14 replies to this topic

[brokenportal]

This is a topic for working with matching offers to contact government representatives about the cause.

Offer whatever deal you want and then wait until it is matched and go through with it.

Representatives listen. They want to know what the people think. They get elected by the people and so work to please them. Ive heard of many cases where a representative will have to make a decision on some relatively obscure issue and will make the decision based on 5 favorable or disfavorable letters they got about it because thats all they really had to go on for the pulse of the publics opinion. Lets do this.

You can find your represenatives contact info quickly and easily at these links:

U.S. https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

U.K. http://www.writetothem.com/

(send me links to other countries reps like these and Ill add them)

 congress.jpg   180.65KB   1 downloads  congress_r.jpg   126.59KB   1 downloads

Edited by brokenportal, 13 March 2010 - 04:34 AM.

[brokenportal]

I will mail out three letters in support of the cause to 3 different government representatives if 3 other people match this offer with 3 apeice. You have to agree to either call or snail mail them though. No email on this offer. I dont think email gets through as well.

[sUper GeNius]

I will mail out three letters in support of the cause to 3 different government representatives if 3 other people match this offer with 3 apeice. You have to agree to either call or snail mail them though. No email on this offer. I dont think email gets through as well.

I'd be interested in seeing a copy of the letters. It might not be easy to distinguish ourselves from kooks, when he starts hearing 'immortality' and cryogenics, particularly the type (partial) one our members is currently looking to get.

It would be good if the leadership makes available a few sample letters for our use. Also might be a good idea to 'ease' the representative into this. Start with talking about supplements like resveratrol and living another 20 *healthy* years. More years to vote for him! Ease into the 200+ lifespans.

How about having the rep come and do a chat?

Edited by FuLL meMbeR, 23 February 2009 - 04:41 PM.

[brokenportal]

I will mail out three letters in support of the cause to 3 different government representatives if 3 other people match this offer with 3 apeice. You have to agree to either call or snail mail them though. No email on this offer. I dont think email gets through as well.

I'd be interested in seeing a copy of the letters. It might not be easy to distinguish ourselves from kooks, when he starts hearing 'immortality' and cryogenics, particularly the type (partial) one our members is currently looking to get.

It would be good if the leadership makes available a few sample letters for our use. Also might be a good idea to 'ease' the representative into this. Start with talking about supplements like resveratrol and living another 20 *healthy* years. More years to vote for him! Ease into the 200+ lifespans.

How about having the rep come and do a chat?

I trust that most people can come up with a pretty good letter. I dont expect that most of us will be using the word immortality.

Its actually really easy to distinguish ourselves from kooks because we arent kooks, people that cant see that technology is progressing to the point where we have a great chance to clean up the things that cause us to age are kooks. Dont worry, most people arent hard pressed to beleive things that may initially seem far out there. Remember, alot of these people already beleive in the magnanimous invisible man in the sky.

I know what you mean though, its a good idea to try to ween them in to the idea if we can, but its not neccessary. Let them scoff it the first couple of times they hear about it. They say that a person has to hear about something new from around 3 credible sources before they start to beleive it. By just cracking the idea open in their head through letters, we will be opening up their, I forget what its called....Theres a name for it in psychology. Its the thing where like, if you drive a blue saturn, when your driving around, your more likely to notice all the other blue saturns.

By at least mentioning it to them we are uping their odds of noticing and checking it out the next time they get a letter about it, or see it in a magazine or in a news blurb or whatever.

So to everybody, write everything you want, jotted down or thoroughly proffesional, any well intentioned thought through letter is good. Attach your letters here if you want so others can use them as templates.

Edited by brokenportal, 23 February 2009 - 08:00 PM.

[sUper GeNius]

I know what you mean though, its a good idea to try to ween them in to the idea if we can, but its not neccessary. Let them scoff it the first couple of times they hear about it.

I disagree. First impressions are everything. We make the wrong impression, and we'll be written off. I think any initial contact ought to be well thought out, and that's why I suggested the leadership draft a template.

Any Directors reading this? Please chime in.

Edited by FuLL meMbeR, 23 February 2009 - 08:13 PM.

[brokenportal]

The more well written the better, I agree. But a lot of politicians will be gotten through to differently, some short and to the point, some long and detailed. My point is lets contact them. Silence, no letters, is going to kill us a lot faster than even badly written letters. But what Im saying is that I trust that the majority of members around here taking up this offer will write decent to great letters.

Your right, for people writing specifically about the Immortality Institute then a draft letter should be drawn up. It doesnt have to be about the Immortality Institute though. It can be about the cause in general.

[thefirstimmortal]

This is a topic for working with matching offers to contact government representatives about the cause.

Why are you contacting them for the cause? What is it that you expect or want them to do?

[brokenportal]

Alright, Ill write to every representative in my state about this 2011 NIH fund urging that Michael goes over, if I can get 2 other people to write to 8 apeice.

You can use the template Michael links to here.

Following is the template in full. I would reword it entirely, using conservative lingo, as suggested. For example consider using Longevity Communities Network, Imminst, (not Immortality Institute or ImmInst) SENS, ending aging, restoration and maintenance of function etc.. At the furthest out I would suggest going only as far as indefinite or unlimited lifespans, but not forever or immortality. I would send it from your own email rather than where ever that template sends from.

As your constituent, I urge you to support $35 billion for the National Institutes of Health in FY 2011. We must invest aggressively in NIH to seize the scientific opportunity that will make our nation healthier and strengthen our leadership in the innovation economy. There are two important actions to take right now.

