Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen - March 2020 | Page 5

Are you planting
your grassroots?
By Scott
Jenkins, Senior
Governmental
Consultant
According to the esteemed resources of all knowledge that could
be cared about, Wikipedia, “A grassroots movement is one which
uses the people in a given district, region, or community as the basis
for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and
organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change
at the local, regional, national, or international level.” Does this sound
like anything familiar to you? Well, it is exactly what the National Utility
Contractors Association of Florida (NUCA FL) does. NUCA FL uses
its greatest resource, its members, to affect positive change for our
industry, our communities and our state’s economic climate.
How do we use our members? Through our members’ relationships at
the local, state and federal government levels, we are able to impact
the policy decisions that affect you. Every one of your interactions
with an elected official builds a relationship that can have influence on
today’s and tomorrow’s issues. Your elected officials want to hear from
their hometown folks because, after all, you are their constituents and
you have the ability to affect other voters in their districts.
How do we meet and get to know our elected officials? Many
opportunities abound as outlined below.
Congress:
Go to town halls. This is a great way to learn where your representatives
stand on the issues, how they talk about the issues, arguments they
make to counter your viewpoint, places where their knowledge base
may be thin and so on. It’s also a great place to meet their staff and
engage in friendly conversations that can lead to important meetings
in the future between you and the staff or the representative him or
herself.
MARCH 2020 • DITCHMEN
3