One of the most effective ways to make your voice heard in Frankfort is to have a direct conversation with your state legislators. That is why KMFC is coordinating a lobby day for supporting members on February 23, 2023.
Register Here
When you register, we will use the info you provide to look up your state senator and your state representative. Volunteers will call legislator offices to request meetings with these legislators. If there are multiple members who live in the same district and have the same legislators, we will group you together for meetings. All meetings are subject to the availability and schedules of the legislators, but we do our best to make sure that meeting times coincide with the times you told us that you would be in Frankfort. If you cannot be in Frankfort at the time of your meeting, let us know ASAP at info@kmfc.org.
Closer to the event, we will send out an e-mail to all registrants with a link to view the scheduled meeting times. If you see other legislators on the list who are near your area, but you aren’t in their district, you are welcome to join in on those meetings. Please e-mail us to let us know if you want to join other meetings.
Click here for information on parking and entering the Capitol Annex.
All meetings will take place in the Capitol Annex Building. Be prepared with your ID when you enter. The guest entrance is at the center set of doors facing the Capitol building. There is only one guest entrance.
The typical visitor sign-in procedure involved scanning your drivers license at a tablet, entering your name, and then you are given a nametag. On busy days, the front entrance staff sometimes scraps this process. Some days there can be a line with a significant wait time. Dress for the weather in case you are standing outside waiting.
We recommend that you should plan to be in the parking lot at least ONE HOUR before your scheduled meeting time.
Closer to the date of the event, we will notify participants of our designated gathering location inside the Annex building. At that location you will be able to pick up materials for your meetings. Feel free to hang out in the cafeteria (basement) between meetings. It will get very busy closer to lunch time.
Do I Need to Be There the Whole Time? No, you do not need to be present the entire time from 8:30am until 1:00pm. Once we have meeting times scheduled, you can plan to arrive about an hour prior to your first meeting and leave after your final meeting. You are also welcome to stay the entire time and attend additional meetings or help out in other ways.
Children are welcome to attend meetings as well! You know your children best, and you know whether or not they will do well in meetings. Infants and school-age children usually do great. Toddlers and preschoolers are not usually quite so impressed with meetings. Middle and high school aged children may wish to serve as a page for the day. Information on Senate Page Program, and House Page Program.
What to Wear– There is no dress code for lobby day, but we do have suggestions. Most folks at the Capitol (legislators and lobbyists, staff) dress in business casual attire. Dress clothes are appropriate, such as business attire or business casual, “church clothes,” or something you might wear to a fancy dinner with family. Think conservative and not risque. That being said, jeans and a t-shirt are just fine, too. What you wear is far less important than simply showing up.
Before Meetings– Please look at the meeting schedule that will be e-mailed and know the times of your planned meetings.
Senate offices are on the 2nd floor. House offices are on the 3rd and 4th floors. To get to the upper floors, use the elevators and stairs in the CENTER of the building. You cannot get into the upper floors from any other stairways. For Senate offices, you will go with your group to the office suite of the legislator you are meeting with. For House meetings, there is a lobby on each floor where the volunteer leader from your group will check-in, and you must wait in the lobby to be called back. Please do not check-in yourself! That leads to confusion and gets us scolded by the front desk staff!
Every meeting will have a KMFC volunteer to accompany you. The volunteers may be participating in back to back meetings and will NOT have time to come to downstairs to get you and walk with you. They will meet you 1) at the office suite of your meeting if on the 2nd floor, or 2) in the lobby if on the 3rd of 4th floor.
During Meetings– Everyone will introduce themselves. Your job is to let your legislator know that you live in their district and that you care about medical freedom issues. You can mention more specifically where you live and any community ties you might have (where you go to church, where you went/your kids go to school, where you work, etc), and mention if you have any personal connections to the legislator.
The KMFC volunteer with you can address bill questions more specifically if needed. If there are any questions to which no one knows the answer, just say that you don’t know, but that someone will get the answer and get back to them.
If the legislator has strong feelings on any point, don’t argue with them, but do calmly state your position. Be sure to thank them for the meeting before you leave. Most meetings will last 10-20 minutes.
If you have back-to-back meetings, be aware of where your next meeting will take place.
Stay on Topic– While you are speaking with legislators during KMFC lobby day, please stay on topic. At any given time there are always many subject matters being considered by the General Assembly, and you may have strong feelings about many of those other topics. However, we ask that you do not discuss your views on other topics while in legislator meetings set up by KMFC.
Food– There is a cafeteria in the basement of the annex where you can have lunch. There is also a snack shop in the basement. Food is not allowed in the first floor meeting rooms.
Sightseeing– You can also tour the Capitol building. Get info on visiting the Capitol here and more information on visiting Frankfort here.
