Buffalo Marriage Ambassador Training Sept 2007

What is a Marriage Ambassador?

A volunteer with special training. Yup, that does sound awefully simple, but it does kind of peg it. Maybe we should look more at who qualifies to be one... You must be passionate about equality. You must be willing to do a little work. Yup, sounds awefully simple, but it does peg it! Anyone could be an Ambassador... with a little training!

Our Trainers! Nora Yates & Todd Plank!

Nora Yates is from Albany, NY. She is employed by the Empire State Pride Agenda. She is a great support to us and our efforts in Buffalo. Todd  Plank is from Rochester, NY. He also works with ESPA through the New York Civil Liberties Union. Todd has mentored us for over a year, helping us to gain momentum and garner support for our team.

Getting to know each other and talking about why we are all here today

Diane & John Covert share their experiences about lobbying Assemblyman Mark Schroeder at Equality & Justice Day '07

Understanding OUR stories and learning how important it is that others hear them!

Talking about WHY marriage is important to you can be difficult the first time, but it is so important to make people understand that this is personal, that it involves REAL people with REAL families. This is where you learn to tell your family, your friends, your coworkers and, yes, even total strangers why Marriage Equality is so important to this country.

Todd and Nora talk about how to tell your story and help the group to divide into pairs and try the exercise that hones the skills.

Food... do we ever do anything without it?

One of the wonderful things about this group is the food. We are a people of good taste! And it is obvious at every function! We also pride ourselves on respecting the special dietary needs and requests of many of our members... from sugar free to vegan... no one goes hungry OR eats unhealthy!!!

Doing the lobby thing!

The is such a misconception about being a lobbiest. You do not have to be paid. You do not have to have a degree in political science. You do not have to know someone. You do not have to have a six-figure income. You do not have to have 40 hours a week to dedicate to going to Albany or Washington DC. ALL YOU NEED is a belief in a cause and a willingness to do more than just gripe about it.

Nora and Todd explain the keys to a good lobby visit. We are going to break into groups and do a "mock lobby" with some experienced marriage ambassadors as the Senators....

Our "Senators" share with the group how each lobby visit went and the group shares their insights into the experience. No, Kitty and Todd are NOT doing the hokey-pokey... but it does look like it... and heaven knows they have done some pretty strange things to make a point!

Break time!

It is a long day, but we get lots of breaks and goodies. Everyone gets a chance to chat about what we have just learned and ask questions about what may not have been clear to them and (at this training) grab a bite of wedding cake that was left over from Curtain UP! that had been held the night before!!!

Getting Serious With Next Steps!

A training is just that. A training. They are of no value if you don't put them into practice. "Next Steps" refers to the actual WORK that makes change happen. Here we are discussing WHAT we will do next. HOW we will do it and WHEN and WHERE! This is the MOST CRITICAL PART of CREATING CHANGE!!! If you fail to plan, then you have planned to fail. We are going to make it happen!

Todd talks about successful projects that we have done in the past and plans in the works

It is opened up to the floor for comments, questions and ideas

Nora challanges us to put what we have learned  into practice

Nora turns it to Kitty to talk about our letter writing campaign

We set a goal for our letter campaign... 3,000 letters from Buffalo!

There is always a little clean up to do!

Nora and Kitty do a quick pick up before the end of the meeting... there is always a little clean up that can be done!

"The Circle"

At the end of the training we stood in a circle and each of us said one word that described what we gained from the training... Empowered, inspired, hopeful, ready... these were just a few.

The real work begins NOW!!!!

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