Get ready to advance legislation that makes a difference! This spring the AAUW California 2025 Lobby Days event will be held over two days: an in-person meeting day at the State Capitol on Tuesday, April 8 and a virtual meeting day over Zoom on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. We encourage all AAUW California members to participate in this opportunity for advocacy that is essential to achieve our legislative priorities!
Starting in January, the Public Policy Committee will evaluate new bills introduced in the state legislature which are aligned with our Public Policy Priorities. In mid March, the committee will meet to select 30-35 bills to make up AAUW California’s 2025 Legislative Agenda, including the top three bills that we will advance during Lobby Days. Training materials on these three bills will be posted on the state website by March 26, 2025, and a mandatory training webinar will be held on March 31, 2025 at 7:00pm.
A registration form will arrive in your inbox in early January 2025. Please be sure to complete and return the form so that you get necessary updates about Lobby Days, including your team and meeting details.
After you register, you will be assembled into teams of 3 or 4 AAUW members and matched with Assembly and Senate districts. For in-person meetings, each team will be scheduled to meet with at least 3 legislative offices while for Zoom meetings, each team will be scheduled to meet with 1 to 3 legislative offices. Regardless of whether you are in-person or online, each meeting will last for 15 to 30 minutes.
Because legislators have many commitments during the busy legislative season, most Lobby Days meetings will be held with legislative staffers and it is not always possible to schedule AAUW members with their own legislators. However, be assured that these meetings are always impactful: because teams will be representing AAUW California as a bill sponsor and/or supporter, legislative offices will consider these meetings to be as important as constituent meetings.
Lobby Days 2025 is scheduled to take place just before the legislature adjourns on April 10th for Spring Recess. AAUW members are encouraged to participate in-person on April 8, 2025, and directly advocate at the State Capitol as these in-person meetings are the most effective way to advance our priority legislation. Even though we know that being in-person is impactful, AAUW California is not able to pay for your travel to Lobby Day in Sacramento. For those who are not able to come to the Capitol, there will be an opportunity to meet with legislative offices virtually via Zoom on April 9, 2025.
We understand that travel incurs a cost, and we appreciate you considering the in-person option. If you can afford to take a road trip, consider carpooling with your fellow members, and if driving a long distance, sharing accommodations to make in-person Lobby Day a more budget friendly event.
NOTE In addition to our members, this year some of your Lobby Days teams will include college students who have been invited to join in via a college outreach pilot project. Through this project, we will be distributing Lobby Days event flyers to several colleges and universities from November to February. Increased college student participation will enable us to reach more legislative offices; however, most importantly, we hope that this introduction to AAUW will inspire advocacy-minded young people who share our values to join AAUW.
If you have participated in Lobby Days in the past, we would love to hear your feedback on what worked and what didn’t. Please send your comments to publicpolicy@aauw-ca.org.
Lobby Days is a wonderful opportunity to meet with legislative offices and advance bills to promote gender equity and improve the lives of women and girls. We hope that you will join us in this important activity to promote our values.
