Pomona Valley Audubon - Armchair Activist Advocacy Tips

In advocacy the general rule is that the greater your investment of time and effort, the more seriously you will be taken by your public officials. With this in mind, the following are some tips for preparing Armchair Activist correspondence.

• For issues of immediacy, it is always a good idea to call your elected official, and voice your concern over the phone. A personal phone call is a very acceptable way to communicate your desires and concerns to an official. When calling, ask to speak to the staff person handling the pertinent issue.

• If you live within the boundaries served by your elected official, let them know you are a constituent. Politicians are always interested in knowing more about the people they serve; and if you are a constituent, they should take you seriously.

• When deciding whether to call the local office or the State or Federal office of an elected official, ask yourself if you know someone at either office. If so, call them.

• Despite the fact that you are reading this via the Internet; and it would be very simple to drop your elected officials an e-mail, politicians still value the written word over the electronic message. Accordingly, submit your Armchair Actions via hard-copy letter, rather than e-mail. However, if time is of the essence, and you aren't able to call them or produce a letter, then by all means send an e-mail message rather than take no action.

• When preparing written correspondence to your public official, keep the following in mind:

• A handwritten letter or note is the most preferable written communication politicians like to receive. The action of writing a letter by hand, communicates to the official that you are dearly interested in the issue.

• The next best alternative is a nicely produced computer generated or typed letter, that is signed by you in ink. It also invokes a similar feeling of deep personal concern.

• Note: Try not to make your nicely typed letter look like a mass produced form letter. This is why it is suggested that you personalize the Sample Letters included with Armchair Activist. Politicians know how easy it is to create mail merge documents these days, and form letters send up a red flag that says, "This person didn't take the time to write a personal letter."

• Read the Perspectives and Our Strategy sections thoroughly. They provide a valuable background that will enable you to personalize your letter easily.

• Pre-printed post cards hold little weight. They communicate to the official that very little work was done on your part, therefore you care less about the issue than the person who called or sent a letter/note.

• However, handwritten post cards sometimes yield results. Again they communicate that some time and effort was spent in preparing the correspondence.

• If the issue is rather timely, faxing a letter is just as good as mailing one.

Did you know that the general assumption by your politician is that for every phone call, note or letter that they receive, there are about 100 other people who feel the same?

[Back to Armchair Activist]