You can also call people and harangue them—this is probably the easiest way to reach someone. For Congress, call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (or 225-3121 for the Senate) and ask for your representative. You’ll be connected to a staffer at his or her office, and they’ll take a message. It’s especially effective to have everyone call on the same day.
Petitions
Petitions are the time-honored way of showing anybody that the public supports you and can also be a tool for introducing people to an issue. There’s a tradeoff between how thorough a statement it has on it and how many signatures you’ll get. We suggest a paragraph or two, tops, in large print. If you get lots of signatures on a general statement, you can use it to back up a more detailed demand.
We’ve found that rather than assigning a few people to sit at a table and collect signatures, it’s more efficient for everyone in the group to get in on the act, and collect 20 or so signatures per week (or more if you can) from friends, people in their dorms, etc. Give people a basic rap to say, hand out the petitions at a meeting and send them off!
As with other kinds of sign-up sheets, it’s good to put yourself and a few friends at the top of the sheet so nobody has to be the first. Keep the original petition and send copies of it to your target(s).
If you’re a masochist, or do a lot of petitions and rallies, you might want to add everyone who signs up to your rarely used BIG mailing list. Because if someone signs a petition to save a forest, they’d likely want to attend a rally to support getting the school to use recycled paper. With databases, spreadsheets, and email or voicemail lists this can be done without too much work and prove very useful in the future.
There is no such thing as an email petition. They’re effectively chain letters and they are not effective.
Don’t forget to ask petition signers to come to your next meeting—and remember to get lots of press for your hard work!