WFRW Day At The Capitol

• Agenda/Format of Meeting 
• Attire
• Elected Officials
• Inside the Legislative Building (also known as the Capitol Building)
• Lunches  -- order form and payment must be received by January 21
• Nametags
• Parking 
• Photographs
• Reservations / Admission Fee  (payment must be received by January 21)

Agenda/Format of Meeting:

• We will gather in the Columbia Room at 11 am on Monday, February 6, 2012.

• After the normal confusion of everyone getting their lunch and getting settled in, we can expect to start the “business” part of our meeting by 11:20 or so.

• We will introduce the elected officers of the WFRW that are present and will try to introduce the elected officials present when we are at this stage of the agenda.  We need to keep in mind that these ladies and gentlemen have busy schedules and will be coming and going during our time in the Columbia Room.  If the elected official is not mentioned during the "introduction segment", they will be formally introduced before they speak to us.

• WFRW President Eileen Sobjack will speak for a few moments.

• The Senators and Representatives will each expect to speak to us for a couple of minutes.
  Please Note:  When you invite your elected officials to join you for lunch, please ask them to contact Shannon Vernon at vernondjsl@comcast.net to schedule a time to speak to our group.

• At 1:30 pm we will leave the Columbia Room and move to the Rotunda for our photograph, which will be taken promptly at 2 pm.  Be sure to take all your belongings with you when you exit the Columbia Room.  Click here to see the photo from February 2009 and click here to see the one from 2010.

• After the group photo, our meeting is concluded.

  • You are free to tour the Legislative Building itself, visit the offices of your Senators and Representatives, stop by the gift shop, etc. 

  • If you have not already done so, you might want to stop by the office of Secretary of State Sam Reed, on the second floor.
         This is where the State Seal items are for sale (from Secretary Reed’s receptionist) in case you want to purchase a memento of your visit to the Capitol. They have everything from flag lapel pins ($4.83 each) to state quarter key chains ($8.68 each) to pens, notecards, coasters, mugs, glassware, ties and scarves, and the tapestry throw blanket we had at the WFRW convention in Yakima in November 2008.
    Sorry, no picture postcards.

Attire

We encourage everyone to wear red! Red jackets, red suits, red sweaters … wear indelible red for the Evergreen State. You can just imagine the impression we will make when others see us, all dressed in red, as a solid group of Republican Women!

Parking

Parking during the Legislative Session is always a challenge, and particularly so now that the former parking lot at Maple Park has been eliminated and is now an office building. During January through March, metered parking ($.50 per hour) with free Dash shuttle service to the Capitol Building is available at the Farmers Market at the far north end of Capitol Way. Be sure to park in the designated stalls with green striping. 
There are approximately 30 of these stalls at the east side of the parking lot.  Please note that the parking stalls marked with white paint (instead of green) are for 2 hour only parking -- and the Farmers Market folks do issue parking tickets.

Click here for a map of the Capitol Campus showing parking areas and Dash shuttle stops.

Inside the Legislative Building

The Columbia Room is on the ground floor of the Legislative Building. For those who have not been to the Legislative Building since its remodel, the Columbia Room is where the old cafeteria used to be --- center of the building, under the Rotunda.

Lunches

Click here for the .pdf of the order form for lunches.  Feel free to make as many photocopies as you would like.  The form and payment in full must be received no later than January 21st.  Sorry, we do not accept debit or credit cards.

For those who order lunch, the boxed lunches should be available by 11:00. The caterer has assured us that each box will be individually labeled with the name of the person whose lunch it is.

For those who did not order lunch, there is a soup/sandwich shop across the hall from the Columbia Room.

Nametags

We will have some of the self-adhesive, write your own nametags available. However, if you have something that is better looking, or that is easier to read, or that identifies you and your club, please feel free to wear it.

Elected Officials

Because of their workload, committee meetings, etc., we can expect the legislators to come and go throughout the time we have reserved the Columbia Room.

If your Senator or Representatives have accepted your invitation to lunch, you will want to be sure that someone from your club will act as hostess to meet the elected officials, be available to deliver their lunches to them if that is appropriate, and introduce them to the members of your club.  (If the crowd in the Columbia Room gets in the way of your spending time with your elected officials, please make a point of going to their individual offices so they and their staff know you were at the meeting and supporting them -- even if you did not speak with them personally.)

Although we will have to abide by some rules, hopefully our meeting will not be too rigid and restrictively structured.  Instead we aim for a less formal opportunity for a discussion of issues and concerns with our Senators and Representatives. As much as possible, we encourage each club to come to the meeting prepared to ask three questions of our elected officials. We will try to keep the meeting moving along.  But, please, remember to remain flexible.

Photographs

Last year there was an opportunity for photographs and we anticipate the same will happen again this year.

Reservations / Admission

Because of the difficult economic times and reductions in their budgets, the General Administration agency, which is responsible for the buildings on the Capitol campus, is now charging individuals and groups that want to meet on campus or use the facilities.  In addition to the permit fee, there are charges for the microphone, the podium, the tables, for each chair, and for the required garbage cans.  As a result, we are charging a $3.50 per person admission charge.  This is in addition to the cost of lunch.

If you plan on attending but will not be ordering lunch, please complete the "lunch order form" and mark that you are paying only the $3.50 admission fee.  Remember that this form and accompanying payment must be received by January 21st so that appropriate arrangements can be made.  We are sorry, it will not be possible to "pay at the door."

If you have any questions, please contact me at dani@hometownpm.com.

We look forward to seeing you on Monday, February 6th for our WFRW Day At The Capitol.

Dani Anderson  
President
Thurston County Women's Republican Club

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Washington Federation of Republican Women.
PO Box 1443
Olympia, WA  98507-1443
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