Poll:Operation Madison,Peacock,and Troy

[Kelly Jessop]

We would like to measure the response from the cave diving community in the form of correspondence to elected officials in reference to threatened park closure

[SuPrBuGmAn]

You may want to add an email address to the mailing list to be CC'd, for the simple purpose of tracking the emails sent.

I will be sending both emails and hardcopy letters. A form letter would be appreciated, but not necessary(of course). I've been sending alot of letters out this week :/

[icestac]

A form letter would be appreciated, but not necessary(of course).

+1

If a letter I'm writing does not have a To, CC, BCC, Subject, and Message box, then I'm pretty much useless at composing such letter (sadly). A form letter or at least a Word doc as a starting point would be much appreciated.

[mag3]

+1

If a letter I'm writing does not have a To, CC, BCC, Subject, and Message box, then I'm pretty much useless at composing such letter (sadly). A form letter or at least a Word doc as a starting point would be much appreciated.

I did a "mail merge" in MS-Word for myself. But I wonder though if a "form letter" (ie. one that *everyone* uses) might result in a bit of a "diminishing return..." I think if our targets see "personalized" letters/writing, they may take the general consensus a bit more seriously. If they see the same "form letter" over and over again, perhaps they might be more prone to ignore them after seeing only a few...


Just a thought...

[icestac]

I did a "mail merge" in MS-Word for myself. But I wonder though if a "form letter" (ie. one that *everyone* uses) might result in a bit of a "diminishing return..." I think if our targets see "personalized" letters/writing, they may take the general consensus a bit more seriously. If they see the same "form letter" over and over again, perhaps they might be more prone to ignore them after seeing only a few...

Agreed, but even if there are a couple of canned paragraphs, it would help fill out the letter. Otherwise, mine would likely end up reading:

"Please keep the parks that allow cave diving open. I live in North Georgia, but frequently travel down to the North Florida caves to go diving. I personally spend an average of $10,000 a year diving on access, lodging, food, and gear to dive the North Florida caves. By closing the parks, my dollars will go elsewhere where I can openly enjoy my hobby. I urge you to explore alternative options that would keep the access to these wonderful caves open and my dollars in the local communities."

I can add a bit more fluff to fill out my personal story, but a few paragraphs to provide supporting information would be great.

Thanks,
Jeff

[sskasser]

Agreed, but even if there are a couple of canned paragraphs, it would help fill out the letter. Otherwise, mine would likely end up reading:

"Please keep the parks that allow cave diving open. I live in North Georgia, but frequently travel down to the North Florida caves to go diving. I personally spend an average of $10,000 a year diving on access, lodging, food, and gear to dive the North Florida caves. By closing the parks, my dollars will go elsewhere where I can openly enjoy my hobby. I urge you to explore alternative options that would keep the access to these wonderful caves open and my dollars in the local communities."

I can add a bit more fluff to fill out my personal story, but a few paragraphs to provide supporting information would be great.

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff, I like it! Simple and to the point!

[mag3]

Agreed, but even if there are a couple of canned paragraphs, it would help fill out the letter. Otherwise, mine would likely end up reading:

"Please keep the parks that allow cave diving open. I live in North Georgia, but frequently travel down to the North Florida caves to go diving. I personally spend an average of $10,000 a year diving on access, lodging, food, and gear to dive the North Florida caves. By closing the parks, my dollars will go elsewhere where I can openly enjoy my hobby. I urge you to explore alternative options that would keep the access to these wonderful caves open and my dollars in the local communities."

I can add a bit more fluff to fill out my personal story, but a few paragraphs to provide supporting information would be great.

Thanks,
Jeff

Fair enough. Attached is a zip file with my MS-Word Mail Merge template and mail merge .mdb list for the five addresses provided. You'll need to personalize it quite a bit, as did I. It's Office-2007, so you might have to downgrade the template a bit.

[icestac]

Simple and to the point!

HAHA, that is me.... VERY SIMPLE

[LiteHedded]

We would like to measure the response from the cave diving community in the form of correspondence to elected officials in reference to threatened park closure

I dont think people will be honest with a public poll

[Kelly Jessop]

I dont think people will be honest with a public poll

You may be right,but I am looking at statistical method,and the passion of cave divers who are threatened with the loss of a couple cave diving sites. I know it takes time to sit and draft a letter,and mail it,but I also know it takes more time to drive a longer distance to get to a cave diving site that is further away and more crowded because another place is closed. I am starting to sound like the telethon MC on public television,but there has been a lot of work put in by people to get a site open,now we owe it to exert a little effort to keep a site open. Thanks.