contacting your legislators

[Pete]

Hi All - I'm pasting in a lengthy bit... I emailed/sent letters to 7 state reps/senators today and am asking y'all to do the same - the only way we'll get on their radar screen is to start generating buzz... so -
1) please see the letter I wrote (below)
2) please see the suggested letter to send as a follow up (also below)
3) the list of links to emails and one mailing address for a rep w/o email are also listed. If we can get a good number of folks to do this, we'll start to generate some buzz.

after a week's time, we'll send more information to these seven and request a meeting. I'll contact Bob, et al at the RRGCC and see who wants to play politics w/ me and am counting on Morgain for her support and ideas.

so, MICHELLE/RAY if you think it is good to go ahead and post this on the main page/forum, that's fine with me - or if you want to keep it in here...whatever, just as long as we can get a good stack of letters/emails to each of these guys in a week.

here's my letter, a suggested follow up, and the contact info:
WOLFE COUNTY STATE REPS and SENATOR:
1. Representative John Will Stacy - Frankfort Office - Capitol Annex, Room 316B, Frankfort, KY 40601 (no email, please mail your letter)
2. Representative Adrian Arnold�s email: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/hsedistricts/h074/h074.htm
3. Senator Robert Stivers: robert.stivers@lrc.ky.gov

OTHERS TO WRITE AS WELL:

1. REP BRANDON SMITH (Perry County, but rumored to be a climber!) - http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/H084.htm
2. DR. Daniel Mongiardo � has expressed past interest: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/s030.htm
3. SENATOR TOM JENSEN (Powell County) http://lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/S021.htm
4. Dr. Teddy Edmonds (he�s from Jackson)

LETTER I WROTE:
Dear <name>:
I'm writing to discuss with you a project that is currently underway in Wolfe County, KY. Writing today is timely, as the Lexington Herald Leader had an article on a similar topic in the news today (http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/13696718.htm).

The project I'm writing to you about is the acquisition of a 700 acre tract of land in Wolfe County by the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition (herein RRGCC) - the property is named the Pendegrass-Murray Recreational Preserve. The RRGCC purchased the property in 2004 in an effort to create a multi-sport recreational preserve for outdoor enthusiasts from KY and beyond. The property is widely known for its world class rock climbing (I'd be happy to provide you with further articles, etc. about this) and has attracted adventure-tourists/rock climbers from around the world since climbing was first established in the area in the mid-1990s.

The RRGCC is a small non-profit with no paid staff and an all volunteer Board of Directors and volunteer core. We are currently in the process of raising the requisite $200,000 (which breaks down to something like $360/acre) to pay off the balance of the mortgage owed on the property.

We feel that this Recreational Preserve is an investment that can help to further develop tourism, specifically outdoor recreation, in Wolfe and surrounding counties. We have some preliminary data that begins to quantify the amount of money rock climbers spend in the area each visit, and the numbers are impressive.

I am very interested in talking with you, and others in the House and Senate, about ways that we might be able to access some of KY's Tourism and Tourism Development funding to help with the acquisition of this amazing resource. I've shared this information with several other Representatives and Senators that represent the Wolfe-Powell-Lee County area and hope that we will be able meet to discuss opportunities that might be available and mutually beneficial.

Many Thanks for your Time and Consideration,

Diane N. Loeffler
Fund Development Volunteer for the RRGCC, Inc.

SAMPLE COMPLIMENTARY LETTER TO SEND:

Dear <name>:

Recently, my colleague, Diane Loeffler, wrote to you about the unique opportunity that is developing in Wolfe County, the Pendegrass-Murray Recreational Preserve. This Preserve is a 700 acre tract of recreational land that is being purchased by the Red River Gorge Climbers� Coalition (RRGCC), a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Kentucky�s land for rock climbing and related outdoor activities such as Mountain Biking, Hiking, Nature Walks, Bird Watching, Nature Photography, Orienteering, Adventure Racing, etc.

The RRGCC is in the process of raising the requisite $200,000 to fully fund the purchase of this property and we are very interested in talking with Kentucky�s lawmakers about the possibility of accessing state Tourism and Economic Development funds to assist with the land purchase.

