Dominik Meier, Vorsitzender der Degepol, hat jüngst einen Vorschlag gemacht, der es sicher verdient, weiter diskutiert zu werden. In Anlehnung an die Institution des Wehrbeauftragten des Deutschen Bundestags soll die Einsetzung eines Interessenbeauftragten beim Bundestag für mehr Transparenz bei der politischen Interessenvertretung sorgen. Nachdem die Debatte um ein verpflichtendes Lobbyregister bislang keine greifbaren Ergebnisse erbracht hat, soll dieser Vorschlag neue Dynamik in diese Diskussion bringen.

Rationale

Within a trade association or professional society’s membership, the disenfranchised are also referred to as the grumblers, the fringe, the disconnected, the malcontent, and the contrarians. How do you reel in the self-exiled members before they quit your organization? Asking the questions below will cause an honest discussion around the topic of member engagement.

1. Do you know what really matters to the disconnected members and have you attempted to deliver what they want?  

One of the most visible activities of professional membership organizations are legislative or public policy advocay efforts. This Professional Practice Statement is provided as a management tool for associations and individual association professionals and recommended as a means to achieve excellence in managing associations and other not-for-profit organizations.

Background 

Associations engage in government relations, public policy, and advocacy activities for a variety of reasons. These activities can enable an association to:

Identifying the problems and the policy issues

1. What is the issue to be addressed?
2. Why is it important and to whom?
3. Does this problem have a policy dimension?
4. What current policies reinforce the problem?
5. What changes in policies could lead to improvement? Who is responsible for those policies?

Defining the advocacy goal
 

Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause expressed through strategies and methods that influence the opinions and decisions of people and organisations. The aims of advocacy are to create or change policies, laws, regulations, distribution of resources or other decisions and to ensure that such decisions lead to implementation.

Lobbying and interest groups play a crucial role in the decision making processes of the EU. Policy-making has largely relied on the information provided by actors from different institutions and interest groups, upon which collaboration and competition over influence occurs. These various actors from private and public interest groups can influence decision-making, through formal consultation or as sources of information, expertise and mediation between other institutional actors.

Source: WEF Global Risks Report 2016

Lower oil prices will have enormous economic and political consequences that will be felt globally in a variety of ways. For oil consumers, lower prices are akin to a tax cut. This will allow them to do a combination of the following: increase savings, pay down debt and increase consumption. In most countries, consumers will gravitate towards spending more. The biggest beneficiaries will be the countries with no significant oil resources of their own, such as the nations of Eastern Europe, and some Asian economies, including India, South Korea and Japan.

Internal Decision-Making

Efficient internal decision-making is a prerequisite to achieve favourable policy outcomes. Most associations are aware of the need for swift and efficient internal processes.

The outlook for oil prices remains very gloomy. OPEC will keep its output at 32 million b/d for the time being and Iran is expected to be increasing its exports in the next few months. Some are now saying that it will take two years to eliminate the excess crude stockpiles after supply and demand are brought back into balance.