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Why write a letter?Writing a letter is one of the easiest yet most often overlooked ways of communicating with your elected officials. Whether you are making a request, asking a question, supporting an issue or writing to voice your opposition, a letter is an extremely effective way of getting your elected official's attention focused on your topic.Take the example of an opinion letter, where you want to show your your support for (or opposition against) a given issue. You may not think one letter is going to change anything, but several letters all voicing the same or similar opinions are hard to ignore. They know this and have a system to collect, categorize and count the letters they receive. While your elected official may not read your specific letter, rest assured that someone on staff will. Typically, mail is received in large stacks, opened and sorted by topic. Depending on the size of the office, it may then be passed on to another staff person in charge of that particular topic area. This is all part of the constituent services that every office provides. The letters may then be sorted into individual categories (such as "for" or "against") and that is where the letters really take on significance. Each topic area's correspondence is monitored and reported, especially when the issue becomes hot (e.g., the topic gets enough attention, the bill is being voted on, the media gets wind of it, etc.) When the staffer reports the "letter count", suddenly your voice (and others with you) is heard through something as simple as a letter. Next page.... What makes for a successful letter?
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