{"id":2636,"date":"2014-04-22T13:02:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T17:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=2636"},"modified":"2014-04-22T13:02:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T17:02:02","slug":"making-a-case-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2014\/04\/22\/making-a-case-to-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a Case to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perseverantia Vintia<\/em> is a Latin motto that translates into \u201cPerseverance Conquers.\u201d\u00a0 This sentiment is a perfect description of the fifth annual Legislative Education and Action Day (L.E.A.D.) hosted by the Promotional Products Association International<\/a> (PPAI) in our nation\u2019s capital April 9 and 10. \u00a0Throughout the trip to Washington D.C., the 70 industry volunteers who participated shared a common refrain: \u201cThey remember who we are and what we are here for.\u201d\u00a0 To me, this refrain sums up our mission, which was to educate members of Congress about the value of advertising specialties and the legislative issues most important to suppliers and distributors.<\/p>\n

This year, the L.E.A.D volunteers came from all 50 states, including my home state of Pennsylvania, where ASI is based.\u00a0 Over two days, our group made over 200 Congressional office visits, the culmination of months of preparation that included contacting Congressional staff to arrange meetings and participating in numerous conference calls and webinars to coordinate activities and hone our \u201clobbying\u201d skills.<\/p>\n

As in the past, one of the primary message points is that low-cost, high-impact ad specialties, which still cost as little as half a penny per impression, work. We also wanted to remind our lawmakers of the important part a $20.5 billion industry that employs over 400,000 people plays in the national economy.<\/p>\n

Invariably, every Congressional office we visited had numerous advertising specialties, which helped us make our case while providing tangible proof of the importance of using ad specialties for public awareness programs such as organ donation and health-care awareness. Naturally, we always bring promotional products with us to reinforce our message. This year, Jim Socci of Artistic Toy (asi\/37122) designed a really clever and effective product to use during our pitch \u2013 an elephant-shaped hand puppet that turned inside out to become a donkey (pictured).\u00a0 Needless to say, the message was not lost on our audience and, whether they were Republican or Democrat, the puppet never failed to make them smile.<\/p>\n

In addition to industry awareness, we also focused on preserving the ability of suppliers and distributors to hire independent contractors in lieu of employees, maintaining the full deductibility of advertising costs and the need to be mindful of small businesses in any proposed tax reform.\u00a0 Each team was prepared with position papers on each topic that concisely set forth the issues at hand, which we left behind as a resource for future reference.<\/p>\n

Throughout our trip, the group met over meals to compare notes and share success stories.\u00a0 At the breakfast meeting on the final day, PPAI recognized Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina as its Legislator of the Year in recognition of her commitment to small business interests and success, willingness to meet with industry professionals and support of issues critical to the promotional products industry.<\/p>\n

Kudos must go to the folks at PPAI who worked so hard on the event, especially Paul Bellantone, president and CEO; Anne Lardner-Stone, director of public affairs; and Seth Barnett, government relations manager. Their diligence and enthusiasm was evident from the start and I\u2019m confident Congressional leaders left our meetings with a greater appreciation of our industry and the important role it plays in providing businesses with creative, cost-effective ways to reach their target audiences.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Chuck Machion is ASI\u2019s senior VP and senior counsel<\/em><\/p>\n

In the photo at top, Chuck, at far left, is pictured with PA Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, center, and Jim Socci.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perseverantia Vintia is a Latin motto that translates into \u201cPerseverance Conquers.\u201d\u00a0 This sentiment is a perfect description of the fifth annual Legislative Education and Action Day (L.E.A.D.) hosted by the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) in our nation\u2019s capital April 9 and 10. \u00a0Throughout the trip to Washington D.C., the 70 industry volunteers who participated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-guest-blog","category-industry-initiatives","category-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2636"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2642,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions\/2642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}