[highball]

There's never been any indication that form letters are taken seriously.

On the contrary, it's been reported again and again that form letters are ignored (sometimes staffers just chuck them when they come in). Form letters don't mean anything because they don't take any time or effort to make.

That's why a letter is more valuable than a phone call, and a phone call is more valuable than an email. The only thing worse is a preprinted card.

[untrained skeptic]

"There's never been any indication that form letters are taken seriously."

I've written my Senator many times.

I've used form letters and personally worded letters.

I've never gotten anything but a form letter in response in any case.

I haven't gotten more responses from personally written letters than from form letters.

I haven't gotten well reasoned responses in either case.

"On the contrary, it's been reported again and again that form letters are ignored (sometimes staffers just chuck them when they come in). Form letters don't mean anything because they don't take any time or effort to make."

You have this information from what source?

It obvious that our representative rarely read our letters.

They are read by staffers. They are categorized and tallied.

A well, written, personalized letter is going to result in a mark in either the for or against column.

A form letter which makes it obvious that you are part of, or working with an organization such as the GOA will also result in a mark in the for or against column.

It may also give your representative an indication that a particular organization has a lot of support, and is a group to whom he should pay attention.

If the staffers keep a separate tally of form letters and personalized letters, the personalized letters may be given more weight, though I think that's questionable, since everyone only gets to vote once.

However, I find it less likely that a representative is going to ignore an organization that can sway a significant amount of voters.