How to: Create a political relation between your host country and the US

This is a how to of sorts, detailing how I help create connections between Illinois and Scandinavia. It will take you through the important steps you must take to prepare you for acting as a liaison and conduit for information and knowledge. The goal of this how to is to give you the competence to contact political groups and politicians in America, declare yourself a liaison, aid or consultant and correspond with your contacts to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge.

1. Educate yourself
• Learn the language of the country or region you seek to serve in. If you are unable to speak the local languages, you will find interviewing experts or authorities difficult and the knowledge you send back State side lacking. Sources of information will often be in the language native to your host country. Your research will be hampered if you are unable to quickly assimilate information.
• Take a few courses in the local culture. It will reveal cultural effects on the conclusions you reach in your research. For example, does religion play a part in the decisions politicians make and how religious is the community?
• Before you go off the deep end about how your ideal model must be implemented because it bears some resemblance to what is found in your host country, take a year or two to research the subject you are most interested in so you know what you are talking about.
2. Compare
• Compare what you have learned about your host country to others in the region. Can you formulate a benchmark? What are the key differences? Knowing how models and systems compare in the region can provide some contrast to the picture you are painting.
• Compare your host country to the States. In what ways are the two alike? How are they different?
• Compare the attitude your hosts have towards other countries and the States. It may not be a bad thing if French men hate Americans if they despise the rest of Europe even more. 
3.  Find representatives relevant to what you know
• Go to Google and search using the key words Senator or Congress and the state you are most interested in. Alternatively, you can search for a State House, such as the Illinois General Assembly and locate a senator you like.
• Find the official website for the political body you wish to aid and search for the committee relevant to your expertise.
4.  Write a letter
• Be formal and concise. Say you wish to be of assistance by making yourself available for consultation or witnessing. Be clear on what you can speak about and give an example of your knowledge.
• Write letters to several, if not many, politicians and bodies. You shouldn't expect more than a few to be interested in contacting you. Throwing a wide net is the only way you will find a politician who will use you to facilitate any exchange of knowledge.
• Do your research on who you are writing to. If you write to a Democrat while espousing the Republican ideology, you will have the door shut on you.
5. Be responsive
• If you do receive a reply, do not wait with responding. Reply imediatly, acknowledge the email and get to work.
• Start researching the material related to what ever question you were asked or steps required to fulfill a request right away. If you are not timely, then you will not be of use in a dynamic political landscape.
• Keeping your correspondent informed on your progress by planning your work will show you are serious about rendering aid. Tell your correspondent when you expect to submit a final report.
6. Speak with the locals
• Most information requested can be fulfilled by speaking with local people. Experts in their field or situated better than most. What cannot be fulfilled by speaking with local can still require a friendly local relationship to gain access to the information or resources needed.
• Sometimes, the request is only to act as a liaison between local officials and your correspondent back home.

That was it in a nut shell. What is left out you must play by ear, because every situation is different and cannot be covered in a single how to.

- Servus