Advocates at Home

I love my Congressman, but seriously, it shouldn't be this hard to schedule a 15 minute meeting with him.

Original Message

From: Foxy

To: Congressional Scheduler

Date: April 12, 2011

Subject: Request for a meeting with Assemblyember Awesome

Hi Scheduler, 

I would like to request a brief 15-30 minute meeting with

Assemblymember Awesome to discuss the disease of infertility. I am

available to meet at your local office at the convenience of the

Assemblymember. Once we have scheduled a time to meet, I will share

our appointment with RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, so

that others may join in this meeting.

Infertility is a major life crisis for 1 in 8 couples. For these women

and men fighting the disease of infertility, the infertility

experience involves many losses for the individuals, their loved ones

and society as a whole. Because infertility often involves major

personal life issues and decisions, it is often experienced as a

private matter and is not ordinarily discussed in public forums. The

personal nature of the infertility experience contributes to the

failure of the public, politicians, healthcare professionals and the

media to recognize infertility as a disease. This causes a lack of

sound knowledge and available resources about infertility. Additional

facts about infertility can be found on the RESOLVE website at:

http://www.resolve.org/about/fast-facts-about-fertility.html

Thank you so much for your assistance in making this appointment.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Foxy

Reply #1

Dear Mrs Foxy,

Mr. Awesome is a Member of Congress.  He has not served in the California Assembly since 1993.  Did you want to meet with your current Assemblymember?  That would be Mr. Fabulous, and he has a local office: 867-5309.

Reply #2

How embarrassing Ms. Scheduler.

To be honest, I am more than a little nervous about this appointment
and advocating for this issue that has been such a painful private
struggle for my family.

I know very well that Mr  Awesome represents us in Congress, and most
certainly desire to meet with the Congressman.  Please forgive my
blunder.

Sincerely, Foxy

Reply #3

Mrs. Foxy,

My apoligies--I did not mean to embarrass you, just wanted to be sure to direct you to the correct office, as we handle federal issues and Fabulous handles State issue.  I won't really know until you tell me what the problem is, so if you would feel more comfortable just coming to our office and talking privately with me, I'll be happy to meet with you.

Reply #4

Hi Ms. Scheduler,

The purpose of this meeting with Congressman Awesome is simply to raise awareness about infertility. April 24-30 is National Infertility Awareness Week and RESOLVE The National Infertility Association is promoting legislation that would create a tax for the out of pocket costs incurred for the medical treatment of infertility.  

I am available to meet at the convenience of the Congressman, and don't expect that we would need more than 15-30 minutes.

My apologies for all the confusion!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Foxy

Reply #5

Hi Ms. Scheduler,

I didn't hear back from you and just wanted to check-in. 

I would like to request a brief 15-30 minute meeting with

Congressman Farr to discuss the disease of infertility. I am

available to meet at your local office at the convenience of the

Congressman. Once we have scheduled a time to meet, I will share

our appointment with RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, so

that others may join in this meeting.

Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Foxy

Reply #6

Thanks for the reminder—I did not forget you, but the days he will be here in May are already pretty full.  It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, putting all the pieces together.  I will come up with a couple of dates and times, so you can work out the best one for your group.  It may be end of June-July.

Don’t hesitate to keep bugging me about it – I won’t mind at all.  Just please understand that his calendar is a moving target and changes sometimes happen.   

Reply #7

Sounds great. 

Thanks so much Ms. Scheduler.

I look forward to getting a date on the calendar, even if it is a ways out.

Phone Call #1

Hi Ms. Scheduler, This is Mrs. Foxy. We'd been exchanging emails for some time and I was hoping that we could get a meeting date on the calendar.

Oh hi Foxy, um yeah, his calendar is really full this month.

Thats okay, I don't mind setting a date in the future. I'd just like to get something on the calendar.

Lets see here, He is booked until August and I won't start making appointments until later in May. 

An appointment in August would be fine. I understand that he is busy, but would just like to get a brief meeting scheduled. 

Well they say that the squeaky wheel gets the worm, so how about I schedule you for August 29th?

Sounds great. I really appreciate your help.

Seriously? It shouldn’t be that hard to meet for 15 minutes with the voice that represents me in Congress. 

If you can’t attend Advocacy Day in Washington DC on May 5th, please consider making an appointment to meet with your local congressman. RESOLVE has an awesome toolkit with all of the talking points.