While rock climbing may be viewed as a sport that appeals to only a small minority, this is not the case. Each year, thousands visit Wolfe, Lee, and Powell counties to participate in the world-class climbing that the area offers. We feel that by securing the purchase of this preserve we will be making a substantial contribution to Eastern Kentucky�s Tourism and Economic Development future.

Please see the recent article in the Herald Leader about another privately owned climbing preserve, also in Wolfe County, for a better understanding of how the sport and the community positively impact the area - http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/13696718.htm

We look forward to meeting with legislators and beginning to develop a partnership that is mutually beneficial to the state and outdoor enthusiasts alike.

Sincerely,

do what you want to to change this, but the message about economic development/tourism needs to be the selling factor...

[Artsay]

I'll get the sample letters up tonight and post a message. Thanks, Diane! Great work!

[Spragwa]

Those are great letters Diane! Fantastic work.

I strongly recommend that we develop a strategy for contacting legislators that include attaching letters from their constituency. My experience is that until we show them how this benefits their constituents, we won't get much attention.

While you may get some interest from Rep. Stacy and perhaps Dr. Mongiardo from cold-contact letters, the rest of them will probably send you a form letter thanking you or an aide might call to tell you that the congressman is "taking your concerns under serious consideration." This is especially true during this legislative session, which is difficult and contentious already.

That's just my opinion on how we should best approach them.

[Spragwa]

What I forgot to mention (lots of this going around for me) is that I will happily contact the owners of the Shell Station, Chevron, Koops, Marathon (near Skybridge) to ask them if they will sign a letter of support that we could attach to letters to the congressmen. I will ask Jeff Kennedy, Miguel and the Tacketts too!

So, if people are already sending the letters out, then maybe after I get these together, we can attach them later.

[Pete]

Morgain, Great point about getting local support - I think that we need to revisit the idea of profiles of local businesses that benefit from the climbing industry - i.e. RRO, Logo Linda, Miguel, the Shell, Beer Trailer (why not?), etc. - Please do contact folks and work on letters of support - I'm happy to help as time allows.

Also, I agree that the "cold call" approach may not be the best, but it is a start - if we can get enough letters to them, they'll have to at least acknowledge that there is something going on - it will sensitize them - and then maybe we work on making contact w/ one of them. Do you know the guy from Perry County? He's supposedly a climber/outdoorsy guy, so may be someone to start with?

Keep giving us ideas/feedback on how to get to them!

[the lurkist]

I spoke with Matt yesterday. He is going to contact the Red River Chamber of Commerce and hopefully we can get an invite to the Feb meeting to address them. This makes sense following what Steve Matous said and also Morgain's advice of making out pitch real to the local state reps. We get the local Chamber of Commerces to pitch to their local Reps and suddenly it is meaningful to these Reps. I think we can repeat the process with the Lee Co. Chamber of Commerce (which Robert Stamper used to be and perhaps still is the president of) Hmmm...

[Spragwa]

Oh another recommendation I would make is to broaden our approach in representatives. In looking at a map yesterday, I'm pretty sure that there is climbing in Wolfe, Lee, Estill (Lago Linda is here I think so it's not climbing but a business that is impacted) and Menifee counties. I'll check the legislator's web site and get the info we need.

Also, Mia Seversen is going to help draft a form letter for businesses to sign out of support. Once we have it drafted, we can tailor the letter to area reps and large corps. So from the Shell we can have them sign 4 letters. One to their rep, on to their Senator, one to Mr. Lawson and one to Hinkle Construction.

Today I'm contacting WLEX too. I spoke with Whitney Boland last night. I may ask her to do a brief article on the history of the property so that if the press is interested we can hand them her work while we walk the property.

Any suggestions?

[RRO]

I emailed the local Chamber of Commerce, Tourist Division and a local investment firm about setting up a meeting and discussing what we have going on. There is a lot of pull with this group in the local economy and politics. When I have a date set up I would like to have a couple people come out with me. Who would be interested in helping design a presentation and presenting it?

Would also love to help write letters. Are we going to have a "canned" letter for business?

[Paul3eb]

i would be interested. what time frame are you looking at? if anyone else is interested, too, step up cause i can't completely commit to it just yet..

[RRO]

Anyone have Larry Riddles contact information ? He has pull in Wolf county and is very interested in tourism.

The Commerce meetings are usually the third Tuesday of each month. Tourism Board varies. I hope to hear from them soon and will keep ya posted.