Advocacy Day Training Resources

At least 1 Week Prior to Advocacy Day:

• Watch training webinars below.
• Review and print out the Advocate Manual below.
• Meet with your State Captain and state delegation: virtually for a practice session by (Your state captain will reach out to coordinate that).
• Practice your elevator pitch and telling your story - Scroll down to the Video Library on this webpage to see example videos from fellow advocates.
• Sign the letter campaign and amplify our message. 
• View your Congressional schedule on the Advocacy Associates App and use the email you registered with. (Reminder that all schedule times are reflected in Eastern Time Zone no matter what time zone you reside in)

1 Day Before Advocacy Day: 

• Have any last-minute questions? Attend Live Cram Session via Zoom (you will receive the invite in email).
• View your Congressional schedule as meeting times may have changed. (Reminder that all scheduled 8:00 am times are reflected in Eastern Time Zone no matter what time zone you reside in).
• Test out your computer audio and video.

On Advocacy Day: 

• Join morning kickoff programming before your meetings at either 8:00 am or 11:00 am EDT based on your time zone and meeting schedule. 
• Check in with your State Captain/Regional Leader by 8:00 am.
• Have your laptop out and printed training documents to view.
• Jump on your calls 5 minutes prior to prepare.
• Engage in social media throughout the day through social media and use the selfie signs - Coming soon.
• After your calls join the Zoom debrief/happy hour and meet others virtually!

Download everything you need here:

2025 Congressional Scorecard and Baseball Cards (coming soon) - Presents a snapshot of each state’s Members of Congress. Use this resource to become acquainted with your legislators and understand their legislative history. 

Watch this 5-minute training video to get an overview of the key things you need to know for Advocacy Day.

Watch this Advocacy Associates tutorial on how to use their website and app. Advocacy Associate is the company RESOLVE works with to book your congressional appointments. Your meeting schedule will be available through their online platform leading up to the event. 

Watch the 2025 Cram Session Webinar (coming soon) for all of the last-minute questions, issues, and asks for the day.

Please read and print out the following training documents. Prior to your State Captain reaching out to you to set up practice group calls, prepare by reviewing the information below.

• 2025 Advocate Manual (coming soon) - Contains all of the information you’ll need to know for Advocacy Day, including general information about Advocacy Day, what to expect, meeting do's and don'ts, and storytelling tips.
• 2025 State Delegation Script and Talking Points (coming soon):  The Talking Points document provides advocates with a suggested script that can be personalized to their perspective and journey that brought them to Advocacy Day.
• 2025 Leave Behind (coming soon):  This document will be provided to legislators and their staff. It shares facts about infertility and the legislative agenda for Advocacy Day.
• Advocacy Day Zoom meeting backgrounds - You can use the Zoom backgrounds with your state's name during advocate networking events to let others know where you are from.
• 2025 Advocacy Day Letter (coming soon): Educate lawmakers and help amplify our message by submitting a template letter through our action alert system. Personalization is available and your letter will be sent directly to your lawmaker’s offices.

Social Media Toolkit:

• Advocacy Day Social Media Guide: Help us to spread the word about Advocacy Day and help to recruit advocates! 
• Social Media Guide & Sample Messaging: Help us amplify our message on Advocacy Day by tweeting at your elected officials and sharing on other social media platforms. 
• Selfie Signs: Have fun on Advocacy Day and take photos to share your experience with others! 

Download the 2025 Advocacy Day social media toolkit

Download and post the following social media images:

• Image 1
• Image 2
• Image 3

Don’t forget to tag RESOLVE and ASRM in your online posts, photos, and videos!

RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association Online and Social Media Tags

• Facebook: @resolveinfertilityorg
• Instagram: @resolveorg
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/WatchRESOLVE
• Website: resolve.org

American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Online and Social Media Tags

• Facebook: @ASRMFB
• Instagram: @asrm_org
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/americansocietyforreproductivemedicineasrm
• Website: asrm.org
• X: @ASRM_org

Download the Advocacy Day logo

Save the image to your desktop and upload it to your blog or webpage. Please contact us at info@resolve.org if you have any problems uploading these images.

