Our little health care group is switching modes. During the national health care debate, we got together every weekend to hold up health care signs on the corner, handing out pamphlets, getting yelled at a little and yelling back.
The health care debate isn't over, but the window of effectiveness for that kind of approach probably is - if it wasn't already. So we're going to start writing letters to editors, to try to inform and persuade the public about this complex issue. Specifically, we're promoting the concept of Single Payer health care in California.
We're putting together a rapid response team, writing letters to the editor in response to articles that appear in local papers. Some of our members read some of the local papers; the initial idea is that the readers will notify the rest of the group when a relevant item appears and everyone will try to write a LTE in response, promoting our agenda.
To avoid overloading people's inboxes, we're going to try to restrict mailings to one a day. We know replies need to be timely, so a lower frequency isn't really possible. If, say, relevant articles appear in both the Union and the Times on the same day, there will just be one message to the group, referencing both articles.
To keep it interesting, we'll ask that the LTEs be sent back to the group, but published as a weekly summary, with indications of which letters get published. In this way we can see what works and begin to build a collection of ideas and phrases for future letters.
I haven't participated in such a project - much less coordinated it - in the past; I welcome any advice, any tips & tricks, from anyone who has. Thanks!
