Anyone get the HRC call to meet with legislators?

[Zerbie]

HRC has sent out a call for grassroots volunteers to lobby their legislators. I was interested in possibly signing up to attend the in-district lobby meeting to express support for equality to my (conservative Republican) congressman.

To sign up for participation, the webform requires providing your phone number, which I am not willing to do. Email is enough for me to give out over the web. Last time HRC did this, we used email until I had a local HRC staffer to connect with, at which time I provided her my phone #.

Does anyone know of an alternative way to sign up to participate other than the webform?

Thanks.

[Zerbie]

No one else is doing this? No alternate ideas I guess. Maybe I won't sign up this time, then.

[Matt Algren]

HRC is jumping on a train that's already left the station. Won't be long before they start asking for money again. If I were you, I'd ignore their attention grab and call my representatives myself. Pennsylvania blogger Thomas Waters has posted a pretty extensive step-by-step guide.

[Daniel]

Didn't get this call to lobby, but did get a call to donate. I think Matt's idea is a good one: one doesn't need HRC to make a call (or write a letter) that one can do oneself.

[Zerbie]

Ahh. Interesting. Yes, good idea to do it yourself, but there are two things that made me think doing it with HRC would be nice:

1. I thought I might be part of a small group, making it a face-to-face show of friendly faces in numbers.

2. And this is the odd thing: I'm not aware of any specific equality legislation facing Congress right now, now the hate crimes bill passed. My impression was this lobbying was a show of support for equality GENERALLY (pro-ENDA, anti-DOMA, anti-Don't Ask, etc), and I have never written a letter to a representative unless it was about a SPECIFIC legislation. Therefore, I thought it only made sense within a larger context, a framework provided by the organization and a group of local volunteers.

Or have I missed something relevant?

Anyway - interesting comment, guys, about the call for donations. I've been pretty frustrated by HRC in the past for their lack of support of activism combined by the desire to document credit for everything desired that happens, and the frequent calls to support financially. I would be more inclined to donate to them if they would slim down their operation some and stop being so hugely bureaucratic.

I am feeling inclined to skip this one.

[tdogg]

We had a local lobby day prior to the Supreme Court hearings on Prop 8, here at the Capitol. It was put on by Equality California I think, along with a couple other organizations. They gave lobbyists free training and send them in groups to various legislators. From what I heard, it was a great experience. Unfortunately, I opted to volunteer to run the 'letter writing bar' where lobbyists could come in between visits and write letters to legislators and/or editors, etc. No one came. I would have much rather had the lobbying experience.

Good luck. I agree with the others somewhat. Although if you did join in, then you might end up getting some in person training and be better equipped to go out on your own. Just a thought. Of course, the calls and donation begging come along with that...