An Update on Contacting Your Member of Congress by Adam L. Silverman

Yesterday COL Lang requested that everyone in ear (and eye) shot write their member of Congress. While letters will get logged in and eventually read by someone, email is basically ignored. The quickest and most direct way to get your views registered with your member of Congress and Senator is to call. Congressional offices log the calls, the subjects of the calls, and the position/view of the caller regarding the subject of the call. The good folks at Balloon Juice regularly put up these instructions when someone mentions contacting their Congressperson or Senator, so I'm going to link and then adapt their instructions:

If you're not sure who your member of Congress is, click over to this page, put in your zip code, and push the red button.

The Congressional Switchboard's number is (202) 224-3121. Here are the links with the direct numbers to Senator's and Congressperson's offices. While every so often you might get to speak to your actual Senator or Congressperson, it is much more likely you're going to wind up speaking to a staffer in their office. When you call, please remember to:

1) Be polite!

2) Identify who you are and your zip code.

3) Politely state the issue you are calling about.

4) Politely tell them how strongly you feel about it.

5) Politely tell them that you and your fellow like minded constituents in your district or state will take their vote on this issue into consideration when they next come up for reelection.

6) Politely thank the staffer for his or her time.

7) Hang up and go about your normal daily routine.

Comments

[Toivos]

These calls are doubly important now that AIPAC, the antidefamation league and the simon wiesenstiel center have announced that they will lobby to defeat this deal with Iran. AIPAC is gearing up to raise $40 million to run adds in select states and districts (i.e. those with vulnerable democrats). If you live in such a state or district it might even help if you could convince some like-minded neighbors to do the same.

[Joe100]

Would it be possible for someone with Congressional office insight to outline specific points about the Iran deal and associated Israel/AIPAC lobbying to raise on a call that would be most effective?

Perhaps with some variations by key categories of members: vulnerable dems, likely solid opponents, likely solid supporters, etc.

[russ]

Good advice Adam. My wife and I have each called all 3 of our Representatives on this issue. In the past, I have call RI Senator Reed's fairly frequently (as he is one of the few senior Senators with military experience) and the other 2 only rarely. I have always spoken with staffers and have occasionally received a reply signed by the Representative. The staffers who answer the phones are probably fairly junior, probably cover a range of issues and may have little expertise on the Middle East or nuclear questions. So I think it is useful to give them a brief synopsis (one or two sentences max) of my background before making my point. Also, I may be wrong but I think calling a Representative's Washington office (rather than their state office gives you a better chance of speaking to a knowledgeable staffer and of having your point conveyed to your Representative.
russ

[LeaNder]

Without any doubt, while it may sound a bit patronizing, Adam's more specific advise is very, very important. I have to admit, I had to learn this the hard way: ;)

Anger, while no doubt we all are more or less in its metaphorical grasp sometimes, is the best strategy to get your voice to be ignored. Or not really the best communicative strategy, to put it another way. After all, the person taking the phone is not really responsive for the larger US foreign-policies,. Which could mean the best strategy is, while s/he may not be important to convince him or her. That could prevent whoever in charge, and yes I have not the least idea about procedures in this context, to not add you to a list of crazies. ...

Apart from that:

"shot write their member of Congress."

if this is a proverb, for something along the lines: do it immediately, I haven't encountered it before. Expert linguistic advise would be appreciated.