Letter writing campaigns - making it easy

[Bruenor]

From my days of working on political campaigns, I learned that to get more people involved, you have to make it easy for them. For phone banks, we made up scripts, got people food so they didn't have to stop, and even provided rides to and from the phone bank location. You make it easy, and more people will get involved.

So I was thinking, how can we do this with letter writing campaigns? The GOP and other organizations make it easy to send e-mails, but e-mails are not nearly as effective in getting attention as old fashion snail mail. After thinking about this for a while, I came up with this idea.

Before the next show, I'd like to put together a letter outlining our position on gun control laws. We would have letters addressed to each of our House and Senate members, and then also provide addressed envelopes for each of those letters. The only thing that people would have to do is pick out the letter for their House member, and pick up one for each Senator, sign it, put it in the provided addressed envelop, stick a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox. Heck, we can even sell stamps there, and offer to mail them ourselves.

So, what do you think? Is this something that people here would be willing to pursue?

 

[haldir]

I see that you feel emails are less attention getting than regular mail. That is good to know as I am so used to emailing people rather than writing. It was probably you in the other thread that mentioned handwritten versus typed and that getting some attention. So you feel it would be more effective to hand write to all of our reps?

 

[Scutter01]

E-mail is (and always has been) for casual communication. It's ingrained into human psyche. The most effective is a handwritten (not typed) letter, provided you have legible handwriting. A typed letter is a close second, followed by fax. E-mail is a distant tenth.

 

[Bruenor]

Halidar, that wasn't me about the hand written letters. I sorted through plenty of letters while working as a Senate intern in Indianapolis back in 2005. Now, this is just my opinion, but the hand written letters that I read never looked as professional as some of the typed ones. What I would do is:

1) Use heavy, resume type paper for better effect. Hand written letters on lined, school paper usually get tossed.

2) Use a professional, easy to read font. I've seen everything from size 4 Courier New, to some type of calligraphy font that nobody could read.

3) Keep it simple, with paragraphs at most 3-4 sentences long. If it's too long, they won't read it. Don't even try to mail something that's more than a page, unless the attached pages all contain signatures.

Here's a basic format.

Paragraph 1) State the issue involved, and what your opinion is.

I am writing about the proposed AWB legislation. I think that this is a piece of anti-American, communist propaganda piece of CRA*!

Paragraph 2) Tell the person what you want them want to do, and why they should do it.

You need to do everything in your power to kill this bill. You should do this because it is the right, red-blooded, American thing to do. Plus, I'll buy you lots of bacon.

Paragraph 3) Thank the person for their time.

Thank you for your time, and I was serious about the bacon part.

Ok, maybe those examples wouldn't make a good political letter, well maybe the bacon part would, but that's the basic idea. Make is simple, make it clear, and it will be read. Get enough people with the same opinion writing letters, and people really pay attention.

 

[emclean]

you might also want a map of the districts at the table, so people know witch letter they should be sending.

 

[CarmelHP]

Halidar, that wasn't me about the hand written letters. I sorted through plenty of letters while working as a Senate intern

State Senate or one of our anti-gun U.S. Senators?