idea: the Dear Congresscritter Club

[topaz]

I wanted to throw around an idea I came up with last weekend. The remaining Democrats who survived last week are already saying that the Democratic Party needs to move even further to the center in order to survive. We need to make sure that our representatives get the message about what is and isn't acceptable.

We all say that we plan to write a letter to our Congresscritter about this issue and that one, but how often do we get around to doing it? I know I don't, and one of the major reasons that I don't get around to it is that I'm only one person. It's easy for me to tell myself that my letter isn't going to make a difference.

So I propose that once a month, motivated people get together for an evening to write letters. Bring laptops, typewriters, or a pen and paper. Go over the news issues from the last thirty days that you think need to be addressed. Brainstorm ideas with each other about how best to make your point. Trade pithy phrases and bon mots. When you're done, print out everyone's letters and make sure they get addressed, stamped and mailed.

I don't know about the rest of you, but that's the kind of motivation that I need -- peer pressure! Peer pressure is the only way to get me to do anything. Moreover, making it a semi-social event will, I think, help bring people in who may not otherwise get around to writing on their own time. And it's often easier to write a letter when you're bouncing ideas off other people.

Talk to me. Am I way off base or is this something that's worth a shot?

Comments

[khedron.livejournal.com]

I like it. Honestly, no matter what the particular political persuasion, I like it. Democracy is supposed to be participatory, and I think the entities that are corporations need less of a voice.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I actually agree. While my immediate motivation for this, of course, is the implosion of the Democrats, in general I'd rather see individuals of any political stripe lobbying their representatives than PACs.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

It's a good idea!
I *do* write them, mostly because during a leadership conference I attended in high school, a congressional aide came to speak to us. What she said was that so few people actually get around to writing letters that it can take as little as 12-15 letters to a representative to make something become a hot topic in congress! (We're talking about actual letters, not pre-written emails.)

The power is yours! :)

[mizarchivist]

yes please

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I think it's a great idea.

I would suggest, instead of having a new venue and time, take some venue that's already around. Say that on the first Tuesday of every month, you're going to go to Diesel and commandeer a table or 2 for people who want to write letters. That's not any worse than commandeering a table or 2 for bridge. Plus, you'll get more people stopping by and asking what's up, and if you have an extra pen and paper handy, you can have people write down what they'd normally say.

(or on a Wed. at OPN)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

That's not a bad approach. It's just that there are two things that I'd like to be a part of this activity if possible. One is net access. It's a lot easier to write a well informed letter if you can look up the facts you need with a Google query. The other is hard copy. I would like, at the end of the evening, to actually print out everyone's letters, address a bunch of envelopes, stamp them and mail them, just to be sure they actually go out.

That's why I kind of prefer the idea of doing it at, say, my place. :-) Which is not convenient for anyone but me, I know, but I think still has advantages.

But it's awfully early to be making assumptions like that. You're probably right that starting small in some convenient central location is a better way to go. (and hey, Cambridge Brewing Co does have free wi-fi!)

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I also have to wonder how many people subscribe to the wifi service. If you have people donate $5 when they can, you will more than pay for stamps, envelopes, paper, ink, and wifi access (what is it, $13 a month?). Or, like you said, CBC.

That being said, OPN hosts usually have wireless access, and I bet they wouldn't even charge. Although perhaps we should have more than one location -- Camberville and 'da sticks' -- and then everyone can do whatever. :)

*ducks for 'the sticks' comment*

The best volunteers have 2 qualities: they're motivated and they're accountable/responsible.

Another thing to do would be to give incentive for people to show up and do work. Volunteer organizations often use food for this cause, although it'd be neat to see how many letters one person can write in a year (or how many non-form-letter replies one gets), with the top prize being something appropriate (the informal group pitches in $1 each and buys them their current political book on their wish list).

I like the idea of printing the letters out right away and sending them, and the idea of having 'net access to look up facts. If letters are written, I'm more than happy to offer up my office to print out letters, and help stuff and seal already addressed envelopes. My office is close to Davis Sq. (I currently have choir Tuesday nights from 7-9:30 pm, but we can work around it, and I have other co-workers who may be willing to help, that usually attend Diesel Days).

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

Canon makes a great little battery-powered printer (nominal page count is 50 per charge - I've never run mine away from power long enough to see how close to true that number is). If you can find somebody with one, you can use the donations to pay for printer cartridges (and a spare battery if you wind up needing more than 50 pages per meeting). I'd offer the use of mine, but I certainly don't get up to that part of the country often enough to participate.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

It's a beautiful plan.

