As a former Senate staffer, I can say that calling your MOC's office is one of the least effective communication methods for constituents (faxing is the least effective). Unless your flooding the phone lines on one particular issue/bill, the best way to have your voice be heard and have a real impact is either (1) meeting with your MOC's legislative staff in D.C. on a particular issue; or (2) writing a personal letter that's sent to their D.C. office via postal mail or email (i.e. NOT signing a form letter or petition). A thoughtful, personal letter - even one that's only 4 or 5 sentences long - can truly change your elected's views on an issue. I saw this happen every single day in my old office. That being said, did you consult with hill staff on this yet? While I think you've got a great start, it's not a practical strategy (staff assistants will simply hang up on a recorded message, etc) and needs to be fine tuned.
@ywazir Hi Yasmin - thank you so much for the thoughtful comments. We spent a considerable amount of time talking to former and current staffers, as well as researching the subject, and heard over and over again that collective calling is the most impactful way to make an impact. We took lessons from the Indivisible Guide and articles like this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/p.... Our hope is that organizations, as well as individuals, can leverage Stance to really reach out to Congress.
One other thing to note is that the voice messages play just like a phone call, and allow for personal stories and unscripted calls. The goal is for people to be able to get their message through without all the hassle of actually getting through.
All that being said, we'd love to hear more from you if you have any other advice!
Hi All,
We’re excited to introduce Stance, the most impactful way to contact your elected representatives.
Calling members of Congress is the most effective way for people to make their voice heard, but overflowing voicemails and busy staffers mean that constituents spend hours waiting to deliver messages. Other citizens are unaware of who their representatives are or how best to reach them or feel reluctant to call their representative out of fear they will be questioned, challenged, or simply will mess up their message.
I witnessed this frustration firsthand at a political rally I attended, and realized I could do something about it. The next day I met with a few politically minded coworkers at Ense, a social audio startup, and we decided to build Stance on Ense’s existing API.
We spent the following weekend building Stance to remove every barrier to calling Congress.
Stance displays your representatives based on your location, prompts you to record your message, and then calls the selected congressional office and plays your message. Users are able and encouraged to record and send as many messages as they like.
These messages are also tweeted directly to representative’s Twitter accounts and all audio messages are also posted on takeastance.us to inspire fellow citizens to speak up and make their voices heard.
Please take a stance on the issues that matter to you and make your voice heard. Looking forward to answering any questions and excited to hear your feedback!
Stance
Stance