Colleagues,
Our advocacy efforts continue to expand and I want to thank all of you who have already stepped up to be a part of them. Together we have sent over 1,700 digital letters to our federal representatives. Additional contacts are also being made through phone calls to representatives from UUP members across the state. UUP is on the forefront of these efforts, and we are continuing to work with our statewide and national affiliates on this important advocacy work.
But we can and must do more. Congress is set to return May 6th to negotiate the next federal aid package, so it is time to ramp-up our communication. I have set a very ambitious goal for us: 10,000 contacts to New York’s Congressional Representatives through digital letters, phone calls, social media, and other means, by June 1st to stress the importance of federal aid for New York.
In order to broaden the size and impact of our advocacy, we have made a minor change to our Action Network letter so that non-members, family, and friends can also contact their representatives in support of New York State. Please continue to encourage everyone that you are in touch with to send a letter, so we can ensure our message is heard. Here is the link to the letter for your convenience to send to your network of family and friends. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/uupcovid19letter/
We have also updated the social media toolkit for the letter and attached it here. In addition to sample posts sharing the letter on your social media pages, the updated toolkit now includes sample messaging to share the letter with other community groups you may be involved with. We’ve also included posts that will allow you to tag representatives directly to express our message and the Twitter usernames for all New York representatives. Please use this in your continued social media advocacy.
SUNY is the lifeblood of so many communities, and together we can utilize all of our coalitions to ensure New York State and SUNY receive the significant resources that only the federal government can deliver at this time.
Thank you for your continued work on this important advocacy. And please take care of yourselves … Stay well!
In solidarity,
Fred