Organisations
Look up and send a message directly to your government
representative - they are there to represent you!
The official electronic contact methods are (disgracefully) all
too often simply ignored, sitting in some email inbox forever.
Hence the unofficial ones that have discovered MPs'/Representatives'
direct fax numbers to try and make sure it gets to them though in
some cases (where they ignore faxes) it is better to phone, write
a letter or visit.
- UK - www.locata.co.uk/commons/ (official
contact) or www.faxyourmp.co.uk (unofficial
contact via fax)
or Fax the PM's office on +44 (0)2079250918 and tell him
what you think - polite, considered arguments and a
"reply to" address will be taken more seriously...
someone (though not him) will read these.
- US - www.house.gov/writerep/ (offiicial
contact) or www.moveon.org (unofficial lobbying
organisation)
Supersites
These have lists of organisations that you can search through
to find ones you might like to join or just take some "public"
action such as sending a postcard, fax or e-mail. The difference
between these and e-petitions by well-meaning individuals is that
these organisations have (usually!) researched the issue and
found appropriate contacts.
Some well know organisations
Poverty
Human Rights
Environment
Tools
These are organisations that can provide useful tools to help
with running a campaign if you really want to get things rolling!
- UK official petition details - House Of Commons
Information Office Factsheet P7 "Public Petitions" (Adobe Acrobat
document).
- Digital Campaigns - www.digicamp.com
- OpenConcept Consulting is developing a number of Take Action Tools which they
have incorporated into their Open Source Content Management System, Back-End. The
present tools include multi-lingual eActions (email & fax) and
ePetitions. The server side scripts use PHP/MySQL and are available for
free. OpenConcept can also be hired to provide web hosting and custom
development. Mike Gifford, OpenConcept Consulting.
e-petition.org