Dave, Could something like this be configured to also send a copy to Chwat so these letters could be hand carried in to the legislator's office? Would that lend greater impact? - Bill -----Original Message----- From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 9:08 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18680] RE: Legislative follow-up Jim, At present there is no way the IT Dept. could take on an additional project that is not already in the Plan. It is possible that once the new Web site is up, those of us who can use the content management system might be able to come up with something. However, this would be reinventing the wheel and would fall short of the state of the art. There are several companies that provide such services to organizations. The last time I priced one, the cost was on the order of $8k-$16k/year depending on the features. We have to be realistic as to our potential impact if we pursue a strategy based on numbers as opposed to one based on personal contact. Any numbers we could generate would be small compared to what they get on the hot-button public policy issues. Legislative offices are inundated with constituent mail and have had to adopt defensive techniques. For example, many of their Web sites require the entry of your Zip+4 or a password that is imbedded in an image in an effort to ward off the "click here to send a message to your Congressman" approaches used by some advocacy groups. Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: James F. Boehner MD [mailto:jboehner01@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 10:15 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: Legislative follow-up Thanks to Kay and Dave in regards to my questions regarding Chwat and Company-I must not have been listening in the past, as this is new information for me, and very useful. Across all organizations, taking the time to write a letter to Senators/Representatives can be time consuming, and this probably discourages many members from doing so. Having a sample letter definitely helps. The idea of bringing a laptop to a hamfest to generate letters is a great idea! I'm not sure if this idea is plausible or practical, or if it has been thought of before and decided against. Dave, I know you have an overworked IT staff at HQ. However, I was thinking of a political letter generator. One that for each bill would have about 5 different boiler-plate letter templates, soliciting user input to fill in the blanks, and even automatically choose what senator or representative would get the letter by the individual's Zip+4 zip code. Perhaps to have a box for each individual to personalize the letter with their own paragraph. After generation, the individual could proof the letter, and then have a final copy sent to them as a PDF file on ARRL letterhead to sign (perhaps options of different letterheads), and then send directly to Chwat & Company for delivery. The five different templates and the personalization paragraph would keep the letters looking individual, have the proper information with the proper wording so that each would be correct in form, with proper bill numbers and reasons for supporting or not supporting the bill. This could be a feature of the new website, with each ARRL news story dealing with political issues referencing this letter generator as an option for members to have a more direct role in the political process (with minimal time investment). I do realize that letters that appear to be form letters may be discounted by political officials (although that is what they send us!!). I do not know exactly what goes on in the Senator's offices, but I would guess that an aide counts letters that are for or against an issue, and that number is what is presented to the Senator. It is also possible that the names are cross referenced against a donor list, and those letters are treated differently. Perhaps someone else on this list with more political savvy can weigh in on this. As far as cost, the ARRL IT department could take this on, or perhaps it could be outsourced to an organization that would specialize in this activity. Hopefully, once the generator is produced and it is placed on the website, no further IT work would need to be done. With each bill, the five boiler-plate templates would have to be produced internally. I'm not certain of any further costs. Just a thought-I know I would definitely use it! '73 de JIM N2ZZ ARRL Vice Director Roanoke Division ARRL, the national association for Amateur RadioT -----Original Message----- From: Kay Craigie [mailto:n3kn@verizon.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 8:36 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: RE: Legislative follow-up I've asked Dave to respond to Jim's question about how Chwat is paid. We ask all League members to send their letters via Chwat for in-person delivery, though not all members do so. E-mails sent directly to Senators and Congressmen can get lost among all the other stuff arriving in those offices' inboxes. Because of security screening to ensure that there's nothing nasty like anthrax in the envelope, postal mail letters may be significantly delayed in reaching their destinations. Chwat's people hand-carry the letters to the offices of the Senators and Congressmen, thereby getting somebody's attention and avoiding the security queue. Several Board people have already written their Senators, and thank you for that. It makes a stronger case for action on the part of League members when we can say we've already done our own bit. One Board person plans to set up a laptop computer at a hamfest he's attending this weekend so members can produce letters to their Senators about S. 2881 on the spot. 73 - Kay N3KN