Advocate for Universal Changing Places
Contact Your Legislators
Legislators are busy people with demanding schedules and thousands of constituents, so learning how to best communicate with them will make you more effective.
Listed below are tips for making effective contact with state lawmakers, and more tips, from legislators themselves, are available for the Florida House and the Florida Senate.
General talking points for Universal Changing Places are available on the Talking Points page of this site.
Find Your Legislator
Find your State House, State Senate, U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate representatives:
Email or Regular Mail
- Emailing your Representative and Senator about this issue is VERY IMPORTANT to Universal Changing Places.
- It is easy to do, for information on each legislator, including their office addresses, is available through Online Sunshine, the official website of the Florida Legislature.
- Let the legislator you are contacting know you are a constituent and a Universal Changing Places Supporter!
- Tell them why the issue you're addressing is important to you and the legislator's hometown district.
- Stick to one issue per email or letter.
- Keep your correspondence brief and concise to better ensure it gets read.
- You are welcome to use the language provided by Universal Changing Places exactly as it's been written, but it is more effective if your message is done in your own words or includes personal comments.
- Keep a positive tone and thank the legislator for considering your position.
- Let Universal Changing Places know about your communication by contacting Sabrina Kimball @ [email protected] or (850) 408-8586.
Meeting with Legislators
- Information on each legislator, including their office addresses, is available through Online Sunshine, the official website of the Florida Legislature.
- State lawmakers are often easier to reach and less hurried when they are in their hometown offices, as opposed to their Tallahassee offices.
- If you should meet with a legislator in Tallahassee, especially during the legislative session, expect to only see them for a few minutes. Also, legislators are often delayed by circumstances beyond their control. Patience is important!
- Instead of meeting with a legislator, you may meet with an aide. Legislative aides are knowledgeable and influential assistants who will deliver your message to the legislator, so please do not consider a meeting with an aide to be a waste of time.
- Let the legislator or aide you meet with know you are a constituent and a Universal Changing Places supporter.
- It is generally more effective when meetings pertain to a single issue and the key point of that issue is gotten too quickly.
- Should the legislator or aide you meet with ask a question you cannot answer, please let them know you will get back to them and contact Universal Changing Places for an answer.