[MIham] Volunteers Needed for ARRL's Grassroots Legislative Action Program

[Frank]

Volunteers Needed

for

ARRL's Grassroots Legislative Action Program



My name is Robert "Scotty" Wright, KB8APS. I've been appointed by the Great
Lakes Director Jim Weaver, K8JE as the Legislative Action Coordinator (LAC)
for the State of Michigan.



The ARRL recently adopted a program called "Grassroots Legislative Action".
The purpose of the program is to organize hams, at the local level and
communicate with their US Congressional Representatives on matters dealing
with Amateur Radio.



Part of my responsibility is to recruit and train volunteers for the post of
Legislative Action Assistants (LAA) within Michigan. Ideally I would like to
have three LAAs, to work as a team, in each of Michigan's fifteen US
Congressional Districts.



The duties of the LAAs are not overly time consuming; much of the work can
be accomplished casually without the rigors of schedules. I break the duties
into four groups:



1. Training and Organization. Training materials and organizational forms
are available as well as training seminars from time to time.



            2. Familiarization. Get to know your representative and staff.



3. Awareness. Get to know the ARRL affiliated clubs and their members in a
given district, either by visits or e-mails, emphasizing the value of a
letter from a constituent. These three items should be done, hopefully,
before a bill comes on the horizon.



4. Action. Once a bill is introduced, a series of sequential action steps
are planned.  These are likely:

·       To ask selected LAA teams to visit the home offices of US
Representatives or Senators who belong to key legislative committees that
will consider the legislation first.

·       To ask all LAA teams to visit the home offices of their US
Representatives of Senators.

·       Finally, to ask all members to write letters to their US
Representative and Senators.



In each of these action steps all background material, information to be
left with the Representative or Senator or his aide and boilerplate letters
will be developed and provided to us by ARRL HQ.



To learn more information or to volunteer, contact me at kb8aps at arrl.net I
will respond with some material for you to browse, followed by a phone call
to get things started. Success of this program could determine the future of
Amateur Radio as we know it today. If you would like to become involved in a
worthwhile project, this could be it.



In the mean time check out the article "The ARRL Legislative Action Program
Needs You" in February's 2007 QST by Great Lakes Director, Jim Weaver, K8JE

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