Our recommendation is that meetings be arranged.
When we say, “oral” and “arranged”.... It's a request for a meeting. A location and time are set aside. Even at an airport, you could say, “Well, can we meet on that side of the hallway?” That's an arranged meeting.
Our purpose is this: You, as elected government officials, should have the right to determine when you meet with someone. To say that an email, a letter or a chance encounter constitute lobbying is simply not accurate because that's not how decisions are made. You should be afforded the opportunity to find an actual time.
Our recommendation is to not flood the system with communication reports that don't demonstrate lobbying took place. You, the elected officials, should be in a position to say, “Yes, I wanted to hear what you had to say, whether I agree or not. I want to have the right to choose.” Without that right to choose, you may disagree with, or never want to meet with, an organization that can claim they've lobbied you hundreds of times because they sent you 100 letters. You may not want to respond to that.
Giving you that opportunity and right to choose is part of why we recommend that “oral and arranged” be the barometer for filing a communication report.