The best means to contact your reps, in descending order.

12/18/02 | Self

[Richard-SIA]

Best means to contact your reps, in descending order.

#1. Personal contact! Make an appointment for a few minutes of "one on one" time to express your views. You may also try to get your point across at "town hall meeting's", party celebrations and barbecues, fund raisers, etc.

2. Handwritten letters! One letter is usually considered the equal of twenty or more constituents who did not speak up.

3. Fax. Fax works better than e-mail, it provides staff with a handy "hard copy" to pass to your rep.

4. Phone call. Always leave your name and add., ask for a written reply, this ensures your comment is properly recorded. This should also get you a written record of your reps stand on the issue.

5. E-mail. Almost useless, with up to 20,000 e-mails PER DAY in some large districts, no rep. has enough staff to thoroughly examine, asses, and record such a volume of contacts. You will NEVER get a reply beyond a "auto responder" blurb.

6. Pre written form letters of any kind. These are dismissed out of hand, unless there is a MASSIVE number of them received in a very short time. These do a better job of illustrating the sponsoring organizations membership than in making the intended point.

Basically, the more effort you put into the contact the more weight it carries.

The above was explained to me by my congressman's top assistant during a local party function.

No matter how good or bad your rep is, no matter how stupid a statement they make, ALWAYS remain civil, dropping to the level of cussing them out and casting dirt reflects badly on all of us. Well written sarcasm is as low as we dare go. It is OK to disagree with them, so long as you make valid points, preferably with references.

This is solid info, please save for future reference.

[Paleo Conservative]

5. E-mail. Almost useless, with up to 20,000 e-mails PER DAY in some large districts, no rep. has enough staff to thoroughly examine, asses, and record such a volume of contacts. You will NEVER get a reply beyond a "auto responder" blurb.

What do you mean by large districts. Most of them have about 700,000 people. It's the Senate that has huge difference in the number of constituents.

[Carry_Okie]

Handwritten letters! One letter is usually considered the equal of twenty or more constituents who did not speak up.

I stopped right there. Ever since the anthrax attacks the mail into Congress has been held up for fumigation.

It can take a month.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

So even if you are stuck with an unprincipled power hungry corrupt little low life, who will eagerly sell the nation down the toilet, it might be best to not tell him the truth to directly.

[Eala]

This list missed the best method of all (albeit a precursor): Volunteer for your representative's (re-)election campaign!

It sounds like drudgery -- stuffing envelopes, walking parades, delivering literature to your precinct... (Though this is counterbalanced by meeting like-minded people, which can be important for one's morale when one is a conservative in The Peoples' Soviet of Washington!)

But good candidates see the volunteers who turn out and they get to know them (volunteers are like gold), and later those volunteers have *access*. My wife's and my (Republican) representatives, state and federal, know us by name. If we have an opinion on some issue, we get heard -- and more: we also get personal introductions to other politicians whose main issues are the same as ours.

[VRW Conspirator]

Excellent Activism Bump! This is worth reposting from time to time.

[Richard-SIA]

Which is why I now use FAX if sending it to Washington.

USPS still works very well if sending to the local office.

[Blue Screen of Death]

Any communicaton wraped in money will get more attention than one that comes in a plain brown wraper.

[Richard-SIA]

It's a generic suggestion, as related to me by my congressman's top aide.

Districts in highly populated states will have more people than say, Wyoming or Nevada.

[Richard-SIA]

Yep, I do that.

But that is an opportunity that only comes around every few years, I was trying to put up some information that works year around.

We need to sharpen our skills in time to affect the new congress.

[Hugin]

You will NEVER get a reply beyond a "auto responder" blurb.

Not true. I have received a form letter back snail mail after emailing. Of course you have to include your name and address in your email.

[Richard-SIA]

Correct!

It is better to not make a personal enemy out of a dispationate one.

Slurs are more likely to be remembered and held against your interest than compliments are to be credited.
Human nature!

[Richard-SIA]

"A few years back..."

A few years back staff being inundated by e-mail was less of an issue.
A few years back lobbying org's were not trying to crash servers to make their point.

Many rep's have now turned off their public e-mail addy.

You might still get a quick reply to an e-mail communication if you are in a sparsly populated district, but I would doubt it.