New Year's Letter Writing Party

Wondering how to bring in the New Year?
How about by asking for New Year's commitments from your representatives on issues that matter to you? Hold a letter writing party!

Why letters?
When you send a letter to government representatives, they count it as more than one voter's opinion, because so few people take the time to actually write letters, so your letter is having a bigger impact than you might expect! For instance your letter to the federal government might be counted as if as many as 50 people felt the way you do! That's pretty effective if you ask me!
Why New Years?
You and your family and friends probably have some time off school and work, are in a good and giving mood, and might even be sick of sitting around doing not much that active. Plus you can make your letters a bit more interesting by asking representatives to make a new year's resolution to make the change you're asking for, or talking about starting 2008 off on the right foot.

How? It's Simple:
1. Find a Place and Time
-part of your New Year's eve party? Something to do on New Years Day in the afternoon? Sometime in the few days before chool starts up again?
-your living room? Church? Community hall? All your really need is tables or clipboards/books for people to write on

2. Invite Friends and Family to start the New Year off right-send emails, invite people when wishing them a happy new year,-offer snacks (simple things like cookies and chips) and music (recorded, or ask a guitar player to play a few tunes)

3. Gather a few supplies
-Print off some fact sheets on a variety of issues you think are interesting and important - several ideas are available here(another page on the blog): http://continentalsac.blogspot.com/2007/12/fact-sheets-for-letter-writing.html
-Print off some tips on effective letter writing: http://www.sierraclub.org/takeaction/toolkit/letters.asp
-get a package of lined paper, some envelopes, a few pens, and some stamps (if you're concerned about how much you're spending on stamps and supplies, put out a basket for contributions toward postage at the party)
-Find out who your representatives (federal, state/provincial, and municipal) are and how to reach them, and print that off as well. Also consider the head of state of other countries as well, as many issues are international (particularly Canada/US).
- http://www.house.gov/writerep/ (US federal representatives)
- http://www.house.gov/house/orgs_pub_hse_ldr_www.shtml (US leadership offices)
- http://canada.gc.ca/directories-repertoires/direct-eng.html (Canada - Government and
Members of Parliament)
- http://canadaonline.about.com/cs/premiers/a/writepremiers.htm (Canada - Premiers of
the provinces and territories)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Governors (list of US state Governors, can google their names to get addresses)

4. Follow-up-after the event send the information you collected (fact sheets, addresses for your representatives, and any tips you found) to everyone who did and did not attend, so people have the opportunity to do more, or to participate even if they couldn't make it to your party

Other tips:
Keep it Simple - have fun with it, but don't stress yourself out about it - go with the flow
Don't Stress - even if you don't have the turn out you would have liked, if you send one letter it was worth it! Plus, you'll have put the idea of letter writing in your friend's heads
Make it sound fun - consider watching a movie (either on the issue or just a fun movie) before or after, don't make it sound labour-intensive
Invite others to bring snacks, movies, music etc to take some of the load off yourself

Have fun!If you have any questions, send me an email - continentalsac@gmail.com

Add a comment to let me know if you held one of these parties, and let me know how it went! It's important to share our successes!