1. Pick one of the interest groups/organizations listed below. AARP – American Association of Retired People ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union* AFL-CIO – American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations* ABA - American Bar Association* American Conservative Union American Farm Bureau AIPAC - American Israel Public Affairs Committee AMA - American Medical Association* ATLA - Association of Trial Lawyers of America The Business Roundtable Christian Coalition* Club for Growth Council on American-Islamic Relations Environmental Defense Fund Family Research Council Handgun Control, Inc. Moveon.org NAACP – National Association of Colored People* NAM - National Association of Manufacturers* NARAL – National Abortion Rights Action NEA - National Education Association* National Resources Defense Council NOW – National Organization of Women* NRA – National Rifle Association* PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Public Citizen* Sierra Club* US Chamber of Commerce Veterans of Foreign Wars*

 2. Perform a web search to locate the group’s web site. Also, perform a Google (http://news.google.com/) or Yahoo! (http://news.search.yahoo.com/news) news search for recent information about your group’s activities. Research the following topics and type up a report covering those topics. You can simply put the topic as a heading and then give the information on that topic. You can either type up your report as an essay or you can give your information in a bullet-point list. a. a) What are the issues your group is concerned with? b. b) What is the group’s political ideology? Does it favor one political party over the other? If so, does it have a history of supporting certain political candidates? OR If you think your group is absolutely neutral, say so. Many interest groups are neutral. c. c) Summarize (don’t copy and paste; summarize or paraphrase) two recent news articles relevant to your interest group. Use the information to show how your group is trying to influence public policy. Make certain to provide a citation/reference of where the articles were located, using APA style formatting. d. d) What actions does your group take to try to influence policy and the public agenda? e. e) Assess your group: What are its strengths and weaknesses? How effective is it in achieving its agenda? Back up what you say with specific examples demonstrating their effectiveness or lack thereof.

Points Your Points A. Political ideology and how it tries to influence policy and the public agenda 35 B. Political Efforts/two news article summaries if your group is neutral 30 C. Assessment of your group’s strengths and weaknesses with examples supporting your conclusions 35 TOTAL 100