Key Contact Program
ACP's continued success on Capitol Hill greatly depends upon year-round grassroots support from the College's over 5,000 Key Contacts. Key Contacts communicate with their members of Congress on issues of importance to medical students, internists and their patients, and report the results back to ACP.
To enroll as a Key Contact, ACP members are not required to have existing relationships with their members of Congress. ACP gives them the tools necessary to develop and maintain relationships. The program is open to all membership categories.
The Legislative Action Center
As key issues approach the decision-making stage on Capitol Hill, the College emails or faxes legislative alerts to Key Contacts. Legislative alerts include all of the necessary information (including sample messages that can be easily personalized) to make informative contacts with members of Congress, and ACP staff is always available to provide support and answer legislative questions.
Once enrolled as a Key Contact you can use the College’s Legislative Action Center (LAC) to respond easily to current ACP legislative alerts, identify your federal legislators, and compose a letter, e-mail, or a fax to your members of Congress. If you are enrolled as a Key Contact simply logon using your email address and ACP as the password. If you are not already a Key Contact you will be required to register.
Additional Information
Key Contacts receive a periodic newsletter, The Capitol Key, updating them on important legislative issues.
The College implemented the Key Contact Awards Program to recognize the hard work of members who go above and beyond the call of duty to contact their members of Congress. Each year at Leadership Day, ACP selects a Key Contact of the Year and the Top Ten Key Contact Special Recognition Winners based on the quality and quantity of responses to legislative alerts. Information on past recipients can be found in past issues of The Capitol Key.
The College is continually recruiting new Key Contacts, especially where gaps exist in the program and a key member of Congress is not matched with a sufficient number of Key Contacts. When joining the program, members are asked to complete a short enrollment form that helps the College identify any special relationships they may have with members of Congress. For more information on the ACP Key Contact Program, please email grassroots@acponline.org.
Related Links
Public Policy Virtual Library
The Public Policy Virtual Library (PPVL) is a repository of ACP's current and historic policies and the Policy Compendium.