The goal of Pro-Family legislation is to protect all people challenged in their family building and improve the lives of our community. Examples of specific Pro-Family policies include equal access to reproductive medical care, insurance coverage for IVF and fertility preservation, and dismantling barriers to adoption and the use of third-party reproduction, including donor sperm and egg and surrogacy.

What are the specific bills we are advocating for? Our legislative agenda for Advocacy Day is carefully considered by RESOLVE in partnership with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and represents the multifaceted experiences that make up the family building community. The legislative agenda will be determined closer to the event.

WHAT IS THIS YEAR’S EVENT THEME? This year's Advocacy Day theme is #ALLinFertility (with the variation #ALLin), which is also the overarching theme for this year’s National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW), April 20-27.

The theme highlights inclusivity and representation, aligning with our mission to ensure equitable access to family building options for individuals of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. No matter their geographic location, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality, everyone deserves the opportunity to build a family.

It also emphasizes the critical importance of amplifying voices from every state and district to demonstrate to Congress that family building access is a national priority requiring bipartisan attention and support.

Sample Short Form Messaging with #ALLinFertility & #ALLin:

• Join us and go #ALLinFertility to amplify infertility awareness.
• Advocate for change—go #ALLinFertility to challenge barriers to access to care.
• Go #ALLin to advocate for inclusive access to family building options.
• Show your support and be #ALLin for inclusivity and representation.
• Go #ALLin for those facing infertility and trying to build their family.
• Together, we’re #ALLinFertility for a future where everyone can build their family.
• Go #ALLin to empower voices from all states and districts.
• Be #ALLin to ensure no family building story is left unheard.

To be an effective advocate, a rudimentary understanding of our Constitutional structure and role of the different government bodies is mandatory. Leaving out State Government and State laws (which vary widely across the 50 states!), the Federal Government is comprised of three branches: the Executive (the President), the Legislature (there are two “Chambers of Congress” in our Federal Legislature, the House of Representatives, of which there are 435 Members of Congress; and the Senate, of which there are 100 Senators), and the Judiciary (the Supreme Court). The role of the President comes at the very end.

Our focus on Advocacy Day is “Congress”, that is, the House and Senate. When you arrive in Washington, D.C. for Advocacy Day, you will discover that the building called “The Capitol” is in the center of a whole area called Capitol Hill. As you face The Capitol, the Senate office buildings are on the right side and the House office buildings are on the left side. Thinking about the separate sides, and how House Members and Senators meet in the middle, is helpful in thinking about how “bills” are made into “laws”.

Each of the two sides of Congress operates separately as bills are introduced by individual or multiple members of each of the two bodies. The person or persons introducing the bills are called “sponsors”. Representatives (also called Congressmen or Congresswomen) introduce “House Bills”, designated by the letters “HR” (House Resolution) before the number of the bill (which is assigned when the bill is “dropped” – literally – in a “hopper” in the House) and Senators introduce “Senate Bills” (designated by the letter “S” before the number of the bill). A member of the House of Representatives does not have a say on any Senate bill and a Senator does not have a vote on a House bill. Pay attention to the letter designation before the number to know which one is which!

In addition to the original Sponsor (sometimes there are two sponsors – ideally a Democrat and a Republican so that a bill is truly bi-partisan), Members of Congress and Senators can show their support for bills in their Chamber by becoming a “Co-Sponsor”. By doing so, legislators are demonstrating their support for a bill to their colleagues. Further, the number of co-sponsors is one measure of the likelihood of a bill being passed when it is brought to a vote. Finally, when a bill is being reviewed by the relevant Committee (discussed below), having a significant number of co-sponsors incentivizes the Committee to prioritize that bill over less popular bills.

Bills on each side (see? It’s helpful to think of the geography of the two sides of Capitol Hill!) move separately through each of the two legislative bodies. After a bill is dropped or introduced, it is assigned for review and discussion to various committees that are part of each side of Congress. In order to be voted on by the entire membership of either the House or Senate, the relevant committees analyze the bill which means that they may hold “hearings” on it (where people testify for or against) or “mark it up” (revise it) or take other action as they see fit for the relevant bill (in order to skip this step, a bill can be “discharged”, which requires a 2/3 vote of the membership of the House or Senate, as the case may be).

