RADAR Alert: Set Up a Meeting with your Representative This Week!

This year we begin to reform the Violence
Against Women Act, to stop the injustices, to protect our families, and to save
our children.

The name of our campaign is “Truth and
Consequences: Election 2006.” Our objective is simple: To meet with
candidates in every single district around the country, explain the abuses of
VAWA, and ask for their support to request Congressional hearings right after
the November 7 election.

Click "Read more..." for more.

To do that, we’ve put together a Coalition of
almost 50 organizations, 37 state-level contact persons, and a variety of Special Reports and other resource materials. These can be seen at http://www.mediaradar.org/.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and get on with
it. These are the steps you need to do this week:

Step 1: Find out what
Congressional District you live in. Go to http://www.house.gov/ and enter your ZIP code in the box at the top of the page.

Step 2: Get the telephone number
of your Congressman’s local office. You can do this by:

• Reviewing your representative’s web page,
  
  
• Looking up the number in the telephone
  book, or
  
• Calling the Capitol switchboard at
  202-224-3121 and asking to be connected to your Congressman’s office.
  

Step 3: Call your Congressman’s
local office and ask to speak with the Scheduler. Explain that you are a member
of a coalition of 50 organizations around the country. Request to meet with the
Congressman (or staff) to discuss how the Violence Against Women Act affects
families and children. Keep it short and sweet -- you just want to set up a
face-to-face meeting.

Step 4: The Scheduler may ask you
to send or fax them a request letter. If so, just fill in the blanks on
the letter shown below and send or fax it right away.

That’s all there is to it! The July 10 Alert
will explain how to prepare for your meeting.

Additional Questions:

1. “I belong to an organization in my area
   that is arranging to meet with the Representative to talk about VAWA. Should I
   coordinate with my group?”
   

   Yes, by all means.

   
   
2. “One of the senators in my state is also
   up for re-election this year. Should I try to meet with the Senator, as well?”
   
   

   Yes. We encourage you to coordinate this
   meeting with others in your state.

   
   
3. “The Alert only mentions meeting
   with the incumbent. What about the challenger?”
   

   Good question. As the campaign progresses,
   we’ll be asking persons to get involved in activities such as putting up signs
   and making phone calls for the candidate. Obviously, you can’t do that for
   both the incumbent and the challenger. So you have to choose. The incumbent
   wins 95% of all races, so generally you’ll want to meet with the incumbent.
   

Sample letter for requesting a
meeting. Copy the section below and paste it into your favorite word
processor. Then fill in the information indicated in [brackets].

Date of RADAR Release: June 26, 2006

R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic
Abuse Reporting – is a network of concerned men and women working to assure that
the problem of domestic violence is treated in a balanced and effective manner.
http://www.mediaradar.org/.

NOTICE: This story was migrated from the old software that used to run Mensactivism.org. Unfortunately, user comments did not get included in the migration. However, you may view a copy of the original story, with comments, at the following link:

http://news.mensactivism.org/articles/06/06/26/1852225.shtml