What could we do to help make things happen?

What meetings should we attend? What should we do there? Who should we talk to? What do we ask them or tell them? What after that?

Influence through Building a Shared Interpretation?

Isn't talking with others to develop a shared interpretation of a decision one way to influence it? And that would be part of monitoring the whole decision-making process, right?

You go to meetings, you talk about what happened with the decision-makers, you share others' interpretations, introduce them to the decision-makers, if possible, and share your interpretation with other d-m's in other locales, and, last but certainly NOT least, the general public!

So, the editorial, the letter to the editor, blogs, e-mails, and plain old socializing, should all work as forums for spreading an interpretation.

And, if the interpretation is everywhere, and established (e.g., they're going to vote on X and they're going to approve it! hooray!) it's more likely the decision-makers will feel compelled not to contradict that.

We influence, then, by watching and talking. Easy! Uh, sort of?

Influence through Shared Experience

My friend said, "Get whatever decision-maker you want to influence to DO something with you." Optimally, something that supports what you want. Want a bike path, go biking with her; want a Walmart, go to Walmart with her, etc.