Dick, When you told me about this the other day I said that it seems to be an interesting idea and one that could work nicely for us. I would suggest, however, that you hold off sending the email to your division before a few things take placce. First, I suggest that this is run by The Keelen Group for their input before it is brought to the attention of the membership. Second, while it’s no longer the 60’s and we rarely see the typically sexist QSL cards that were popular during that period, we need to consider how we get the message out that those cards are verbotten! Third, and perhaps this should be first, many cards are the venue for bragging about the antenna farm that is owned by the member. I think that might send the wrong message to a Congressperson at this moment in time, as we should play down the “size matters” statement that such a picture makes. Finally, the hard-copy letter writing campaign along with an email campaign, must be the primary focus of our strategy. AND they need to be combined with office visits on the Hill as the face-to-face effort is always the most productive for us. And, as we discussed, those office visits need to continuously be bombarded with follow-up! As I said the other day, the QSL mailing is a good idea, however, let’s work the kinks out first before asking the membership to proceed, and let’s do that before Dayton so that we can intensify the campaign by getting letter written there and follow-up by QSL mailing from home. Wadyya tink? 73 de Mike N2YBB From: dick@pobox.com Sent: Friday, May 01, 2015 11:19 PM To: arrl-odv@arrl.org Subject: [arrl-odv:24245] A Modest Suggestion For Generating HR1301....CORRECTION 1 MAY 2015 - 2215 CDT The earlier version of this message has a small, but important, error in item #5. The correction is printed in red. - Dick Isely, W9GIG ========================================================================= To All Members Of Our Board Family: A former U.S. House staff member, a moderately active amateur radio operator, suggests we use the following process to potentially generate curiosity and then support for HR 1301. This suggestion is based on his Washington, DC staff experience. 1. Urge Amateur Radio Licensees to send a QSL card to their U.S. House Representative. 2. Use red ink to block print and sign the following brief message on the report side of the QSL card. Add an address label to the front side and mail it as a post card. A single non-enveloped "post card" should not get delayed for security reasons. "Please support HR-1301, The Amateur Radio Parity Act" Signed - Sender's full name and call sign 3. Make sure the people you contact will individually mail their cards directly to their Representative's Washington, DC office. 4. Ask your constituents to send you an email confirmation including the ham's name and call after this is done. Then send email thank-you notes to them. Please email this information to Dan Henderson, N1ND at ARRL headquarters. 5. Individual QSL cards arriving sporadically over a few weeks will first generate curiosity, then a bit of staff research and inquiry, hopefully ending up with another HR-1301 co-sponsor and a vote for this bill when it comes to the House floor. 6. When the U.S. Senate companion bill is created, the same process should again be used. 7. The individual time and postage cost is minimal. I will be posting this request to the entire ARRL Central Division and I will be talking to hams about this at the Dayton Hamvention. - Dick Isely, W9GIG -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv