How to Complete The
Congressional Club Letters

The letter that is to be used by each club (including ARES groups) to request that their Representative and Senators support and co-sponsor H.R. 1094/S. 459 can be found at this link: https://send-a-letter.org/clubletter.docx. Clicking on the link will download a copy of the letter to your computer in Word format.

Thank you for participating in the ARRL legislative grass-roots campaign supporting H.R.1094 and S.459, the legislation that is intended to eliminate all HOA restrictions on Amateur Radio.

Please follow these instructions very carefully. It is very important that the correct Congressional individuals are selected and addressed, and that appropriate references to each person and each bill are also correct. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact ARRL Director John Robert Stratton, N5AUS. His email is N5AUS@n5aus.com, his telephone number is 512-445-6262.

Instructions

  1. The purpose of the attached letter is to create three letters — one to the appropriate U.S. Representative for the Club, and one to each of the Club’s two Senators.
  2. The first step is to determine the correct name of the U.S. Representative for the Congressional District in which the Club has its official address, or if it does not have an official address, the address of its primary meeting location. You will also need to determine the correct name of each of the Senators for the state in which your Club is located.
  3. Determining the correct names of the Club’s Representative and Senators is easy. Go to: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. Enter the Club’s address, and the website will identify your Representative and each of your Senators.
  4. The enclosed letter, in Word format, has alternative entries highlighted in RED. If your letter is to a Representative, choose — “U.S. House of Representatives”, “H.R. 1094” and “Representative” as the salutation.
  5. If your letter is to your Senator (you need to create a separate letter for each Senator) choose — “U.S. Senate”, “S. 459” and “Senator” as the salutation.
  6. If your club has a letterhead or a logo, please insert it at the top of the letter. Please also insert the date of your letter.
  7. The letters may be signed by one officer or multiple Club officers — that is your choice. Please ensure that each officer’s name, signature, email address, and phone number are on each letter.
  8. Print out each of the three letters.
  9. Ensure that all signatures are signed in ink on each letter.
  10. Use a scanner or a smartphone scanner app to create a separate PDF scan of each letter. Please DO NOT create jpegs; jpegs have to be converted to PDFs before they can be delivered, and this extra step greatly delays the delivery of your letters.
  11. It would be very helpful if you were to use a standard naming convention for each PDF of the three letters: “Representative Name/Senator Name — Name of Your Club — State”. This is the format we use when we forward the letters to the Washington lobbyists — it makes it easier for them to determine to whom the letters should be delivered.
  12. Email the three separate signed PDF’s to: Director John Robert Stratton at N5AUS@n5aus.com for review and delivery to Congress.
  13. Please do not send these three letters directly to Congress — because all mail to Congress is subjected to strict security protocols, it is likely the letters will not reach their intended addressee for months — thus rendering your efforts useless.
  14. The contents of the club letter were created and approved by the ARRL’s legislative team and the ARRL’s lobbyists. If you wish to state the number of members in your club in the first paragraph, you may do so, but are not required to do so. Otherwise, except for the “red highlighted” options, no other part of this letter may be modified. It is designed to address the matters our lobbyists believe must be addressed for the letters to be effective and for that reason must remain as drafted.
  15. If you have any questions, please contact ARRL HQ or Director Stratton (N5AUS@n5aus.com or 512-445-6262).