2. Activating Individuals
All the support you build for a new foreign policy, won’t mean anything if your members of Congress don’t find out about it. Here are a number of ways that you can build pressure from individuals in your community toward your member of Congress. Each of these is an opportunity to tell your member of Congress to support the Campaign for a New Foreign Policy.
Build Your List of Contacts
Every time you, or a member of your organization, interact with the public it’s an opportunity for you to build political power. More individual contacts in your database, or on your email list, mean that you can generate more letters to Congress and raise more money to keep your work alive.This means that you should gather names and contact information by bringing a sign up sheet to every public event you participate in. Have volunteers sign up contacts at demonstrations, or send your sign up sheet around the room at the end of a speech. Sign up sheets are a necessary tool for tabling at all kinds of events and on any occasion at which you meet people and can build your organization.
Don’t forget to keep track of the names you gather and make sure to keep in touch with your contacts on a regular basis.
10 Ways to Generate Mail 1. Table at a public event.
2. Canvass a neighborhood.
3. Include a sample letter in a mailing.
4. Post it on your website.
5. Include a letter writing appeal in a speech.
6. Ask other organizations to urge their members to write letters.
7. Put it in your newsletter.
8. Put an appeal in an ally’s newsletter with an article or advertisement.
9. Get contacts to generate letters at a house party.
10. Place an ad in a major paper: your ad can appeal for letters and donations.Generate Letters to Congress
Members of Congress WILL support a new foreign policy simply because constituents ask them to. We’ve already seen this happen. Just about every member of Congress is given a count of how many letters he or she has received on various subjects each week. The more letters you generate on the need for a new foreign policy, the closer you are to success. The first action you should ask individuals to take is to write a letter to their member of Congress urging him or her to endorse the campaign. You can use our sample letter (check below) and change the text as needed.Be sure to keep track of the number of letters you generate. This is an important way to quantify your success with Members of Congress, as well as with your members and funders.
Click here for a sample letter to Congress and information about where to send your letters.
Click here for information about writing a letter to the editor and a for a sample letter.
The Action Alert Network
The Peace Action Education Fund sends out electronic action alerts nearly every week that are focused on the Campaign for a New Foreign Policy and issues specific to the arms trade and military assistance, nuclear disarmament and international cooperation. These alerts give individuals (who may not have a lot of time on their hands) a way to stay active in this campaign.Click here to become a member of the Action Alert Network. This is a great way to keep up-to-date as the campaign moves forward. It’s also a great timesaver: you can keep your contacts active by forwarding the action alerts to your own email list. Please send a quick note to cbenzschawel@peace-action.org and let us know how many people you send the alerts to.
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