Tips for Making Appointments

Access contact information for every member of Congress by visiting the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives website, or by calling 202-225-3121.

Call the office of your legislator and ask to speak to the scheduler. Tell the scheduler that you would like to make an appointment to meet with your senator/representative. The scheduler will ask you why you want to meet with your senator/representative. In most cases, the purpose of your visit is to briefly explain the work of the writing project, to describe how teachers and students in your legislator's state/district benefit from the program, and to ask your legislator to support continued federal funding of NWP.

Most offices allow you to make appointments by phone. If you are asked to fax a letter, feel free to use the following as a guide:

The Honorable _______________________
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

OR

The Honorable ________________________
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Senator _______________ OR Representative _________________:

I would like to request an appointment with you to talk about the work of the National Writing Project and, specifically, to let you know what the writing project has done for teachers and students in our state OR district. I will be in Washington, D.C., on (ENTER DATE). Joining me will be the following writing project teachers:
(LIST NAMES OF THOSE WHO WILL BE AT THE APPOINTMENT.)

We look forward to meeting with you. You can reach me at (YOUR PHONE NUMBER, FAX NUMBER, and EMAIL ADDRESS.) I will follow up with a phone call in a few days.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME AND TITLE

Other Tips

Congressional offices are very busy. You may have to leave two or three messages for the scheduler before you get a call back. Be patient but persistent. Give the scheduler at least one day to respond to each message.

Visits to congressional offices typically last 15 to 30 minutes. In most cases, you will meet with your legislator's education aide, who will pass along your concerns to the senator or representative. If you get a chance to meet with your legislator face-to-face, consider yourself lucky and make the most of it.

Bring brochures, samples of student work, and other materials that show off the work of your local site and NWP.

To learn more about your legislators, check out their homepages at the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives website. For tips on communicating with your legislator, visit Tips for Writing to Your Legislators about NWP.

If you have any questions, please contact publicaffairs@nwp.org.