Field trips are THE most empowering activity (aside from learning to surf at 50), ESPECIALLY with children and a coalition of other groups.

Here is an example of a Field Trip that MAUs in Colorado, USA recently organized. Use their tips to design your own trip and start influencing the House of Commons, one MP at a time!!

Set Up a Field Trip

STEP 1 Meet with friends, children, colleagues and community leaders to plan a visit to one or more of your Ministers of Parliament. Choose 1-5 issues to discuss. Do your research. Brainstorm a list of local organizations working on your issue and invite them to join you.

STEP 2 Peruse the sample script below on getting more funding to the Millennium Development Goals to give you ideas of how to shape your own meeting.

"Invest in the Global Family" 5-point sample script. (Summer 2006, US)

STEP 3. Start divvying up tasks with 3-5 friends or collaborators:

• meeting requests
• inviting/guest list
• transportation arrangements (renting a school bus is a fun option)
• snacks and lunch
• media
• follow-up

STEP 4 Do your research. Go to your Ministers' Websites to find out phone numbers and where their offices are located. Check out recent press releases while you're there to see what your representatives have been saying about your issues.

STEP 5 Contact the office and ask to speak with her/his assistant. Introduce yourself to her/him and say you’d like to schedule a 30 to 45-minute meeting. You might be asked to submit a written request. Be sure to state the purpose of your meeting. You will most likely meet with a staff person rather than the Minister herself, but that's okay because they do a lot of the work.

STEP 6 Invite your community to join you with an email to your friends, a letter to the editor and/or a calendar announcement in your local paper. Designate a contact person for questions. See the Media Guide for more tips on using the Media to your advantage.

STEP 7 Email or fax a proposed agenda to everyone who plans to attend the meeting including the staff person. Send the agenda days ahead of your scheduled meeting date so everyone has a chance to review and comment.

STEP 8. Make posters with stats, pie charts and graphs to support your agenda items. This makes the meeting visually interesting and gives the smallest members of the delegation something to do (hold the poster).

STEP 9 BE SURE to bring along your favourite local reporter (newspaper, radio, or TV) so they can get the story first hand. Children and their parents meeting with Ministers is news! Be sure to give the media an outline of your agenda ahead of time.

STEP 10 Meet 1 hour before the meeting to assign speaking parts (this could be done in advance of the BIG DAY), read the MAU Principles and let the children and adults practise their questions out loud. Choose one person to lead the meeting and make sure everyone gets a chance to speak — especially the children. Remember, it's not about being right; it's about hearing each other. Most importantly: be respectful. Be sure to leave time in the meeting schedule for questions. Your children will come up with the most powerful and succinct questions. Here are some sample general questions:

• How are you prioritizing children’s wellbeing in the budget?
• Do you support an increase in military spending?
• What specific programme(s) do/would you promote that benefit children? How much money is spent on the programme(s)?
• What do you feel is the single most pressing need for children in our region (country, world) today?

STEP 11 At the meeting, start with introductions: name, a brief statement of who you are. Let the Minister or aide know you would like to make a short presentation with time saved for children and parents to ask questions. Determine how much time you have for the meeting. Always start the meeting with a thank you for a specific action they or their party has recently taken. Be sure to end the meeting by thanking your host for meeting you!

STEP 12 Send an individual or a big group thank you to your Minister's office with pictures and perhaps diary entries of how the day went for the children and their parents. Attach the written request one more time.