Ep 46 with Joe Joiner, PAC Manager, CTIA PAC

Joe Joiner from CTIA - The Wireless Industry joins the podcast to discuss PAC operations during the pandemic and the new election cycle, NABPAC's DE&I Task Force, and advice for young PAC professionals. 

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

You can join the fight to defend employee funded and association PACs by texting NABPAC to 52886. Message and data rates may apply.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome back to the Facts About PACs podcast. As always, this show is brought to you by NABPAC, the National Association of Business Political Action Committees. And I'm your host, Michaela Isler, NABPAC's Executive Director. And I'm joined, as always, by Adam Bellmar, my fabulous co-host. How is June feeling, my friend?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Well, I'm moving consciously back into the world as a fully vaccinated human, and it feels good. You know, being mask-free for the most part is just an incredibly welcome change, Michaela.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Oh my gosh. And, you know, the sights and sounds over the Memorial Day holiday certainly demonstrate, I think, that life is starting to open up again. My daughter sure loved the chance to put her toes back in the sand over the weekend. So it's feeling good, feeling like summer again.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

And some of the rites of passages are back in person too. Full disclosure, my oldest child is graduating from high school this coming week. My whole family is gathered and we're going to be on hand for that event. And I am beyond excited that it this is even actually possible now. We weren't sure we were going to get here, but being there in person for that moment is really everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Well, congratulations. I'm so happy for you. I know this morning we had our little end of school parade as Margot graduates from pre-K to kindergarten. So, and I know um many of our listeners are having the same experiences right now. And the reality that Zoom suddenly isn't part of the program is, I think, such a relief, Adam.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Oh, I couldn't agree more. And I'm so glad that you mentioned Zoom. I agree wholeheartedly that being reunited with friends and family is a blessing. But we have a guest on the show today from CTIA, the wireless industry. The association represents an industry that has been a savior for students and families during the pandemic. Michaela, even today, the ability to attend school and work from home is only possible for millions of Americans because of wireless broadband. The infrastructure that supports so much of our digital economy is high-speed mobile connectivity.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

It's so true. And it's it's even more true for Americans in rural areas, Adam. The wireless industry is, you know, is a major driver in the economy, and they're a full steam ahead on the deployment of the new 5G networks that are really the backbone of the coming Internet of Things, as we've all seen over the last year. And so we are so excited to have Joe Joyner, PAC manager at CTIA and a member of the NABPAC Board of Directors with us on the podcast today. Joe is also an important part of our DENI task force. And we'll talk to him about all of that coming up in a minute, Adam.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

But first, this news a legislative update. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the For the People Act, HR slash S1, will be on the Senate floor for a vote the week of June 21st. And we'll keep our members appraised as we learn more. And as you know, we are always following very closely all of these things in Congress for the NABPAC membership. Coming up next week, Michaela, we've got on Tuesday a NABPAC webinar with author and consultant Tracy J. Edmonds, a former guest on this show, someone that NABACs know well. The opportunity is there to go ahead and register, and you can learn how to navigate, lead, and participate in challenging conversations, no matter the topic. This is going to be a great program. I'm really excited about it. It's not the only one coming up next week, Michaela. We've got on the 9th a virtual wine tasting for potential new NABPAC members. And we're going to get a little bit more info on this when Joe Joyner, who, by the way, full disclosure, is also the chair of our membership committee. He'll be with us in a second. And finally, we've got a lot of great feedback from folks. And I want to remind everyone to check out our podcast episode from last week with Professor Anthony Fowler, PhD from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Such important information there about the three decades of research and hard evidence that employee funded and business trade association PACs do not have a disproportionate influence on our political system. And of course, as always, the Facts About PACs podcast is produced especially for the members of the National Association of Business Political Action Committees. In every episode, we recap this week's NABPAC activities, check, share actionable intelligence and best practices, all while connecting the PAC community, Michaela.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Thanks so much, Adam. Summer is off to a big start. We have a lot coming up this month and over the summer. So appreciate you recapping all that for us. And joining us now from his Work From Home Command Center, NABPAC board member and PAC manager at CTIA, the wireless industry. Joe Joyner. Welcome to the podcast, Joe.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Thank you both for having me today in my kitchen with my plants behind me.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Well, as Adam mentioned, in addition to all the ways you are a part of NABAC, you also are chair of our membership recruitment and retention committee. And I just want to say to you, thank you for taking the leadership on that committee, very important committee for NABPAC. And I must share with folks that you all are really off to a great year. We've already been able to recruit 25 new members at this point in 2021. And I think we're going to be on track to meet or probably crush our goals, Joe, for the year, thanks to another great event like the virtual wine tasting coming up next week. Want to just send you a special thanks for helping to make this happen since you had the connection with Vinebox. So maybe you can give everyone a quick taste of what to expect.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yes. So basically I worked with this company, Vinebox, for doing a pack thank you gift for my company for our donors earlier in the year. And it was a very easy company to use. So I'm very excited to use this for our recruitment events. And it looks like we have a decent number of people attending already. And I'm hoping we get a few more in. And so I'm looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

