Testifying Before the Joint Finance Committee
General suggestions about testifying before legislators
JFC members contact
info
Arts Action Toolkit - Budget
Process 2011
If you are planning to attend a Joint Finance Committee (JFC) hearing (click here for the hearing scheudle) to speak up against Gov. Walker's proposed cuts and changes to the Wisconsin Arts Board, here is information about how to participate:
o Be prepared to spend a few hours at the hearing - many, many people will want to testify and participate and everyone has to wait their turn to speak. You don't have to plan to testify, but you are there to show support and strength in numbers, and to register in favor of the film incentives reinstatement.
o Each person testifying will have 2 minutes to speak.
o Please make sure to have a written copy of your testimony to hand to the committee clerk. If you are not able to stay for any length of time, it's especially important to register in support of keeping the Arts board strong and effective and provide a written copy of the testimony.
o Keep checking this website (www.artswisconsin.org) for more information! Please contact Arts Wisconsin (608 255 8316 | akatz@artswisconsin.org) with questions.
General suggestions on organizing for public hearings:
- Develop a clear message that is plainly understood and conveys your clear values and concerns-what is important to you. Write a short, 2 minute or less, statement describing yourself, your situation and what programs you are interested in seeing increased funding for. Make a clear statement about what you want the legislators to fund.
- Tell your story. It should be short but tells the listener why an issue is very important to you. How will it affect your life or the life of someone you love.
- Make your needs clear, but do not antagonize legislators. They have the power to increase or decrease budgets and create legislation, therefore we need to make sure that we have them on our side and not create animosity against the arts, artists and arts organizations.
- One strategy for a public hearing is to coordinate the presentations, which works like this: Everyone who wishes to speak should register. If a number of people are speaking on the same issue, it is best to go up as a group with two or three people designated as the spokespeople. Committee members will be able to see how many people are concerned about the arts without hearing the same testimony from many different people. Another strategy is for the first speaker to ask everyone in the audience to stand if they came to talk about this issue. Legislators would prefer this and most likely would give the group more time. What they would not like is to have ten people at different times going up and saying the same thing. Not everyone needs to talk. But make sure the Legislators know that more than the speakers are there on your issue.
REMEMBER: We have the right to participate in our government.
If too many people are afraid to participate, it allows just a few people
to make the decisions. Showing up for an event is extremely important,
whether or not you speak. Participating by being there is the most important
and powerful step.