With so many bodies under the budgetary knife and everyone screaming, who gets 9-1-1 treatment from Congressmen?

The Congressional Management Foundation, a research arm for lawmakers and their staffs, has examined five popular myths and offered how-to's for those trying to make their "Help!" resonate.

1. Myth: "One size fits all" congressional offices. Reality: Target and tailor the message for each lawmaker and his district. And know what your rep has already done on legislation -- don't ask him to co-sponsor something he's already authored.
2. Myth: Hide the identity of the group you represent so your note seems spontaneous. Actually, letters from expert sources (patients whose insurers won't pay for chemo, for example) carry more weight than John Does complaining about the overall plight of the uninsured.
3. Myth: Quantity has more clout than quality. Reality: Short letters with personal stories coupled with a few well-placed (and timed) phone calls and office visits get noticed more than hundreds of boiler-plate letters. Tell how legislation will help or hurt specifically -- don't use "fake Astroturf" regurgitations from lobbying groups.
4. Myth: Faxes are most effective. Reality: They take more staff resources, not to mention paper and toner. So, it's easy for scads of form letters to backfire.
5. Myth: Email is ineffective. Reality: Duh! Digital rules. But here, too, hitting send a hundred times with the same generic message to the same lawmaker, even with different names as signatories, looks like a serious abuse of a membership list. It sure ain't serious lobbying.

Having tromped into DC offices lobbying for health care, sometimes just after a group of educator lobbyists but just ahead of a herd of waste management specialists, it's easy to read boredom/exasperation in lawmaker's eyes (and especially their staffs). So if you can be brief and pertinent ("here's how much money was spent on trauma care to people in your district"),  you've not only delivered a potentially powerful message, but you may have created an anecdote your rep will repeat in speeches.

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