FNPS Forum
FNPS Committees => Policy => Topic started by: Valerie Anderson on September 03, 2019, 11:09:09 AM
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The Florida Native Plant Society’s Policy and Legislation Committee is distributing the attached Policy Advocacy Handbook for your use and reference. As in previous years, we encourage you to engage with your local elected officials. The next couple months your state legislators (Representatives and Senators) will be scheduling at least one town hall type Legislative Delegation meeting per county. Guidance on how to participate effectively in those meetings is an important element of the Handbook. We will be providing the dates and locations of those meetings as they are announced, county by county, on our Facebook events (https://www.facebook.com/pg/FLnativeplants/events/), Teamup Calendar (https://fnps.org/society/calendar), and emails to Chapter leadership. Please refer to that information as soon as possible so the date of your delegation meeting is on your radar.
As in previous years, we also encourage you to invite you local legislator(s) on a field trip during which you can promote the importance of conserving natural areas through the Florida Forever Program as a way to advance the FNPS mission to conserve native plants and native plant communities. Guidance on organizing and conducting such field trips in also included in the Handbook. The fall months are an ideal time to organize such field trips because the weather is ideal and your legislator(s) will be at home in their districts rather than in Tallahassee. It’s important to begin planning soon so you can engage with them before the beginning of the next legislative session in January.
We created the Handbook to assist you. Feel free to contact the Policy Committee (https://fnps.org/what-we-do/policy) if we can be of additional assistance. Thanks.
Eugene Kelly, Policy and Legislation Chair
Florida Native Plant Society Board of Directors
Warning: this is a large file. If you have a slow internet connection you may not be able to download it. A smaller file is available on our website under the tab Resources > Downloadable Documents > FNPS Policies