Someone from NY emailed me privately for ideas about how to be an effective
local activist with little money.  My reply to her was rather detailed, so
am going to share it here.

We are not a demonstration project for the Ad Council.  There isn't one in
the whole state of Texas.  What we did was have 4 of our members participate
in the conf. call for the media training (many other Texas lactivists also
participated).  Our Central Texas Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Bfg
Coalition works with very little budget, but always have found that we can
work SMARTER not more expensively if we put our minds to it.  For World Bfg
Week we always give an award.  It's called the Hero award, and is presented
to an individual whose contribution to bfg in the past year has been
significant.  We have presented it to 2 neonatologists (in diff. years) who
founded the Milk Bank here, and once to a State Legislator, Glen Maxey, who
pushed thru a bill to obtain Medicaid funding for donor milk. We get local
or even state-wide dignitaries to present the award (which increases the
prestige and involves them in bfg support). Last year the mayor of Austin
presented; the previous year the State Health Commissioner.  How do you get
them to do this?  You call them on the phone and ask.  It's surprisingly
easy -- particularly when you promise them some nice media exposure.  This
isn't hard to get if you plan for it.  We stage the event on the steps of
the state capitol, write and fax press releases a few days prior to the
event (which always gets us at least one tv camera) and we try to get one of
our members invited onto a local tv or radio talk show.  The award is a
simple plaque that costs maybe $30. The volunteer effort is, of course,
expensive in terms of donated time.

We have a strategy to try to garner one media plug for bfg each quarter of
the year.  For example, in May, in honor of Mother's Day, we give bouquets
of flowers (donated) to several people around the community whose support of
bfg deserves recognition.  Examples:  A hospt. nurse/midwife (a Lactnet
member:)  who created a lactation center in a hospt. that had never
previously had one, a nurse who hung bfg art in her unit, a WIC clinic that
serves poor bfg women.  We write press releases about the awarding of the
bouquets.  This year we had tv coverage for one of the presentations that
made it to the evening news.  We participated in the Oct. Quintessence Bfg
Challange, again garnering tv coverage.

 We lobby for bfg at our Capitol.  Our strategy is to have at least one
piece of bfg legislation before our legislature each session (every 2 yrs).
We love it when we get something passed, but that isn't the main point.  We
want the lege to be familiar with bfg as a public policy issue, and this
gives us a chance to educate.  We have a committee that visits to talk to
aides and sometimes even the representatives.  During our visits we give our
a packet (as attractive and memorable as we can make them.  We hand out
short White Papers with "talking points".

We follow up with in person thankyous. Just last week, 5 of us spent an
afternoon going into about 27 offices in the state house and the mayor's
office to deliver coffee mugs filled with candy.  We had the coffee mugs
printed with our logo:  Leaner, Brighter, Healthier Little Texans Through
Breastfeeding.  We also printed up a photo of a beautiful baby (child of one
of our members) wearing a bfg t-shirt sitting on the inlaid brass Lone Star
on the marble floor under the rotunda in the Capitol building -- a very
recognizable locale for any Texan.  This is our Lone Star Baby, and we wrote
our accompanying "thank you for supporting bfg" notes on that card to go
with the candy-filled mugs.  The staffers were delighted.  This was not
particularly expensive to stage, several hundred dollars, and we have cards
and mugs left over to sell to raise more funds.

We have a website, www.hmhbcentx.org and you may get a lot of ideas there.
We believe that even a few local lactivists can make a big noise if they
brainstorm and strategize. We have more fun planning stuff, and if we had
any money, we'd be dangerous:)

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com
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