First, please sign the letter being circulated by Representatives Edward Markey, Janice Schakowsky, Rush Holt, Susan Davis, Joe Courtney and Jackie Speier in support of increased funding for NIH in FY 2011.

Second, please submit a Program Level Request of $35 billion for the NIH.

To do so, go to the online system and select “Program Level Request.” Then enter the following in each of the fields below.

Subcommittee – Labor, Health and Human Services and Education

Agency – Department of Health & Human Services

Account – National Institutes of Health

Priority –

Program – National Institutes of Health

Describe Program Request – Increase the annual appropriation for NIH to $35 billion to capitalize on scientific opportunity to make our nation healthier and maintain U.S. leadership in the emerging knowledge-based economy.

Request Amount – $35 billion

Thank you for being a champion for research to improve health.

Also, please do consider making your own matching pledge here. Ill donate $100 to Imminst if we reach 100 pledges. Does anybody want to up that offer?

[bacopa]

Alright, Ill write to every representative in my state about this 2011 NIH fund urging that Michael goes over, if I can get 2 other people to write to 8 apeice.

You can use the template Michael links to here.

Following is the template in full. I would reword it entirely, using conservative lingo, as suggested. For example consider using Longevity Communities Network, Imminst, (not Immortality Institute or ImmInst) SENS, ending aging, restoration and maintenance of function etc.. At the furthest out I would suggest going only as far as indefinite or unlimited lifespans, but not forever or immortality. I would send it from your own email rather than where ever that template sends from.

As your constituent, I urge you to support $35 billion for the National Institutes of Health in FY 2011. We must invest aggressively in NIH to seize the scientific opportunity that will make our nation healthier and strengthen our leadership in the innovation economy. There are two important actions to take right now.

First, please sign the letter being circulated by Representatives Edward Markey, Janice Schakowsky, Rush Holt, Susan Davis, Joe Courtney and Jackie Speier in support of increased funding for NIH in FY 2011.

Second, please submit a Program Level Request of $35 billion for the NIH.

To do so, go to the online system and select “Program Level Request.” Then enter the following in each of the fields below.

Subcommittee – Labor, Health and Human Services and Education

Agency – Department of Health & Human Services

Account – National Institutes of Health

Priority –

Program – National Institutes of Health

Describe Program Request – Increase the annual appropriation for NIH to $35 billion to capitalize on scientific opportunity to make our nation healthier and maintain U.S. leadership in the emerging knowledge-based economy.

Request Amount – $35 billion

Thank you for being a champion for research to improve health.

Also, please do consider making your own matching pledge here. Ill donate $100 to Imminst if we reach 100 pledges. Does anybody want to up that offer?

So we want more funding for the NIH, which is great, but who says that money, if any, will go to our particular agenda? I would think we have to really sell our idea and talk about MF, SENS, and all the media extreme longevity has gotten recently. Actually there was a spot on NPR and I caught the tail end but I'm pretty sure my dad said they talked about lifespans upwards to 1000 years, so I assume they mentioned Aubrey.

So you mention, "make nation healthier and better," but where can we slide in SENS, indefinite lifespan, MF, or anything else showing our intended purpose?

I will definitely agree to send some letters out, but I would recommend that we discuss how we will word the letters to change it to our agenda/s. I think we are thrusting too quickly down this road without an agreed upon template.

We shouldn't, imo, just one day decide to rewrite a normal letter to our agenda without further discussion. I'm including this edit as I didn't look to see how old this topic was.

Edited by dfowler, 19 March 2010 - 04:44 AM.

[brokenportal]

I got another person to write.

Fowler the deadline is coming up. Inject a line or two about indefinite life extension or leave it as is. An increase in billions for the NIH is good for aging research no matter what way we look at it.

[bacopa]

I got another person to write.

Fowler the deadline is coming up. Inject a line or two about indefinite life extension or leave it as is. An increase in billions for the NIH is good for aging research no matter what way we look at it.

ok will do, it's too bad more people didn't get on this we could have really brainstormed better for this deadline, obviously not your fault.

[bacopa]

Done!

I put in the letter, organ transplants and rejuvenation therapies as ways to increase lifespan, for the more short to medium term, obviously rejuvenation therapies will be long term as well.

Edited by dfowler, 19 March 2010 - 05:55 AM.

[brokenportal]

Whereas templates are nice, and eliminating bad language in letters and communication is good, its not essential. This cause is of course, much much less like a business and much much more like a grass roots peoples cause/movement.

[donjoe]

Whereas templates are nice, and eliminating bad language in letters and communication is good, its not essential. This cause is of course, much much less like a business and much much more like a grass roots peoples cause/movement.

Has anyone ever considered a breadth-first approach to funding life extension (or anything else for that matter)? Why does it always have to be "Hey, individual! Donate as much as you possibly can from your own personal money."? That just makes people feel powerless to change anything with their few pennies' worth. Why not "Look, this is how much we want to donate right now to this specific cause, this is how many of us there are, so this is how much each individual will have to give. If YOU get on board, the necessary individual donation can drop a little and if you bring 10 more friends on board, it will drop even lower. So come on and make this an easily achievable total by bringing in as many people as you can."

Then, after you build a donor base as large as you can, you can later make more daring calls like "This is really crucial, this will cure all cancers forever, so please each of you donate as much as you possibly can." etc.

I think it's easy to see that building a large follower base is more important as a first step than getting a few people to give you as much as they individually can.

[Alex Libman]

I will not support any organization that lobbies the government for anything except liberty.

As it stands now, the government is longevity's greatest enemy, and any offers to help it will not be sincere!