphasize.
  
  
• Have the event in a politically neutral setting. Make sure that the collaborative nature of the event is apparent. For us this meant having an academic setting, and we recommend considering this when possible.
  
  
• Realize that you can't make everyone happy all the time. There will be time constraints that make it impossible to accommodate everyone who would like to speak. There's not much you can do about this, except to be clear about how the speakers were selected. Also make it clear that anyone can submit written testimony, whether or not they also deliver oral testimony. Encourage people to do this, and provide examples of testimony to help them.
  
  
• Use the network in your area. Keep asking who should be involved/informed. How about the state medical and hospital associations? How about any service clubs with an interest in the issue? What about religious leaders? Make sure you reach out to the minority community and that they are represented on the panels and in the audience. Think beyond the usual participants.
  
  
• Think about "photo ops" for the media. We invited the Massachusetts Transplant Games team, who were introduced by Rep. Moakley and presented a team t-shirt to him.
  
  
• Mass-faxing set up through a computer modem saves a tremendous amount of time when sending out media advisories, planning meeting agendas, etc. Consider using this technology to get your messages out.

• Meet the needs of print media. We had a good set-up for the broadcast media, but hadn't set aside preferential seating in front for print media, away from the cameras. This would have been appreciated.
  
  
• Don't lose sleep over the need for a dress rehearsal. We attempted to schedule one, which proved impossible. In actuality, it wasn't needed.
  
  
• Get contact information for anyone who may be traveling to attend the event--this includes the congressional staff. If there are last minute changes, you need to inform people who will be affected, especially if long-distance travel is involved.