Orientation and Reception for our Lobby Day
This afternoon we had the orientation for the lobby day tomorrow. I was struck at how easy it was to get into the House office buildings. Somehow, with all that’s been going on in the world, I expected that there would be security up the gazoo with only people with an appointment allowed in. Nope. I just had to have my bags X-rayed and walk through a metal detector, and there I was.
Our meeting was in the Science Committee’s main hearing room. The walls were adorned with portraits of all of the former committee chairs, and looked much as the hearing rooms do on TV. We spent about an hour and a half listening to people talk at us, going over our talking points and discussing how our congressional visits would go the next day.
Then we broke up into our teams. My team had five members, plus our leader who was to shuffle us around the next day. We went over our schedule for the next day, talked a bit about our respective backgrounds, and went over the general outline of each meeting yet one more time. The other person from my district didn’t show, so suddenly I was assigned to be the lead for the first meeting tomorrow. Yikes!
Afterward there was a reception for us with food and drinks. This one was held in another of the science committee’s hearing rooms – this time the one where most of the NASA and space appropriations committee meetings are. The walls were covered with Hubble Telescope pictures. I didn’t end up staying too long, but did chat for a while with one of my team members and a neurologist from Arkansas.
Oh, and to the three people who sat near me in the orientation meeting #150; if you don’t feel like you need to be in the meeting, then don’t show up. I don’t want to hear you clacking away on your blackberry the whole time or to listen to your under-your-breath comments (which, by the way, weren’t really under your breath).