Easy quick intro to contacting your members of Congress
Yesterday, I attended a really useful-to-me presentation titled "Activism 101: Finding your voice in government," about how to engage with your members of Congress ("MoCs"). Follow that link to view the presentation: 19 slides, a bunch of friendly and useful info for those of us who are new to the contacting-MoCs thing. (Though some slides may not make as much sense without the presenter providing context.)
For me, the most useful bits were a couple of simple tasks that got me moving. If you only have a few minutes, here's a super-easy course of action you can take right now:
- Even if you think your MoCs already agree with you politically, it's worth contacting them.
- You can prepare to take action by going to govtrack and getting your MoCs' phone numbers and putting them in your phone, right now. I had been resisting doing this, but it's super-easy and it's a great way to lay the groundwork for later contacting. (Tip: If you aren't comfortable giving your actual address to a site like this, you can enter another address on your block.)
- Now that you have their phone numbers in your phone, stop by 5 Calls. Pick one of half a dozen suggested issues on the left side. Call each of your three MoCs and briefly tell them your opinion on that one issue. You can use the brief simple script shown on the page. Easy-peasy! Do it today!
There is, of course, lots more worth reading in the slides, so if you have time and interest, I recommend taking a look.