Legislative Work
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How to Make an Effective Congressional Phone Call

1. Ask to speak with the staff person responsible for the issue. Give your name and mention that you are a constituent. In most cases to do with Guatemala, this will be the foreign policy aide. Use the appropriate staff person's name, if you happen to know it. Knowing the staffer's name increases the chance you'll get through.

2. Introduce yourself briefly to the staffer, explaining that you are a constituent and, if you belong to a local organization concerned about this issue, add that connection. If your organization has a broad base, be sure to make that clear so the staffer understands you represent an organization with many people behind it.

3. Be specific about what you want the congressional member to do. Don't just complain about an issue, say you want the member to vote for or sponsor a specific bill or amendment, or take a particular action, like sign a congressional "dear colleague" letter.

4. Ask what the member's position is on the issue. If the staff person doesn't know, or won't say, what the member's position is, ask what (s)he, the staff person, will be recommending to the member. ASK THE STAFFER TO LEARN WHAT THE MEMBER'S POSITION IS AND GET BACK TO YOU WITH THAT INFORMATION.

5. Thank the staffer for his/her time.

6. Be prepared to get voicemail. Prepare a brief one or two sentence summary of what you want to leave on voicemail. Be sure to give your name and contact information. You may want to ask the staffer to call you back. If it's right before a vote, leaving your "plug" for the vote without asking for a call back may be sufficient.

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Thanks to the Latin America Working Group (http://www.lawg.org) for this explanation.