I know it often seems naive and simplistic to think your reps will actually notice your letters, but in fact, they do notice paper letters.
I've been involved with NGOs and the activist community for much of my life, and paper letters were highly valued back when email was just starting. Now, paper letters get even more attention because so few people write.
Sure, not all reps are alike and you will probably end up with at least one random form letter, but you have to try.
Contact information for reps and senators is available from:
United States House of Representatives, 111th Congress, 1st Session -- for House of Representatives (and you can find yours by putting in your ZIP code) and
U.S. Senate -- for Senate.
Here are the tips I've learned:
1) Don't bother with email. Write to your Federal rep and the ones that border your district (after all, you're a potential voter if the district lines get altered, or if you move). Write to both senators. It's okay to use the same letter with all of them, just change the addressing.
2) Frame your argument to fit their political agenda, not yours. Frequently, I've lived in a Republican district (I'm most assuredly not) but that doesn't mean I can't work with the opposition on something that helps everybody and PVs do. In this case, if you're writing to a paleo-conservative Republican, frame the argument as a personal choice and a means to expand small business in the US. If you're writing to a neoconservative, those arguments should still hold, but also discuss how the FDA has been notoriously ill-equipped to handle the work they have. (Take advantage of the small government attitude...) If you're writing to a conservative or moderate Democrat, focus on the harm-reduction aspect of PVs. For one of the rare, truly liberal Democrats, continue with harm reduction, but also emphasize that PV's take money out of Big tobacco's hands and reduce that lobby's power. If you don't know how to talk to someone across the aisle, try to find someone -- friend, family, coworker -- whose politics oppose yours, give him or her your draft, and listen to her or his advice. It does none of us any good if we come off as unintentionally insulting.
3) Keep the letter short. If you have five points to make, send five letters (over the course of a month). One page, single spaced, no more than 3 paragraphs. Some poor intern reads these letters, and you will catch his or her attention faster with brevity.
4) If you live near other users, try to organize a brief meeting with your senator (or if there are several of you in one congressional district, with your rep). Call your rep/sen's office and get an appointment; meet with the other local PV users before hand (at least once, twice is better, but your meeting's going to be a month out anyway so you have time) and nail down your points. You'll probably have only 20 minutes, so again, be the soul of brevity. Use the same strategies as with letter-writing: divide up the points, appeal to your rep/sen's political leanings, be prepared to demo the device, but don't hold a vape-in in his/her office.
5) These strategies work with your state and local officials. Be aware that while getting meetings with state reps is a lot easier, they have less power, especially when dealing with the federal agencies. However, having the state reps on our side helps because state and local governments want to ban and have banned these, too. Talk to your city council people, your county officials, and your state reps. Local officials are (usually) less partisan, and since you share a "backyard" with them, they're easier to talk to across political lines.
6) Work your local party infrastructure -- both sides of the aisle. PVs are going to be politicized whether we want them to be or not, but they're too important to become a single party issue. PV's need to be non-partisan so while we work for complete legitimacy, we need to be non-partisan. We may disagree with some of our reps on everything else, but if we can reach common ground on PVs, that's a win. We're all grown-ups and this isn't about whose team wins. It's about health and personal freedom and entrepreneurship. Your county/parish party chairs have access and resources. PVs probably won't end up on the party platform, but all visibility helps.
7) If somebody wants stats and figures that you don't have, get them as quickly as possible.
8) Always send a (paper) thank you note for a meeting. One 44 cent stamp, a note-card and five minutes of writing will kick up your cred enormously and keep the issue in play.
9) If you live near a university, try to meet with a Professor Emeritus/Emerita in a related field (for us, Health Sciences, statistics, chem, biochem, law). Emeriti have more freedom, and may be able to point a grad student looking for a research project at us. We're going to need research here Right Quick Now, and on-going studies are better than none at all. Even just a self-reported, statistical survey is better than what we have now.
10) Don't be discouraged by a no, a form letter or other rejection. We're on the bleeding edge of the transition from combusted tobacco to PVs, so we're very much a small, not particularly powerful or wealthy, special interest. In politics, persistence pays off. So do good manners. Vent here as much as you like (or until the mods get *that* look...) but not to the people you're trying to convince.
I know a lot of this may be familiar ground, but you'd be surprised how often some of these things get missed and dropped, and how often that damages a cause. We have a good one, so making these fully legitimate is in our best interests.
