One effective method to solicit multiple letters to legislators from their community members is to host a letter-writing party. The parties can be hosted by individuals or organizations; they can be as large or small and as formal or informal as the host wants. The goal is to make it easy and more fun for individuals to write to a legislator.
Inviting Your Guest and Being Prepared
- Give your guests enough notice to mark their calendars. Invite 2-3 times as many people as you want to attend since there are always no-shows. If possible, call them the week before to remind them and once again the day before to ensure a strong turn-out.
- Let your guests know it's a letter-writing party. Don't surprise them.
- Have sample letters and information available for use by your guests on the topic they will be writing about. It’s important to help them use the background information and incorporate it into their own story.
- Be sure to have the contact information for all potential elected officials to whom your guests will be writing. Click here to find this information.
- Have plenty of paper, pens and envelopes on hand, and make sure there are places where guests can write comfortably. You may want to separate the areas used for letter writing and socializing. Having stamps on hand tells guests their letter is being sent out right away.
- Encourage guests to bring a family photo or some other personal item to include in their letter that can easily connect to their story.
Other Important Things to Keep in Mind
- Your goal is to generate mail. At an informal party, you may need to make more of an effort to get people to sit down and write their letters.
- Offer "take away" resources to further educate your guests after they leave. Make sure they know of other ways to stay involved (i.e. annual lobby day, regional meetings).
- Follow up! Be sure to thank your guests for their time. Let the Pride Agenda know you held the party, how many letters were generated, and to whom, because that information is important for our work.
If An Organization (Or One of Its Leaders) is Hosting the Party
- Be sure to ask people to join. If they are already members, ask if they will make an additional contribution to support the organization’s work on the issue they have just been writing about.
- Ask people to join your group's email alert list so they can get up-to-the minute action alerts.
Sample Agenda for a Letter-Writing Party
8:00 - 8:20PM
Guests begin to arrive; light snacks (sodas, popcorn, chips and salsa)
8:20PM
Welcome guests; give brief update and overview of the issue guests will be writing about; hand out materials
8:30 - 9:00PM
Guests write letters
9:00 - 9:30PM
Everyone watches a short video, plays a game, shares their experience in writing their letters or does some other icebreaker to bring everybody back together, and finishes off the snacks and soda!
9:30PM
Thank everyone and send them on their way