After a bill moves through and passes out of the Committee (or Committees), it is sent to either the Speaker of the House or the Majority Leader of the Senate who decide whether it will be scheduled for a vote. If the Speaker or Leader schedules a bill for a vote, it is then voted on by the entire body of the Chamber.

Once it is voted on – and passes – the differences between a House and Senate bill (unless there are companion bills – more on that later) are worked out in “conference”. This is where Members of the House and Members of the Senate finally meet to synchronize the differences between two bills that may have been passed by the House and the Senate. For example, think about the Budget bills that the two chambers of Congress may send up to Conference – the members of the “Conference Committee” on the Budget will have a lot to discuss! If there is not a bill on a particular matter in each of the House and Senate, once a bill is passed by one Chamber, it is sent to the other for a vote. If it does not get a vote in both Chambers, the bill dies.

To maximize chance of success of a bill passing, the House and Senate may have “companion” bills, when a Member of Congress and a Senator introduce matching bills. This doesn’t always work, because the membership of the two bodies varies by party and power, as well as by the internal workings of how each of the bodies works with its members. If the two Chambers have “companion bills”, once it is voted on, it is sent directly to the President for signature (or veto), and it does not need to pass through the Conference Committee.

Sometimes, legislation may be proposed by way of an “amendment”. An amendment can relate to the substantive subject of the bill to which it attaches, or it can be a method to raise an issue that might otherwise not get attention or get through to a vote on its own. An amendment attached to a big bill is one way that even companion bills may differ, and again, the differences between the two bills and the amendments attached to them are worked out by the Conference Committee. Adding an amendment to a bill that is almost out of committee is a way to expedite passage of the amendment.

Once a bill has been revised in conference, it is sent back to each of the House and Senate floors for approval of the full membership of the respective Chamber. After it has been so approved, it is then sent to the President for his or her signature or veto. If the President signs the bill, it finally becomes a LAW. Whew!

Our purpose on Advocacy Day each year depends on where our issues stand in the process explained above. This year we will ask Members of Congress on both sides to co-sponsor our bills and we will ask the Senate offices to vote for an amendment. To learn more about the bills we support, read the “Issues” page on this website.

Risa A. Levine, Esq. is a former Board Member for RESOLVE and previous Advocacy Day Chair.

So you are heading to Advocacy Day, and there are lots of emotions swirling around in your stomach, especially for first timers! What is it going to be like? What will I say to representatives and their aides? How will they respond?

For many of us, especially those who are new to Advocacy Day, the idea of talking about our infertility to people who we have never met before can be overwhelming at first. After all, opening up to our closest friends and families sometimes poses a challenge, how can we discuss this with political figures? While the buildings and hallways leading to the representatives’ offices are as grand as the shiny plaques on their doors, keep in mind that they are ELECTED officials and that THEY are working for YOU.

Here are some tips to calm your nerves and stay the course during your meetings, especially with reps who may not “get” infertility at the start:

Do Prepare

It is hard not to have anxiety going into Advocacy Day. The more anxious you are before your meetings, the harder they can feel. Preparation can be a great foil to anxiety! RESOLVE does a great job preparing advocates for the tasks at hand. Make sure to be a part of the private Advocacy Facebook group.

Make sure to attend the trainings and read up on and become intimately familiar with all of the key issues to hit in your meetings. While RESOLVE will also have a refresher of the information the morning of Advocacy Day and actual notes to take with you to meetings, it is ideal to have this information fully memorized, this way you can speak from your heart in the meetings and focus on your personal story without feeling flustered.

Do Be Authentic

Your personal story changes hearts and minds. You have the ability to bring the key issues to life and make the seemingly political, personal. Before Advocacy Day, think about your story and try to frame it and condense it in a way that is clear, emotional and relatable. You may want to research ahead of time if the representative has a family of his or her own. How would that representative feel if she were still struggling to build her family? How would she feel if she or her partner had a disease that prevented her from having a family and there were very little resources to help them? If you were able to build a family through treatments or adoption, bring a picture of your family and say how you want the same opportunities for other families. If you have resolved your family building and do not have children, share how you overcame your grief and how the key issues you are fighting for today could help patients in the future.