I've been involved with NGOs and the activist community for much of my life, and paper letters were highly valued back when email was just starting. Now, paper letters get even more attention because so few people write.
Sure, not all reps are alike and you will probably end up with at least one random form letter, but you have to try.
Contact information for reps and senators is available from:
United States House of Representatives, 111th Congress, 1st Session -- for House of Representatives (and you can find yours by putting in your ZIP code) and
U.S. Senate -- for Senate.
Here are the tips I've learned:
1) Don't bother with email. Write to your Federal rep and the ones that border your district (after all, you're a potential voter if the district lines get altered, or if you move). Write to both senators. It's okay to use the same letter with all of them, just change the addressing.
2) Frame your argument to fit their political agenda, not yours. Frequently, I've lived in a Republican district (I'm most assuredly not) but that doesn't mean I can't work with the opposition on something that helps everybody and PVs do. In this case, if you're writing to a paleo-conservative Republican, frame the argument as a personal choice and a means to expand small business in the US. If you're writing to a neoconservative, those arguments should still hold, but also discuss how the FDA has been notoriously ill-equipped to handle the work they have. (Take advantage of the small government attitude...) If you're writing to a conservative or moderate Democrat, focus on the harm-reduction aspect of PVs. For one of the rare, truly liberal Democrats, continue with harm reduction, but also emphasize that PV's take money out of Big tobacco's hands and reduce that lobby's power. If you don't know how to talk to someone across the aisle, try to find someone -- friend, family, coworker -- whose politics oppose yours, give him or her your draft, and listen to her or his advice. It does none of us any good if we come off as unintentionally insulting.
3) Keep the letter short. If you have five points to make, send five letters (over the course of a month). One page, single spaced, no more than 3 paragraphs. Some poor intern reads these letters, and you will catch his or her attention faster with brevity.
4) If you live near other users, try to organize a brief meeting with your senator (or if there are several of you in one congressional district, with your rep). Call your rep/sen's office and get an appointment; meet with the other local PV users before hand (at least once, twice is better, but your meeting's going to be a month out anyway so you have time) and nail down your points. You'll probably have only 20 minutes, so again, be the soul of brevity. Use the same strategies as with letter-writing: divide up the points, appeal to your rep/sen's political leanings, be prepared to demo the device, but don't hold a vape-in in his/her office.
5) These strategies work with your state and local officials. Be aware that while getting meetings with state reps is a lot easier, they have less power, especially when dealing with the federal agencies. However, having the state reps on our side helps because state and local governments want to ban and have banned these, too. Talk to your city council people, your county officials, and your state reps. Local officials are (usually) less partisan, and since you share a "backyard" with them, they're easier to talk to across political lines.
6) Work your local party infrastructure -- both sides of the aisle. PVs are going to be politicized whether we want them to be or not, but they're too important to become a single party issue. PV's need to be non-partisan so while we work for complete legitimacy, we need to be non-partisan. We may disagree with some of our reps on everything else, but if we can reach common ground on PVs, that's a win. We're all grown-ups and this isn't about whose team wins. It's about health and personal freedom and entrepreneurship. Your county/parish party chairs have access and resources. PVs probably won't end up on the party platform, but all visibility helps.
7) If somebody wants stats and figures that you don't have, get them as quickly as possible.
8) Always send a (paper) thank you note for a meeting. One 44 cent stamp, a note-card and five minutes of writing will kick up your cred enormously and keep the issue in play.
9) If you live near a university, try to meet with a Professor Emeritus/Emerita in a related field (for us, Health Sciences, statistics, chem, biochem, law). Emeriti have more freedom, and may be able to point a grad student looking for a research project at us. We're going to need research here Right Quick Now, and on-going studies are better than none at all. Even just a self-reported, statistical survey is better than what we have now.
10) Don't be discouraged by a no, a form letter or other rejection. We're on the bleeding edge of the transition from combusted tobacco to PVs, so we're very much a small, not particularly powerful or wealthy, special interest. In politics, persistence pays off. So do good manners. Vent here as much as you like (or until the mods get *that* look...) but not to the people you're trying to convince.
I know a lot of this may be familiar ground, but you'd be surprised how often some of these things get missed and dropped, and how often that damages a cause. We have a good one, so making these fully legitimate is in our best interests.
