Physical (posted) letters to Senators/Congresspeople are FAR more effective, studies have shown

[Guest guest]

I just remembered and wanted to tell people. I've read that the best

kind of initial contact you can make with Senators and Congresspeople

is a physical letter (so then you would want to enclose the articles

printed out with it)

Add your phone number so they can call you...sometimes they do..

Another option if they have an office in your area is to stop in.

Phone calls that you initiate are also sometimes effective but its

very important to get the number where you speak to a human being

instead of the number where you leave a message on an answering

machine.

(follow the phone conversation up with a letter to the staffer

recapping the phone conversation and enclosing the articles)

Web forms are next.. they figure at least you spent the time to go to

the web site instead of email from some web-mailing tool..

Emails are weighted even less.. because they are often sent by

automated tools.. (they sometimes get thousands - staffers are often

months behind on reading them and they just scan them. MAKE THE

SUBJECT HEADER DESCRIPTIVE)

Attachments that are sent in emails are rarely read, UNLESS you are

emailing to an aide who you have already made contact with (and they

have given you their email address - ASK FOR IT)