CAPWIZ: Legislative Advocacy Made Easy
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CAPWIZ: Legislative Advocacy Made Easy Son, don’t ever apologize for your opinions. If you don’t tell me your concerns, someone else will and you may not like their solution to the problem. I need your input to make a decision. Former Kentucky Senator Wendell Ford The KDA’s newly activated legislative advocacy program, CQ Roll Call’s CAPWIZ, is up and running at http://capwiz.com/kyda/home/. As a leader in issues management, CAPWIZ will help KDA members to position their agenda with the public and with policymakers. Capwiz will enable the KDA to conduct sophisticated and targeted online advocacy campaigns from our existing website. This new service will offer breadth and depth of data and content, better message delivery to Congress and state legislators, more multifaceted campaign tools or more industry experience. Capwiz delivers nearly 20 million e-mail messages to federal and state legislators each year. These messages need to be targeted, timely and topical. Capwiz gives you more options and the essential tools so we can craft a campaign that is meaningful. Capwiz offers KDA members: A customizable legislative action center for the KDA’s website that provides a wealth of information on members of Congress and state legislators, and interactive tools directly to our members. A powerful database that enables members to target and mobilize supporters and track advocacy activity—including e-mail reports. Five ways to deliver messages: e-mail, mail, fax, hand delivery and phone. Web form compliance to ensure deliverability of your messages to Congress and state legislators. Zip-to-district and legislative data matching, plus election guides, voter registration tools and Letter-to-the-Editor alerts. “Smart Alerts” with conditional content that is targeted based on yea or nay vote record or sponsorship status. Reporting tools that measure our legislative influence and fundraising. Dr. Raymond Gist, President-elect of the American Dental Association said in a recent ADA interview, “If we could get everyone to participate in ADPAC, then legislators would take even more notice. I would love to have all of our members get involved in the CAPWIZ program (http://capwiz.com/dental/home), and send e-mails, with suggested commentary, to legislators in order to get their attention. They are more likely to listen, show respect for our views, and act in our best interests if we can show them the numbers. Our members sent 11,000 e-mails on the Red Flags issue, and our legislators took notice. I hope to effectively communicate with more and more members about the importance of ADPAC and about our grassroots actions teams.” Legislative Advocacy The long and the short of it is this; KDA members need to go to the Professional Portal of our website at http://www.kyda.org/legislative_issues.html, and click on CAPWIZ. Just jump in there and see everything you can do. Beginners can look around and easily see who their legislators are and how they can communicate with them. There are a milutitude of functions one can venture upon, and these include sending messages to state and national legislators and tracking them. Handy features include directories of state and national legislators; state legislature basics; state officials and agencies; media guides and elections guides; and issues and legislation. Dentistry needs your support and your voice more than ever. Now, there is no excuse not to get online and use this convenient new way to educate yourself on the issues, contact your legislators and tell them what you think. Says KDA member and ADA Sixth District Trustee Dr. William Ken Rich, “Today, possibly more than any time in history, we face the potential of major changes in our profession brought on by financial crisis within our country. Changes in healthcare are being proposed at all levels. If we who are the professionals in oral health don’t express our views and concerns on this issue, there are others who will. It is our responsibility as dentists to be concerned for the oral health and well-being of our patients and the public in general. Our government, it has been noted, is not a government of the people, but a government of the people who participate. We are afforded the opportunity and freedom to participate in the decisions made, but we must choose to participate. CAPWIZ provides us one of the most useful and powerful tools available for our personal and collective voices to be heard in the democratic process. CAPWIZ literally places the ability to participation at our fingertips. It has been noted by Dr. Gist, that during the “red flags” issue, eleven thousand emails were received by congress from ADA members. We have over one hundred and sixty thousand members. The number of congressional contacts was commendable, but it should and can be much more. Former Kentucky Senator Wendell Ford once taught me a valuable lesson during a visit to his office. He said, “Son, don’t ever apologize for your opinions. If you don’t tell me your concerns, someone else will and you may not like their solution to the problem. I need your input to make a decision.” CAPWIZ like any other tool is only beneficial if used.” History of CQ Roll Call From Capitol Hill hearing rooms to campaign war rooms, from the White House to the House and Senate floors, CQ Roll Call covers Congress, inside and out. As the leading provider of congressional news, legislative tracking and advocacy services, CQ Roll Call is the only media company that connects policy professionals and opinion leaders with the information and tools they need to understand and influence Congress. With the largest press corps on Capitol Hill, CQ Roll Call has earned a reputation for delivering comprehensive, accurate and objective congressional reporting. We help you track and understand the people, the politics and the process—and how these forces affect your interests. Moreover, CQ Roll Call provides an innovative array of channels to reach Capitol Hill, empowering private citizens and power players alike with the ability to position their message in front of members of Congress and their staff. CQ Roll Call’s clients span the policy-making arena. From congressional offices and federal departments and agencies to major corporations, leading associations, law and lobbying firms, media, and academia, we serve the people and institutions that make and shape public policy. A wholly-owned subsidiary of The Economist Group, CQ Roll Call was formed by bringing together three companies – Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call and Capitol Advantage – with histories nearly as rich as the people, institutions and legislation it covers. The visionaries behind these companies were Nelson Poynter, Sid Yudain and Robert Hansan. By establishing CQ, Roll Call and Capitol Advantage, each left an indelible mark on America’s capital city. Though they shared great ambition and a keen entrepreneurial sense, each encompassed distinct views on how to change Washington for the better. .