Apr 26 2008
FAQ
Contacting Congress
- You should fax your letters to your Congresspersons, as this is the most effective way to communicate with the office.
- E-mail can be effective, but only if you have a direct contact in the office.
- You can determine this person by calling the office and asking for the staffer responsible for science issues. Talk to them, or leave a voicemail, and tell them that you want to bring an important science issue to the attention of the Congressperson. Describe, briefly, who you are and the nature of the issue (this should take no more than 30-45 seconds). You can then tell them you’d like to send more information, and ask if you can e-mail it directly to them. * If they decline a direct e-mail, fax it and include their name in the “Attention:” line on the fax cover sheet.
- Never use a Federally funded fax machine or e-mail account to send your issues!
- Remember, you are representing yourself as a private citizen and constituent, not your laboratory or institution. If you do not have a non-government private e-mail account (i.e. don’t use a government lab e-mail address), there are many free web-based e-mail services. Faxes can be sent from copy stores.
If you feel like you need more pointers, the AIP provides a list of tools for scientists as constituents that is quite helpful.
RSS Subscriptions
- Question: How do I subscribe to the RSS feed of this site?
Answer: Absolutely. Thunderbird, for instance, allows you to easily add a subscription to the RSS service provided by the site. The feed is provided by the url http://www.scienceaction.org/?feed=rss2. You should be able to use any standard RSS reader to subscribe to this feed.
Visits
The number of visits to this site is counted since the new site came on-line, April 26, 2008.