Q. Legislation, both state and federal, can negatively affect my company. Should risk managers be concerned about legislative results, and if so, what can we do to effect outcomes?

A. Funny you should ask. The Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. just sponsored its first-ever "fly in," called "RIMS on the Hill," with great success (BI, March 22). It gave risk managers a unique, focused opportunity to try to influence legislative outcomes in those areas related to their jobs and to the firms that employ them. With more than 50 risk managers in attendance, RIMS approached 41 legislators and/or their staff members to discuss key pending legislation and to outline members' views on the related issues.

While RIMS tracks dozens of pieces of legislation at any one time, its focus for the fly in centered on three hot issues: Y2K liability, managed care reform, and medical record privacy. All three issues are moving through Congress at varying speeds and are at different stages of development.

After members spent the morning learning about those issues in particular and from guest speaker experts "how to lobby," they were able to speak intelligently to their representatives about the effects these issues would have and have had on their firms. And the legislators listened.

This experience goes to the heart of the above question. Risk managers often overlook legislative issues and their potential effects; reasons range from a lack of time to job descriptions that don't provide responsibility for legislative lobbying. Many mid-size and most large entities have dedicated government affairs types and or paid lobbyists that focus exclusively on selected legislation. But my experience is that these individuals can concentrate on only a limited number of issues. Appropriately, they are those that are integral to their firms' interests and that have the greatest potential impact on stakeholder value.

This results, however, in many issues, such as those listed above, possibly being ignored. That creates the opportunity for risk managers to try to influence outcomes in areas related directly and indirectly to their job descriptions. It may not be critical to the risk manager's success, but a diligent practitioner will attempt to fill the gap where others leave off.

So how should risk mangers approach this objective? The first step is to figure out within your firm how legislative and regulatory issues are addressed. Find out if you have any dedicated resources within the firm or under contract to lobby for company interests. This responsibility may rest in any of several departments-public relations, public affairs, government affairs, communications, or even within the office of the chief executive officer. Meet with the people involved, find out what issues they are tracking and whether any that affect your realm of responsibility are being overlooked. It is equally important to make your case to those same representatives as to why "your" issues matter to the company. Then you can put your heads together, figure out which issues you should chase, and how you might get assistance in doing so.

Take the time to get educated by these experts about how they approach the process. Spending what is likely to be full-time effort on influencing lawmakers, they are uniquely qualified to get you off to a good start and to provide guidance in your future efforts to make a difference for your organization. One thing you'll learn is that lawmakers move very slowly and cautiously as they consider proposed bills and constituent opinions in formulating the positions they take. The result often will be something other than total alignment with the position you might favor. Therefore, if you want to have any measure of success, "compromise" and "negotiation" will become key terms in your lexicon. In fact, you could say the entire lawmaking process is a function of this give and take.

Patience will be another important virtue you'll want to develop, as substantive movement and resolution on some issues, such as product liability reform, can take years, and sometimes decades. After all, product liability reform has been on Capitol Hill now for more than 18 years.

So what about a specific process for addressing key issues? We all have very limited resources we can devote to this, and we'll often get little credit for spending time in this area. That means efforts will consist primarily of long-distance contacts with legislators via telephone, e-mail, U.S. mail and faxes.

In using these necessary alternatives to in-person contact, the key to being effective is a focused strategy. The starting point is recognizing that legislators and their staffs get hundreds of thousands of contacts each year from their constituents. Thus, your strategy should focus on cutting through the clutter of contacts they'll get on any issue. Your communication should stand out as sincere, interested and original. It should not appear obviously to be a part of some larger, mechanical, mass-contact campaign; if identified as such, it will get short shrift.

And don't be fooled into thinking it won't be apparent if it is a mass-contact effort. Lawmakers and, most particularly, their staffs have become experts at ferreting out such campaigns.

Some points to remember when making remote contacts with legislators include:

* Personalize your correspondence.

* Use company letterhead when permitted.

* Use correct protocol in addressing letters. Make sure you have the proper titles.

* Make specific reference to the bill number and name.

