MPP Engagement Kit Overview

MPP ENGAGEMENT: Building Relationships and Telling Your Story

Your voice is vital. OASIS members provide the compelling, community-focused context that will resonate with MPPs from across the province. We want OASIS members in every community to connect with their local MPPs – whether PC, NDP Liberal, Green, or independent.

This will be part of an ongoing, local dialogue with your local MPPs that will significantly contribute to OASIS’ efforts and build momentum on this key ask, as well as to lay a foundation or continue to build your relationship with those MPPs to engage on other important issues going forward.

Meeting Your MPP(s)

Step 1: Scheduling and Preparing for a meeting.

• Enclosed in this toolkit is a template meeting invitation that you can use for your own local outreach.
  • As required, OASIS staff will be able to provide you with the contact information you need for your local MPPs, as well as answer any questions you may have.
• Be as accommodating as possible in terms of making yourself available to meet with the MPP, for whatever length of time they have available.
• MPPs get a lot of meeting requests. You should expect to follow-up on your invitation after a few days if you haven’t received any acknowledgement or a confirmed a date for the meeting.
• There is strength in numbers when arranging MPPs meetings. We encourage you, where appropriate, to seek to schedule meetings in partnership with other local agencies. In addition to having the support of another agency, it may increase the chances of successfully securing the meeting and demonstrate to MPPs in real-time that the sector is speaking with one voice.
• Once the meeting is scheduled, remember to share the enclosed briefing materials and the names/titles of those participating in the meeting with the MPP’s office. This will help them prepare in advance and contribute to a better dialogue.
• Review the resources provided in this toolkit in advance of your meeting.
• If more than one person is joining the meeting from your team, determine speaking roles in advance.
• It is important to prepare local personal examples as stories strengthen your message.

Step 2: Conducting a meeting.

• Arrive at the meeting early and confirm you know exactly where and what time you are meeting.
• Build in time for introductions but be brief.
• If you are in a group, ensure you know who is speaking. There should be a lead.
• Focus on the key messages and “ask” and highlight the local examples in combination with the key messages from the briefing materials.
• Be passionate and respectful.
• Be concise as you may only have 15- or 20-minutes total, and it is important to leave time for questions.
• Take notes– enclosed in this toolkit is a template meeting tracker chart for notes.

Step 3: Following up after the meeting.

• Connect with OASIS to let us know how the meeting(s) with your local MPP or other officials went. Inform us of the questions they asked and the comments they made. Also use this time to raise questions and information requests, particularly if the MPP is interested in learning more about OASIS’ priorities.
• Send a “thank you” email to the MPP.
• Send briefing materials, as promised, in follow-up email.

VIRTUAL MEETINGS

While meetings are once again generally being held in person, some MPPs and their offices may still opt to conduct some meetings virtually through either Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or another virtual meeting platform often for distance or time constraints.

Here are some important reminders to consider when conducting virtual meetings.