Attend a town hall meeting
Help pass the Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Research, Cure, and Care Act of 2009 (PPARCCA) by attending a town hall meeting in your area.
Open to all in the community, a town hall meeting provides constituents with the opportunity to ask questions, voice their concerns and hear updates from their elected officials. For psoriasis advocates, the town hall meeting is a great way to educate your senator or representative about impact of psoriasis and the need to pass PPARCCA.
Participating in a town hall meeting is easy. Start by, contacting the local district offices of your elected officials to get the dates and times of any upcoming town hall meetings. Remember to ask to be placed their mailing list to receive announcements about future town hall meetings and events.
Before you go
Below is some important information to help prepare you for your meeting:
At the meeting
Upon arriving at the town hall meeting, check to see what the procedure is for the meeting. Typically, there is a sign-up sheet for individuals wanting to ask questions. Put your name of the list. When called on, ask your member of Congress if her or she is willing to support the psoriasis community by helping to pass the PPARCCA bill.
After the meeting
The key to advocacy success is follow up, follow up, follow up. After your town hall meeting, be sure to send a follow-up letter or e-mail to that member of Congress. sending follow-up. If a friend or family member joined you, makre sure they send a follow-up letter as well. Here's a template follow-up letter (Word format) to get you started.
Don't forget to tell us what happened! Let us know what happened during your town hall meeting. It's important we get this information so we can better work with your legislator to gain support for psoriasis-related efforts in Congress.