Take Action Tuesday

Take Action! Procedure for Contacting Reps and Scheduling Meetings

This week the Philly Pod provides an excellent resource for meeting with your legislators. Thank you JoEllen McBride and Tanya Dapkey of the Philly Pod! 

You don’t have to wait for your legislators to go into recess to have a meeting with them in your hometown. You can schedule a meeting with them at any time! Advocacy enables you to support the mission of 500 Women Scientists by asking your Members of Congress and other elected officials to support common sense legislation. 

The Philly Pod learned from PA Senator Katie Muth which days the PA legislature would be in session in Harrisburg this fall. Based on those dates, we chose November 18th to schedule meetings with our reps. We had 5 Pod members and scheduled meetings with 7 reps total. The remaining 3 were given folders with materials and our contact information. Our main purpose was to present ourselves as a resource not only for policy but for outreach opportunities to show people the diversity of scientists in their districts. We printed out a list of the cities, job positions, and keywords of all the women listed in the Request a Woman Scientist database from Southeastern PA which every office got excited about. Our meetings were productive and we believe established a mutually beneficial relationship between the Pod and our representatives. 

Here are a few easy steps to get started on meeting with your Reps! 

  1. Look up your reps! You have Federal and State level representatives, and it’s good to know who they all are and where they stand on policies that affect our scientific community. Federal Reps: Gives you the two Senators who represent you in the Senate, and your Representative in the House of Representatives 

State Reps: This website gives you ALL of your elected officials. Scroll down to find your State Representative and State Senator. 

  1. Schedule a date with your Pod members to go to DC, your State Capitol or your district office. Send an email to your Rep’s email address/contact form/meeting request form. Here is a sample script you can use:

Dear [Representative],My name is [your name] and I am a constituent of [state/district]. I am also a scientist and an active member of the 500 Women Scientists [City] Chapter and our organization will be in [State Capitol] on [Date]. We would like to schedule a meeting with you that day while we are in town. 

Our organization aims to make science inclusive and accessible for everyone and we have identified some key policy areas important to our goals: {Chose a few goals to discuss with your Reps.} [Examples are climate justice, sexual harassment in science, education access, reproductive rights, transportation, firearm regulation, and immigration. Look at the committees they sit on and list the ones that may be relevant to them.] 

Thank you for your time and consideration and we look forward to meeting with you on [Date].

Best regards,

[Your name]

[Pod Website or Twitter if you have it]

It’s common that you will not hear back from your representative right away. Follow up often and through as many platforms as you can. Be persistent, they will respond if they realize you are serious. You can follow-up by email if you haven’t heard back after a week. If you still haven’t heard after about three days, call them!

  1. Schedule your meeting, prepare topics for discussion and decide if you have a particular request to focus on. Reps like to meet with their constituents so it is crucial that you or someone else from your district is at the meeting.

    1. Policy One Pagers: the Mid-Atlantic US Region of 500 Women Scientists held a policy workshop and developed some One Pagers to give to your reps. Look up your local legislation, and update these documents to make them applicable to your district. Your Reps need to know what bills to co-sponsor or vote for. 

    2. It’s recommended that you bring a gift or info packet to each meeting 

      1. A Pod info page or our tri-folds

      2. Copies of the one-pagers

      3. Stickers and/or buttons

      4. A print out of women scientists in our area from the Request a Woman in STEAMM database

  2. Keep track of your efforts in a spreadsheet accessible to the participating Pod Members. We often use Google Drive—here is a template you can use. 

  3. Additional Reading: Dr. JoEllen McBride from the Philly Pod recently wrote a blog post on different types of advocacy and why it’s important and how you can do it too!  

500 Women Scientists is on its way to becoming a powerful organization representing the voices of tens of thousands of women scientists all over the globe. With your gift we can pay for the vital infrastructure we need. Plus, your donations help keep 500WS resources free and open, one less barrier to women in science.