You're right. They are super cute boxes. All right, Joe, down to business. I really appreciate all the energy and focus that you've shared with NABEC over this last year. And I know you share my feeling that we really are a tight-knit community here. And during this pandemic, with all of its challenges, you've really stepped forward to help on some important issues. But I do want listeners to know that you've also stepped into your current role with CTIA just one week before the COVID lockdown. Curious to hear from you how you were able to make that work during the last cycle.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

That was a very interesting transition, having, yes, come in. I was in the office for like about five days. So I haven't even met a lot of my coworkers in my own company. You know, the first time I'll meet some people is over Teams or Zoom, which is definitely difficult. And also even doing like an internal solicitation to our own employees is kind of awkward when I don't really know you. And also, even when we're onboarding people, I'm part of that onboarding process, but still it's kind of weird to do everything over a team. So I think it'll once we get back to the office, which we're planning on doing after Labor Day, that it'll be a little bit easier because we'll have some more events, in-person events, and I can, you know, be more personable. So it's definitely been interesting. And obviously, like having a board member uh board members is another thing that's difficult because you're not really establishing relationships with them at these board meetings and you're just doing everything solely over email or even physical mail at this point.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

So when you were coming into this new role, you were also stepping away from an industry that was getting uh crushed in many ways. The the restaurants. Uh, talk for a second about what it was to move out of this place where you were doing great into this great new opportunity. And one was sort of ascendant, the other was really struggling, as we all know so well during COVID and times of quarantine, Joe.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Yes, so I know that obviously the restaurant industry definitely took a big hit. And if the timing seemed very, I mean, I'm gonna say perfect, but it wasn't perfect for those comp that company for someone to leave in that role. On more of the grassroots level, there are a lot of events in the states and stuff that we used to do there. And obviously that's difficult to do when you're asking local owners and businesses and restaurant chains to kind of participate in these local events when they're hurting and can barely survive. So I know that they have to kind of reevaluate their structure there. And then it's interesting to come, like you said, to come into another industry where yes, it's kind of being overutilized and you're trying to figure out how to become more of an active player and given that everyone's working from home and everyone's taking uh classes from home. And it's almost like you should, it's the opposite of that industry where you know you should be utilizing more, but also at the same time, we're in a pandemic, so you don't really want to kind of ask people for money still at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Well, I appreciate the challenges that I'm sure you faced. And you'd mentioned communications. Curious if CTIA and CTI PAC broaden your communications outreach during the pandemic and and really how effective and valuable was that pivot?

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yeah, so uh we started doing obviously an election year approach closer to the election. That's when we said, oh, let's start communicating more to everyone. So we did internally uh an election briefing for everyone who gave to the PAC within CTIA, and then we worked with membership and do an election briefing for the external general membership where we invited everyone who's involved regularly. And I think it was about 400 people, which doesn't sound like a lot, but we got a decent number of them to be on. I think we got like a hundred. So I think that's a hundred out of 400 who are never really engaged in anything kind of advocacy or PAC related before. They were on the call. And then we did, after the call, do like a prior approval push and say we're gonna start communicating to this group. And then we did do a newsletter around the election, just solely like educational, like here's what happened in the election, and just starting to communicate with this group more because I that's kind of been one of my issue areas where I think we need to improve on because we really only have two or three member associations that we're heavily involved in in the PAC. And I feel like this is very much like a big opportunity where we can improve because these are especially for the ones who don't have their own PACs, because obviously some of our bigger members have their own PACs, but for the ones who don't have their own PACs, that's the group where I feel like we can improve heavily on.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Joe, we've talked a lot about prior approval within the association world, and I know it's a source of frustration for you over the years. So tell us, I mean, in this environment since the pandemic, you know, since January 6th, and the difficulties in getting these prior approvals, what is the current state of play for CTI PAC with regard to your soliciting and giving programs now that we're getting back to some sense of normalcy?

