#indiivisible

[doingsomethingaboutit]

Tips on Visiting a Member of Congress’s Office

Copy&Pasted from the Indivisible-GA 6th District site: Indivisible GA-7 visited Rep. Rob Woodall’s office today. I thought I’d share the experience and some lessons.We delivered a message that we support improving the ACA, ethics, equality and fiscal responsibility.

Lessons learned:

First thing they ask for is a list of names/signatures. Consider finding a way to deliver a written message and a list of names. (Google forms may be a good way to collect names on an issue.)

Our Rep. voted to repeal ACA 60 times and his chief of staff was dismissive of the ACA when talking to us. Ask for a district poll to gauge actual sentiment on specific issues. Ask for an ACA town hall during the Feb congressional recess. Discuss in the realm of facts and data, not opinions.

Press notices work. We had a reporter from the Gwinnett Daily Post with us. Have a written statement for them about what your group stands for and what you want from your Rep.4. It’s clear EDUCATION of the citizens on issues is needed. We are going to publish fact sheets, how it will affect people in every walk of life with ACA repeal. We’ll do our best to recruit more people on this issue.

What we accomplished:

It felt GREAT for 16 of us to go talk to our Rep’s staff. It’s cathartic. Really beats yelling at the TV.2. Our Indivisible GA-7 group are 211 people that don’t know one another well yet. Every get-together is a chance to make new meaningful friendships.

Live and learn. We learned a lot from interacting with our Rep’s chief of staff today. He used our own words against us and was argumentative a bit in how he steered the conversations. Staying on message is a learned skill and we’ll get better every time.

We did Facebook Live Video from the meeting so the 16 in attendance could share the feeling with the 211 online. It was great! Try it, if only for a few minutes.

Hope these tips are helpful for everyone.