1. State your name and what your
position is on the issue.
2. Next, say why you support or oppose a certain policy. Keep it
short. The longer your speech is, the more of it people will forget. Choose
one or two main points and support them well, so that, five speakers later,
people will still remember your most important points.
3. Repeat your position at the end of your speech, and tell
officials what you want them to do, e.g., "That's why I support a
smaller groundwater pumping station, and I hope you will, too."
4. Above all, be polite and be honest. The less you exaggerate, the
more people will credit what you say.
Letters to the editor
(back to top)
Elected officials at the local, state, and national level use
letters to the editor as a gauge of public opinion. More important, letters
to the editor alert your community to important issues and inspire other
people who care to speak out.
Writing a letter to the editor involves many of the same methods as
public speaking:
1. Keep it short. Many newspapers have a word limit of about one
page (250 words) or less.
2. State what issue you're writing about, what your position is,
and why you believe what you do. Focus on one to three main points and
support them well.
3. Tell others in the community what they can do to help at the end
of your letter. For example, include the name and address of a person they
can write to to express their opinion, or explain how they can find out
more.
4. Include contact information (name, address, and phone number)
with your letter-- it's required by most newspapers, but it also gives
people an idea of where you come from.
5. Be polite and be honest.
Communicating with elected
officials
(back to top)
Letters
A personal letter or card to a public or private officer gives
him or her a concrete, lasting reminder that his or her actions genuinely
affect people. A fax or e-mail will arrive more quickly and will do the
same, but faxes and e-mails are less likely to be kept or pinned to a
bulletin board.
1. Say who you are, what you're writing about, and what your
connection to the issue is--in other words, why you care and how you and
your family and community are affected. That doesn't mean that you have to
state your name (which will appear at the end of the letter). For example,
you can write:
"I am a nurse practitioner who works in Lone Pine. My
four-year-old son has asthma and suffers severely after large dust storms
on the bed of the Owens Lake. Many of my patients who have asthma suffer as
well."
"I run approximately 1,200 miles a year on the valley floor,
and during the last six years I've noticed steadily disapppearing ground
cover and increasing erosion just south of the Owens River close to
Pleasant Valley Road and the Volcanic Tablelands."
2. Again, keep it short--no more than a page. Shorter letters will
be read sooner and remembered later. Second pages can be lost easily. And
the shorter your letter is, the more your most important points will stand
out.
3. Tell your recipient what you want them to do and why.
4. Be sure to include information about how you can be contacted.
5. Always be polite and honest.
Phone calls
Phone calls are useful for quick reminders before an important
vote. Before you call, assemble relevant information so that you can refer
to it if you have to. Be polite, succinct, and clear about which way you
would like the official to vote and why.
Meetings
(back to top)
Meeting with executives or officers--whether they are elected,
appointed, or hired--gives you the opportunity to educate your officials
about an issue and to explain, in depth, why they ought to care. You can
write and invite the official to a group meeting (be sure to check with
your group first), to a smaller meeting with a few group members, or to a
personal meeting.
In your written invitation, say why you'd like to meet (e.g., to
provide information? to ask a Supervisor to vote for or against an existing
Board resolution? to ask for a new resolution?), provide several possible
dates and times to meet, be clear about what you'd like to discuss, and
provide extra information about the issue. If you agree upon a meeting
time, confirm the meeting with a phone call to the official's secretary a
few days before the meeting. Remember that the official will be thinking
not only about your issue, but also about multiple other pressing
issues.
Bring a one page fact sheet or issue summary to the meeting that
the official or executive can take home. At the meeting, be polite and be
honest, both about the issue itself and about what you do and don't know.
Explain how the issue affects the community. At the end of the meeting, ask
about when you can call again to follow up. Sum up any decisions made, and
make a list of information or anything else that you can provide to make
the other person's job easier. Thank the official or executive in person.
Thank them again, in writing, and include the information you offered to
provide.
CJK
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