My experience has been that you talk to a staffer, and that it's an entirely painless process. I doubt that calls are recorded, but I do believe that calls matter.
It's anecdotal, but from a friend who works in the political arena:
- Phone calls have more weight than physical letters, which have more weight than emails.
- Assume that the person on the other end is taking notes, but taking the fewest possible notes, so have a short, coherent script that makes specific reference to the legislation in question (SOPA is H.R.3261) and your support or opposition to it ("I want to make it clear to XXX that I strongly oppose HR 3261, the stop online policy act").
@Nick Coghlan I've most often seen the year/decade quote attributed to Anthony Robbins (though it was formulated as individuals under- and over-estimating what they personally could do in a year and decade).
I'd also toss in the classic Eisenhower quote here: "I have always found that plans are useless, but planning in indispensable."
Re:
My experience has been that you talk to a staffer, and that it's an entirely painless process. I doubt that calls are recorded, but I do believe that calls matter.
It's anecdotal, but from a friend who works in the political arena:
- Phone calls have more weight than physical letters, which have more weight than emails.
- Assume that the person on the other end is taking notes, but taking the fewest possible notes, so have a short, coherent script that makes specific reference to the legislation in question (SOPA is H.R.3261) and your support or opposition to it ("I want to make it clear to XXX that I strongly oppose HR 3261, the stop online policy act").
If you're thinking about it, do it.
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So I Twittered a suggestion that with the likely delay, today was a good day to get in touch with your representatives. Then this happened: http://tumblr.absono.us/post/14317861585/oh-for-fucking-fucks-sake-if-sopa-passes-can-i
I guess the upside is that if SOPA ends up passing I can probably force Twitter to delete it. Or possibly shut Twitter down entirely.
Very interesting...
...I would have thought that NBC's aim would be to make their own material extremely convenient, high quality, and easy to find.
No wonder I never got a second interview at NBC -- I've been approaching this stuff all wrong.
(untitled comment)
@Nick Coghlan I've most often seen the year/decade quote attributed to Anthony Robbins (though it was formulated as individuals under- and over-estimating what they personally could do in a year and decade).
I'd also toss in the classic Eisenhower quote here: "I have always found that plans are useless, but planning in indispensable."