Diesel does have wireless, and I'd be willing to chip in the monthly fee if only for the purposes of this meeting. OTOH, I'd prefer it be a social occasion in itself, really, rather than part of poly night. I fear having the letterwriters taken over by totally irrelevant socialization and not having any particular impetus to get back to socializing about letter-writing.

But whatever, I'm game no matter how you decide to do it.

[beowabbit]

I think it's a great idea. I was going to write that I wasn't sure I could commit to squeezing another thing into my schedule, but awfief's suggestion would help with that.

[tikva.livejournal.com]

What a brilliant idea! Mind if I start one of those down here?

(I mean, we have no excuse down here. We can just hand-deliver the fuckers. *heh*)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Dude, go for it.

A NATION OF PENCILPUSHERS CANNOT HOLD US BACK.

[maedbh7.livejournal.com]

I love the idea. My plan is to be there, whereever you host it. I particularly like the format of "talk about the last month's hot news items". -H...

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking there that during slack news time, there will always be people wondering what they should write about. It seems to me that there should never be a shortage of issues that need attention, so one of the ways a group effort could help is for people to talk with each other about what's new, what's happening and what's most urgent.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Holy cats, that's a good idea. I may try to hijack my regular Thursday night gathering for this once every month or two.

[d3l1r1um.livejournal.com]

If you get around to organizing something here, I'd love to participate.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Ok, I've emailed the hosts about the possibility. We'll see what they say.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Do it do it do it! If you hurry, you could have a Bay Area chapter in place before the Boston chapter even gets off the ground? Now how cool would that be?

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

I would go to something like that. I never get around to writing letters on my own, although I have occasionally gotten my act together to make phone calls to my elected representatives. In addition to overcoming inertia, having people around to help when you got stuck halfway through a letter would be huge.

The commute sucks...

[qnetter]

...otherwise I'd join you.

Re: The commute sucks...

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

*wistful sigh*

Re: The commute sucks...

[qnetter]

So true. So, so true.

If I lived near you, I'd be married instead of in limbo now, for instance.

And lots of other reasons, of course.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fine idea to me! I'd certainly be happy to have people do it at OPN when it's at my house, if it suits, but we don't have easy access to a printer setup.

Sounds like a great idea...

[zsquirrelboy.livejournal.com]

Count me in for anything you're able to get organized...

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Definitely worth a shot or five. Include me in, when I get there. Maybe include me in beforehand-lemme see about starting something like this in Hawaii, despite my lack of time...

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Effing brilliant, man!

I live just down the street from my Ed Markey's office. Saturday on the way to drop off the dry cleaning I was entertaining fantasies of dropping in for a visit. Mebbe with a big stack of letters from my friends in the 7th district?

[stephe.livejournal.com]

I say go for it. The following websites may be of some use:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
http://firstgov.gov/
http://thomas.loc.gov/

[stephe.livejournal.com]

Oh, and make sure you speak out about nominations, especially to judicial offices, early and often. That is going to be one of the major battlegrounds of the next few years, and I for one don't relish the idea of, for example, Chief Justice John Ashcroft.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Judicial nominations are indeed a big issue for me. I'm currently hearing rumors that Bush will nominate Thomas to Chief Justice, and while it would be a stupid move, nothing seems entirely out of the question any longer.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

I like it!
You might want to use meetup.com to coordinate it so that it happens all over the country.

(Hint: after a few months, hint that it might be more effective to visit their offices. See if people pick up on it.)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

The possibility of coordinating related efforts around the country had occurred to me, but I figured that I would try it out at home a couple of times before raising my aspirations that high. :-)

Using meetup.com is a cool idea! Might be more effective than my usual plan -- register a domain and throw up some homebrewed coordinating software.

[lcohen]

*obsordidconfession*

i write my congresscritters frequently but the way that i do it is through Working Assets Long Distance letters--they write and send it for me, for a fee. every month they suggest two letters to be written. if i agree with the cause, i tell them to go ahead and off it goes.

[inseriatim.livejournal.com]

YES! Good idea! Count me in.

[(Anonymous)]

What a lovely idea! (I was pointed here from Beowabbit's web page, so if you don't recognize my name, don't worry.)

Cory