[Mn-abs] NFB of Minnesota's 2009 Day At The Capital

[Jennifer Dunnam]

To All Minnesota Federationists:

Our annual Day at the Capitol will take place on January 21.  This is the day when Federationists from all over the state make our presence and our issues known at the Minnesota Legislature, and we need you to come and be a part of it.   Below is the information you'll need in order to be ready for the day. (Please note that there are a few time differences from previous years--read on for details).

Before January 21, please do three things:
(1) Know who your senator and representative are.  You can find out by either calling House information at 651-296-2146 and telling them your address, or by going to http://geo.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/districts/start.html 
and entering your address.

(2) Make an appointment to meet on January 21 with your representative and senator.  You can find their contact information at the website or phone number above.  Please make the appointments no earlier than 8:45 a.m. 

(3) Call Judy Sanders at 612-375-1625, to tell her with whom and what times your appointments have been scheduled.  She will be coordinating the schedule for the day and organizing teams so that no one has to go to a legislator's office alone.  Those of you who live in districts where there are many other Federationists living as well will want to coordinate with one another and/or check with Judy ahead of time to see if an appointment has already been made with your legislator.

On January 21:

Our headquarters for the day will be in room 500 South in the State Office building, located at 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Blvd in St. Paul. 500 South is just across from the elevators as you get off on the Fifth floor.  Someone will be in the room all day to watch our belongings and to perform other coordinating tasks.  Unlike in previous years, we will need to be out of the room by 2:00.  We'll still be able to see legislators after that, however, and we will have a plan for another station where someone can watch belongings and coordinate.  Further details to come.

The day begins at 8:15 A.M.  with the reading of the fact sheet and discussion of the issues we will be talking about with our legislators, as well as other logistics and questions you may have about the day.  Please arrive promptly so we can get started right at 8:15. After going over the issues together, we will divide up into teams.  Each team will be given a stack of index cards with location information for the offices of the legislators and appointment times.  Teams will go around the state office building and the Capitol to meet with as many legislators as we can.  We will also be distributing our fact sheet to legislators who are not available to meet with us.

Please make plans to attend our Day at the Capitol--our legislators need to see us in full force and to be informed about the issues important to blind Minnesotans.  Even if you cannot be with us for the entire day, your help is needed for whenever you can be there.  

I look forward to seeing you all on January 21, 2009!  If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail!