ugh, ACLU, be more effective

March 15 I got an email from the ACLU of Massachusetts saying (in part):

Join our webinar on Wednesday, March 21st at 7 p.m. to learn how you can fight for Paid Family and Medical Leave in 2018.

The ACLU is proud to fight in this important battle to protect families across the Commonwealth, but we need your help to pass Paid Family and Medical Leave legislation (H.2172 & S.1048)!

Through the webinar, you'll learn about why Paid Family and Medical Leave is so important to workers in Massachusetts. You'll gain the tools to build a movement in your community, with the support of the ACLU behind you.

Can't make the webinar? You can still sign up! We will follow up to provide you with the information you need to join the campaign.

We are determined to win paid leave this year, and to work towards making women's economic equality a reality in Massachusetts. We need your help to mobilize our communities to make sure these bills get through the State House!

I don't really like webinars as a way to obtain information, and I had a church Council meeting that night anyway, so I checked the "I can’t join the webinar, but keep me updated!" box and yet I still got reminder notifs being like, "can you make this webinar?"

They hadn't linked to the .gov page for the bills, but I Googled and found that H. 2172 was "Referred to Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development," as was S. 1048. So the information I wanted was whether I should be contacting the members of that committee (and if so, what's my ask?), or if I should just be contacting my own legislators (asking them to push for it to get out of committee? asking them to vote for it once it comes before the whole body? asking them to co-sponsor it?) with some sample phone scripts.

March 22 they sent an email Subject "Next steps for Fighting for Paid Family and Medical Leave in MA" which said:

We’re sorry you missed our webinar on our Fight for Paid Family and Medical Leave in Massachusetts. On our webinar we talked about how adopting paid family and medical leave will make it so employees don’t have to make the cruel choice between caring for their loved ones or losing their job and risking financial ruin. If you want to learn more about paid family and medical leave in Massachusetts, check out our website.

Our next step is for kickoff house parties to happen in communities all across Massachusetts on April 3rd.

and went on to talk at length about kickoff parties.

So I clicked on "check out our website" and it has a "Take Action With People Power" list which contains:

• Download the Action Guide
  
• Host a kickoff meeting
  
• Find events near you
  
• Send an email to your legislator

I clicked on the "Send an email to your legislator," and it's a form email -- which is the least effective method! (I have learned from folllowing editoremilye on Twitter. Sure, if you can't call, email, but modify it so it's your own words; form letters get basically ignored.) It ends with "I urge you to actively support this legislation and ask leadership to move it to the floor for a vote this session." which okay, that was basically all I needed -- I'm supposed to contact my legislators and make that ask of them. It should not be this hard to find that information.