That's not entirely true, David. I worked on Capitol Hill for several years as a contractor and was able to visit almost all of the offices of our elected officials. It is true that all of the offices will screen your mail, and that this process may boil your comments down to a check box in the "for" or "against" column. It is also true that a college intern may be the one screening your comments and your comments may not get the attention they deserve. But, emails or letters that raise issues that do not easily fall into column x or column y, or issues that are targeted by specific staff members tend to get routed to the next level. The next level is usually a staffmember (just out of college) who has been given an issue or area to summarize for their representative. Your mailing/emailing campaign should be targeted to "enlist" this person to your cause. It will be this person who will raise the issue at the weekly/daily staff meeting. Your email itself will very rarely reach the desk of your representative, it's true, but your emails and letters are not ignored. In fact, many senators file all of your correspondance.
Good Fortune, Richard Walters, Webmaster, Davita Laboratory Services [EMAIL PROTECTED] (800) 604-5227 x 3525 >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/23/02 10:12AM >>> Another thing to keep in mind - e-mail to our elected officials is pretty worthless. Most don't understand the medium and never look at them. Just something to consider. David Groth, Analyst/Programmer III HSC Library & Informatics Center, University of New Mexico 505.272.8406 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/23/02 07:33AM >>> Hello- I would like to automate the process of contacting Congress a visitor's congress member. I've got a database (provided by client) which has all of congress, but not all of the congress members have email addresses. I guess this is a two part question: 1. Does anyone know of a zip code -> congressional district database? 2. Has anyone automated the process of contacting congress members on a nation wide basis? With a variety of different web based contact forms, I'm wondering how to code this... I'd like to handle it on site- Instead of providing a link to whatever form the particular congress member is using. 3. Last but not least- I heard a rumor that their are databases with plain EMAIL addresses for all of congress... IF anyone knows anything about this, I'd love to know!!! It would be much easier than trying to deal with the assortment of contact forms... Thanks in advance! Louis Klepner Expressive Imaging Web Design & Development 845-440-0086 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.expressiveimaging.com ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