* Make it clear why the legislator should listen to and respond to your opinion. Answer such questions as: Are you in the lawmakers' district? Did your firm help the lawmaker get elected? and the like.

* Never use a form letter.

* Find out the name of key legislative staffers and address those individuals specifically. It is almost always staffers who read documents, interpreting and summarizing them when briefing legislators on issues.

* Provide details, then clearly and concisely summarize your position.

* Be timely and efficient in your contacts. There's no point in spending time on issues that already have been decided or in addressing those legislators who are hopelessly wedded to positions contrary to your interests.

It is a given that face-to-face, personal contact will go much further than any amount of remote contact. Thus, your tactical plan should ideally include personal contact as well.

Contact with federal legislators in Washington is somewhat difficult. But, as the fly-in proved, it can be very effective. On the one hand, with some diligent effort, you should be able to meet with, at least, a legislator's staff member. After all, if you are a constituent, it is a staff member's job to listen to your opinions. But you need not be from the lawmaker's district to get his or her attention. For example, having company operations in lawmakers' districts will usually be enough to get some attention.

Before you meet with legislators or their staffs, make sure you've done your homework on the issues to be discussed. Be able to talk intelligently about them. Nothing will cause your considerable efforts to fail more than coming across as not knowing what you're talking about.

Having said that, you can find some relief in the fact that the average legislator will not know the issues on which you will be speaking as well as you do, unless he or she is a bill sponsor or has some other unusual attachment to the bill's origin or direction. While somewhat less true, the same can be said of staff members, who are usually tracking more issues than they can possibly be experts in. Therefore, making your case, even in person, is very doable for every risk manager with this mission at hand.

Regardless of whether or not you succeed in meeting lawmakers in Washington, you can, in most cases, be even more effective getting personal meetings with them on their home turf. That's because there are fewer distractions in their home districts than on Capitol Hill, where legislators' best intentions to meet can often be scuttled by the process requirements of the House and Senate. You're also more likely to get more time with legislators outside Washington and to make a more direct connection for them as to why they should listen to your position.

Regardless of where you meet them, though, be prepared and on time. While legislators often make visitors wait, they don't like to be kept waiting; a typical day for a legislator is filled with dozens of 15- and 30-minute meetings with constituents. As a result, it is also important that you leave something behind that will allow them to review your issue after you leave; that way, there's a better chance they will remember who you are and what your position is. Always follow up a personal meeting with a note of thanks that includes a reiteration of your main points. Be sure to mention your gratitude at the legislator's willingness to meet and recognize the attentiveness of his or her staff in response to your inquiries.

Finally, a great way to get educated on key issues and to understand the status of those issues in the legislative process is to visit the many World Wide Web sites maintained by trade associations that track issues important to their members. RIMS' Web site, at www.rims.org, includes extensive information on current bills, including the actual wording of many of the bills themselves. The Web site also provides access to "Capital Alerts," which give members guidance on important issues and explain how to influence their outcomes. Go there, get educated and learn to lobby for your firm's best interests. You'll become a more well-rounded risk manager in the process.

Would you like advice from an experienced colleague on a risk management, benefits management or actuarial problem? Four quarterly features in the Perspective section of Business Insurance can give you some answers.

Ask A Risk Manager, Ask A Benefits Manager, Ask A Benefit Actuary and Ask A Casualty Actuary answer written questions from readers on risk and benefits management issues and actuarial problems.

This month's column on risk management issues was written by Christopher E. Mandel, director-global risk management at Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. in Louisville, Ky., and vp-external affairs for the executive council of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.

Dennis J. Nirtaut, managing director of compensation and benefits for Arthur Andersen L.L.P. in Chicago, answers questions on employee benefit plans. William J. Miner, an actuary with Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Chicago, answers actuarial questions on benefits issues. And Richard E. Sherman, president of Richard E. Sherman & Associates Inc. in Ashland, Ore., answers actuarial questions in the casualty field.

Address your questions to ASK, Business Insurance, 740 N. Rush St., Chicago, Ill. 60611. Please give us your name, title and employer; however, Business Insurance will consider unsigned letters.