Call Your Legislator

1) Find out who represents you: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/

You are looking for “Texas State Senator” and “Texas State Representative.

The individuals’ names should be highlighted — click on their name to get to their own websites. The website will have a link to “office” or “contact.”
You can try calling their staff at either their District Office or Capitol (Austin) Office.
Senators may represent a larger area and have multiple District offices. You can contact the one close to you.

Writing a letter? During the legislative session (first 6 months of 2009) send it to the Austin office.

Personal meeting? Ask the staff the best way to contact your representative – if you can visit in Austin – great, but if an appointment in the district office or a telephone call is more feasible go ahead and do that. The below assumes a personal visit but can also apply to a telephone call.

2. Contact your Senator and your Representative – call their district offices for appointments.

• Give his or her scheduler specific days and times you are available and tell the scheduler of any specific legislation you would like to discuss.

3. Prepare for the appointment:

• Do your homework. You should arrive knowing something about your representative’s position on the issues. Check out his or her website and also: http://www.votesmart.org/index.htm
• Attending with other constituents is even better. In advance determine what talking points you wish to emphasize and designate one spokesperson to make the meeting run more efficiently.

4. What to do during your visit:

• Dress professionally.
• Be on-time and polite. Thank the staff member or representative for meeting with you and introduce yourself.
• Stay focused. Remember what topics you came there to discuss and make the most of your limited amount of time.

Talking points:

• Introduce yourself as a constituent (someone who lives in the district) who you are and why this issue is important to you.
• Will you help me to keep my dogs? Will you oppose changes to the Texas Health and Safety Code that would allow breed-specific legislation in Texas?
• Bring photos of your dogs and your family, and copies of awards or certificates your dog has earned.
• Make it personal, rather than just reading from a piece of paper. For example: “Our dogs are members of our family. We go RVing with them all over Texas each summer. We don’t want to be afraid of our dogs being taken when we stop for gas the wrong town.”
• Your club is available to answer questions about the dogs and to assist with any educational efforts in the district.

• Make plans to follow-up. Thank the staff member or representative for the meeting and ask if there is any follow-up information you can send.

5. What to do after your visit.

• Send a thank-you note. As soon after your visit as possible, each person in your group should handwrite a thank-you note to the person you met with. Also send any follow-up information you promised during your meeting.
• Keep up the relationship! Keep track of your representative’s actions on your issues. When he or she sponsors a piece of legislation you agree with, send a thank-you email. If you don’t see your representative taking action on the issues you discussed during your meeting, make a follow-up call or write a note reminding him or her of the issues’ importance to you.
• Contact us and let us know how it went. Do you think this legislator will help us or or hurt us this session?