Contacting Your Representatives, Part 2

As I described in part one of this blog piece, contacting your representatives is not a difficult task, but there are a few guidelines to follow which will increase the impact you have. We covered general constituent contact, how to fax effectively and email best practices in the first part. Now we will round out the series with an overview of how to use traditional mail and phone calls.

Snail mail is my favorite means of contact. It is also the medium which takes the most time in transit and is the most time consuming to put together. Because of these barriers, snail mail is not a good means of contact when you want to call attention to a bill being voted on in the very near future. However, in many cases it can be a great tool. When the staff gets a personal letter, it is clear that a significant amount of work has gone into its construction. Hand written notes are by far the best. Letters make it clear that the constituent cares enough to take time to write out a letter, peel a stamp and walk the envelope out to the mailbox. The difference in time commitment between a handwritten letter and a form email is about 15 minutes but the impact of a handwritten, well thought out letter has much more than 15 times the impact of a form email. Well written letters are also the most likely type of contact to actually make it to the Representative’s desk for personal reading.

Phone calls are very obviously a personal interaction. Courtesy is the number one factor in helping your call have the maximum impact. Consider the staffer you’re going to be talking to: He or she is most likely to be an unpaid intern or a Staff Assistant/Office Manager. The vast majority of congressional staffers are paid very low salaries, especially considering the cost of living in DC and state capitols. Regardless of the position your congressman is taking or the party affiliation he holds, there is no excuse for verbally abusing the staff. I can’t count the number of times that my peers and I were subjected to yelling, cursing and other patently rude outbursts on the phone. Save your rants for another time.

When you are on the phone be clear what your issue is, know the relevant bill number and make sure that you are calling the right house of Congress. We often had people call our office about bills being voted on in the Senate or about issues on which they were very uneducated. This ignorance shows that you are not on top of the issue and makes the staff roll their eyes and not give you as much credence as you might actually deserve. Also, realize that the person you are talking to is not in a position to tell you how the representative is going to vote or give you a breakdown of the congressman’s thought processes. They are there to take a message and pass along the word. In short, know your issue, be courteous and thank the staffer for their hard work before the call is over. Make sure that you give the staffer your mailing address so that you can be mailed a response to your contact. If they don’t have a way to follow up with you and prove that you are a constituent then your call will be disregarded.

Effectively contacting your representatives is not a hard thing to do. It takes a few minutes of mental effort to write or type out a letter or give their office a call. Make sure that your contact is personalized, well informed and courteous. If it meets these three criteria then your contact will be taken seriously. If you have questions about contacting your representatives then leave a comment and I will answer it as soon as possible!