The Census convenes a series of advisory boards (http://www.census.gov/cac/www/pdf/membership-2010-cac.pdf has the complete list) to provide input and oversight. There are advisory board along racial and ethnic communities, a professional associations group that focuses on scientific issues and an overall, national Census Advisory Committee (CAC). Their meeting minutes, papers and agenda items are posted at http://www.census.gov/cac/www/2010_census_advisory_committee/005309.html as well as contact information for each CAC member and staff. 
 
There are some questions as to the effectiveness of some of the advisory groups to effectively advocate. Part of the issue is that there are not enough community groups raising issues to the CAC with any consistency. When Latino groups raised concerns about hiring Latino Census workers, the Census established a special liaison re: Latino employment opportunities. In short, a clear agenda including reinstituting the 2000 memorandum of understanding that kept immigration from conducting raids during counts or using count information to target raids; dropping federal job requirements for credit checks as part of the screening process and more may be important components of a demand strategy.
 
These demands and pressure can also be directed at state census offices. Each state is developing their counting plans with guidance from the national with regard to methodology, priorities and messaging.    States have already posted initial plans on their state census websites. Make sure to review the plan for your state as it will be helpful in shaping strategy – especially their plans for Hard to Count (HTC) areas, placement of offices, outreach strategy, budget, marketing and staffing plans. More on HTC areas are in the next section.