SPEAKER_02 10:56

So in the beginning, we took a pause like most companies and associations, and we weren't really doing very much at all. Like we weren't really communicating, we weren't soliciting, we weren't asking for prior approval. We just had our May board meeting last month, and that's kind of the first time I did any sort of communication. And it wasn't like an email or anything. I just had the idea of thrill of COVID. Whenever you go to like a restaurant or kind of anywhere, you have the QR codes to scan, because obviously in most places you couldn't have a physical menu or anything. So I took that idea and I created QR code uh postcards with my marketing team, and I did, and this was just for board members, and it was one who we needed prior approval from, and ones who we had that for, and it was a link to our contribution page on our website, and it just said, please do this by I think it was May 13th or whatever the date was. You know, please send the prior approval by May 13th, please give by May 13th. And we got a couple prior approvals out of it, which I was surprised by. And then we also sent these with congressional directories we got as well. And we did send a newsletter out that had a pretty big open rate, it was like 92%. So obviously, I feel like people are definitely heavily invested in what's going on and that the high open rate showed that. And then we did work with our member companies like T Mobile Verizon ATT to in the beginning of the year to see what they were doing before we made our own decisions on doing anything. So I know that that was kind of looked at as well and taken into account.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

A lot of folks focused on listening to their employees and colleagues and stakeholders and talking with them because the conversations that follow are most important. And this cycle, no one would be guilty of feeling a little bit beaten down after what we've just been through and getting back up to speed is certainly in process. But I want to turn our conversation, Joe Joyner, towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. This was an incredibly important part, not just for our nation and the discussions around social justice, but at NAPAC. And you stepped up, you stepped forward and joined the DEI task force. And I know it's something that you are passionate about, and there's been a lot of work that's happened there. Talk for a second to all of our members and listeners about where we're going on this and why it's a credible and meaningful effort, Joe.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

I've been amazed at the progress on this committee, and that goes a lot to uh John Mason and Kevin Cameron on progress that's made. They've been doing a lot of work and it's come a long way. I feel like the committee is definitely a great place because no one's afraid to speak their mind and opinion because it's important that we're leaders in our community on this. And, you know, there's been times where I've tried to do this in the past, previous, and it hasn't really gone anywhere. So I feel like it's important because I mean, I've been at conferences throughout the years, and you can see how the diversity and has changed in the pack world. You know, I think the DEI task force has come in strides. And, you know, I know the last time we met, we were talking about how we're gonna start interest groups, which I think are gonna be vital to NATPA, you know, and ultimately I think the idea is we'll get into different industries, telecom or hospitality. And I feel like that'll be very helpful because you're gonna have people in the same world as you or who look like you, or who are you? And I think it's just like we've mentioned earlier, Michaela mentioned earlier, you know, NATPAC's just a community, and I think we need to utilize each other because I'm the type of person I joined NADPAC, and that was my first like outright fundraising job. So I was more of a behind-the-scenes compliance person, and I was even doing social media at my first job, and I never really was outright doing the fundraising and the strategizing and the targeting of individuals who can give. So NADPAC became like a vital tool for me. So I think these groups and the DEI task force where we're kind of encouraging people to join this community, whether it's the community outreach, you know, educating local communities here, even in DC and partnering with organizations. I think once we start making our community look like the general community that will be more successful overall.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

You know, as we talk about DEI too, there's a younger generation typically that comes up into the PAC profession and you really have engaged your peers through the association. And you mentioned you've been involved for 17 years. What advice do you have for young PAC professionals right now?

SPEAKER_02 15:14

I think the main piece of advice I'll give people is to don't get frustrated, even though you will get frustrated. I get frustrated still. But I think once you start having results and other people start seeing it and they're like, wait, they were telling me this the whole time. Why didn't I listen the whole time? I think that's when people are going to start taking you more seriously and start listening to your ideas more.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

There's a number of us that, you know, certainly as we came into the PAC profession, it really wasn't seen as a profession. It was sort of a stepping stone, you know, into maybe lobbying or communications, just getting that sort of baseline leadership development. But it really has trended to more of a profession, and we're seeing more and more pack managers stay and move up and maybe end up being SVP of political affairs. And so lots of opportunity in this space. And as we always say here at NAPPAC, it really is running a small business. And there's so much to take away from that. So, Joe Joyner, NAPPAC board member and PAC director at CTIA, thank you for joining us today on the Facts About PACs podcast.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

And thanks to everyone listening and sharing the Facts About PACs podcast. We're dedicated to promoting the most transparent and regulated form of political giving and the amazing professionals who lead their employee funded and business trade association PACs. I hope you'll subscribe and find us right back here for another great conversation next week.