Saturday, October 18, 2008

Efficiency 101

This is a tip for sending lots of emails to the officials listed in the previous post (over and over again if you have to) so you can inundate the politicians on the list.  This will save you a lot of work with all the copying and pasting and retyping things over and over.

We need to make some noise and demand to be heard.

I work on a Mac, but this should be pretty similar on a PC:

Write your email.  Address the letter to the person BY NAME.  This will increase the chance that they actually read it carefully (of course all politicians read eeeeverything, right?).  Hit send and watch it go!  

Now, go to your Sent Email box and select the email you just sent, then follow the directions below.

• Go to the "Message" menu at the top menubar and select: Message > Send Again (in Entourage: it says "Resend").  This will open a NEW version of the message.

• Delete the address in the "To:" field.  Enter the new address (you can copy and paste it from my last blog post).  Do the same with their name in the email body - delete, copy, paste.

• Hit send.  Done.  Move on to the next name.  Repeat as necessary.  Do it until you get a satisfactory answer from them.  Don't settle for a form letter.

Repeating the same email to the same address:

• If you need to email the letter to the same address, just find your previous email and select Message > Send Again.  It takes all of 2 seconds to send the letter again.

Presto - instantly fill the inbox of any politician!

WRITE LETTERS!!

Please call, fax, email, mail and generally inundate these elected officials with your concerns about the shelter issue.

Here are some sample letters you can send by snail mail.
And there is a copy/paste version of that letter at the bottom of this post (please feel free to customize it - it's based on the Bed Stuy Association's letter).

And here are the politicians you can send it to:

U.S. Senator, Charles Schumer
p: 212-486-4430
f: 212-486-7693
757 Third Ave, Room 1702
NYC 10017

U.S. Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton
p: 212-688-6262
f: 212-688-7444
780 Third Ave, Suite 2601
NYC 10017

U.S. Congressman, Edolphus Towns
email: VIA WEBSITE (you can enter the zip+4 across the street from the armory: 11221-1018)
p: 718-855-8018
f: 718-858-4542
26 Court St., Suite 1510
Brooklyn, NY 11201

NY Governor, David Patterson
p: 212-681-4580
f: 518-474-1513
633 Third Ave, 38th Fl.
NYC 10017

NY State Senator, Velmanette Montgomery
p: 718-643-6140
f: 718-237-4137
30 Third Ave, Suite 1100
Brooklyn NY 11217

NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg
p: 212-788-3000
f: 212-788-2460
Mayor's Office, City Hall
NYC 10007

Also call: Deputy Mayor for Health & Human Services, Linda I. Gibbs
212-788-3000
City Hall
NYC 10007

Borough President, Marty Markowitz
Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon St.
Brooklyn NY 11201

Also CC:
Chief of Staff, Carlo A. Scissura: cscissura@brooklynbp.nyc.gov
Executive Assistant to the Borough President, Debbie Brill: dbrill@brooklynbp.nyc.gov
Director of Health & Human Services (Brooklyn), Mary-Powel Thomas: mpthomas@brooklynbp.nyc.gov

NYC Comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr.
comptroller.nyc.gov
1 Centre St, 5th Fl.
NYC 10007

Also CC:
Assistant Comptroller for Policy and Communications, Danica Gallagher: dgallag@comptroller.nyc.gov
Director, Glenn von Nostritz: gvonnos@comptroller.nyc.gov
Senior Issues, Mental Health Services: Michael Beirne: mbeirne@comptroller.nyc.gov

NYC Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum
p: 212-669-2304
f: 212-669-4701
1 Centre Street
NYC 10007

NY State Assemblyman, William Boyland Jr.
p: 718-498-8681
467 Thomas S. Boyland St.
Brooklyn NY 11212

NY State Assemblywoman, Annette M. Robinson
p: 718-399-7630
1360 Fulton St., Room 417
Brooklyn, NY 11216

City Councilman, Albert Vann
p: 212-788-7354
f: 212-788-8951
250 Broadway, Room 1743
NYC 10001

City Councilwoman, Letitia James
p: 212-260-9191
f: 718-260-9099
67 Hanson Pl.
Brooklyn NY 11217

City Councialwoman, Darlene Mealy
f: 718-953-3276
1757 Union St., 2nd Fl.
Brooklyn NY 11213

Department of Homeless Services Commissioner, Robert Hess
p: 212-361-8000
33 Beaver St.
NYC 10004

Community Board #3 District Manager, Ms. Charlene Phillips
p: 718-622-6601
f: 718-857-5774
1360 Fulton St., Room 202
Brooklyn NY 11216

Please write to AS MANY of these people as you can.

Here is the sample letter, feel free to copy & paste it. It is factually and structurally based on the one distributed by the Bedford Stuyvesant Association, but has been altered slightly for wording.

It's a good idea to replace "Elected Official" with the name of the recipient.


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