Don’t Go To Extremes

So you are in your meeting, and it is clear that the representative or aide is not receptive to the key issues or your experience with infertility. You have been calm, authentic, emotional and clear. You have respectfully tried reaching them from different angles. While talking about something so personal and so emotional, you may be tempted to start participating in “extreme advocating.”

Extreme advocating may involve ugly crying, shaming, smiting or personally attacking the representative. It also may include throwing things, threatening the representative or having security remove you from the building. Don’t be that advocate. Keep your head up, emit strength and grace and keep your venting, smiting and verbal attacks for when you are out of earshot, safely with your fellow state advocates.
Do Stay on Task and Remind Them What’s at the Heart of The Matter
Advocacy Day is to talk about infertility and the key issues that RESOLVE has carefully pointed to that need attention this year. While we are currently in a politically charged climate where constituents are more aware of many issues that may be extremely important to them, this is not the time or place to talk about climate change, gun control or how you feel about a new tax impacting business in your state. Stay on task as advocating for infertility is incredibly important. You are important. Your story is important. These meetings are our time to change the landscape of infertility legislation.

Don’t Apologize

Keep in mind that infertility is a disease and is not your fault, although we sometimes try and blame ourselves for something that is completely out of our control. Infertility can make us feel powerless. Infertility is still a taboo topic for many and we can sometimes feel silenced and shamed.

On Advocacy Day leave all of those feelings and societal perspectives behind. Be brave and be bold. Be clear. You have a disease and it is not your fault. While some may try and politicize our health issues and treatments for our disease, remember that is not the reality in which we live in every day. It is not the reality for 1 in 8 couples. You are representing your reality and the reality of those who cannot be there to advocate.

Do Thank Them

No matter how the meetings goes, make sure to look your representative or the aide in the eye, shake their hand and thank them for their time and listening to your story. Most likely you will leave with a card of the representative or her aide. RESOLVE will encourage advocates to reach out and thank those you met via email. Advocates for many different causes flock to Washington daily to have these same meetings. These emails are a further way to impart your story and RESOLVE’s key issues. Make sure to follow up, especially if your representative had some hesitations.

Throughout the history of Advocacy Day, while there have been some meetings with representatives that have not gone ideally, most meetings are received positively and politely, even if the representative is not yet ready to support RESOLVE’s legislation efforts. Your presence at Advocacy Day and your willingness to be brave and bold and share your story makes a huge difference, even if your representative is hesitant to support the infertility community. Over the years, many representatives who may not have known about infertility legislation or may not have agreed with it at first, have ultimately supported RESOLVE’s efforts due to hearing the powerful stories of their constituents.

– Casey Berna, LCSWA is a licensed social worker with years of experience as a counselor, advocate, and community organizer. Casey provides counseling to patients suffering from endometriosis and infertility in North Carolina. She runs patient-support groups through her affiliations with RESOLVE and EndoWarriors, and also supports, coaches, and educates patients worldwide through her participation in the online community. Inspired by her own struggle with endometriosis, infertility, and recurrent pregnancy loss, Casey has contributed to these communities for years as a writer and activist. Endotruths: The Impact of Endometriosis and Infertility on Mental Health, debuted at The Unmentionables Film Festival in New York City. She also has been a guest speaker at universities and conferences across the nation. In her spare time, Casey supports and volunteers for non-profits working to improve the lives of patients in these communities.

Download everything you need here:

• Advocacy Day Logo: Put the Advocacy Day logo on your website, emails and Facebook page and link it to resolve.org/advocacyday.
• 2025 Advocacy Day Flyers: Download flyer 1 and  flyer 2 to share this event with your clinic/office staff and patients. Everyone should be knowledgeable about this great event impacting the entire community.
• 2025 Advocacy Day Letter (coming soon): Educate lawmakers and help amplify our message by submitting a template letter through our action alert system. Personalization is available and your letter will be sent directly to your lawmaker’s offices.