Community festivals and celebrations make for great visits with your elected officials. tendees to hear the concerns and needs of your participants. Making the Invitation Now that you have decided what event to encourage them to attend, how do you go about inviting them? You should first make contact with the District Directors (for House representatives) or State Directors (for senators) for your members of Congress. They often are located in one of the local offices (which can be found at congress.gov) and are the point person for programming the time of your representative or senator while they are in your community. Make contact with them to share your idea and encourage them to consider the invite when making summer plans. For elected officials at the state level, they are likely to have a constituent liaison, scheduler or office manager who can help arrange such an invite. Don't forget to invite your city councilperson, mayor and/or city manager as well. These summer visits can be extremely impactful to the elected officials and to your residents. Don't be shy about making the invite, and if they can't make one event, don't get discouraged - keep inviting them. Kyle Simpson is Director of Government Affairs at NRPA (ksimpson@nrpa.org). TimberCraft Childs play, nature's way SM ® w w w.TimberForm.com 1-800/547-1940 | HQ@timberform.com ® PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | MARCH 2 0 2 3 | Parks & Recreation 21http://www.congress.gov http://www.TimberForm.com