On 06/11/2012 04:25, Pete and Carol Gregson wrote:
What we want to do is to make it much easier for folk to use the response, add their own comments- and e-mail the letter to the Council protesting the closure. I know there is software about that can do this- Write-to-them use it on their site. It's not a petition we need, it's a system to help lots of folk (who aren't very used to computing) send the same letter, with a few wee bits they add themselves
Just a point, but if you want the responses to be heard then you need to encourage people to write them entirely in their own words without any pre-filled content. Otherwise, it will be nothing more than a petition, and you've already said you don't want one of those.
Mass email campaigns with identikit content are routinely ignored by politicians, on the basis that if someone doesn't care enough about something to say so in their own words then they probably don't really care much about it at all (or they're just jumping on a bandwagon set rolling by someone else). They only tend to get noticed at all if there is a really large number of them, but in that case they then tend to piss people off as it floods their mailboxes. If you're going for quantity over quality, then a normal petition is far more effective.
When sending direct mail to politicians and governing organisations, a single message in a person's own words - no matter how badly written - is worth a thousand copy-and-paste missives. Paradoxically, providing a pre-set text can be discouraging because most people don't think their own writing will match up to it. You're better off just telling them to use their own words and not to worry about appearing professional and polished.
Incidentally, the letter on your own page is far, far too long. It's fine as a single response from one person who really has considered all the factors mentioned in it, but there's absolutely no point whatsoever sending the same text more than once - each copy received will just be considered a duplicate of the one they already have.
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