Tracy Edmonds describes himself as “just a regular guy.” He works as a software engineering manager at Cisco Systems and lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, Beth Edmonds, and their two teenage daughters.
He says, “For most of my life I would not have characterized myself as a humanitarian or someone working in the area of social justice. But lately, that’s been changing.”
How did you get involved with FCNL’s lobbying?
A few years ago Beth and I became friends with Ken and Deborah Alexander through a network of mutual friends. We were drawn to this group through a deep sense of concern about what is going on in the world and the desire to do something. Shortly before he retired from the Navy, Ken discovered the Friends Committee on National Legislation. He could see that FCNL and the Quakers were very well grounded in their drive and ability to make a difference with respect to the types of decisions that our federal government is making.
We are not Quaker, and we don’t come from a Quaker background. But in November 2011 I attended my first FCNL Annual Meeting with Ken, and I learned how to lobby.
How have you lobbied with FCNL?
I’ve now gone to three Annual Meetings and lobbied at all of them. My wife and I write letters. After about two years, we decided to ask for a local meeting with our representative.
Working with FCNL, we put together a small delegation that included a marriage and family therapist; someone involved in biotech; my wife, who is with a small non-profit focused on issues of domestic violence; and myself. We were able to get an appointment with our representative. FCNL coached us on how to structure the meeting, and we had a face-to-face meeting with our representative focused on reforming immigration laws.
On our next trip to Washington, DC, we were again able to sit down with our representative—this time about cutting the Pentagon budget.
Do you think your interactions with your representative have an impact?
Well, most recently, we got a message from FCNL to encourage our representative to cosponsor legislation repealing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force. We wrote our representative, my wife Beth and I wrote separate letters, and we each received back a reply that included this sentence: “Due in part to your advocacy, I have decided to cosponsor H.R. 2324 (one piece of legislation that repeals the Authorization for the Use of Military Force).” That seems like evidence of an impact!
What lesson do you draw from your lobbying experience?
One of the biggest tips is to try to form a relationship with your member of Congress and their staff, so that they start to recognize your name.
Speaking as someone who is discovering this work, I really want to acknowledge FCNL and its staff and the Quakers for the amazing things you are doing here. When I describe FCNL to my friends and coworkers, I tell them about how practical this group is, and how they are very grounded, and how they are all about the business of working with our government the way it was designed to be worked with. I tell them about the level of expertise that is here and the various focus areas and about how these experts lobby our lawmakers. I explain that it is all about teaching our lawmakers to understand the issues that they are voting on.
I also tell them how this organization understands that nothing is going to be resolved overnight and how they are persistent and they are unwilling to give up in the face of adversity.
