WA Professional Counselors Alliance - Meeting with your legislators.

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Meeting with your legislators.

10 Jul 2007 8:54 PM | Anonymous

Meeting with your legislators. The interim period between legislative sessions is the ideal time to contact your representatives and senator and talk with them about the Registered Counselor issue. We succeeded in stopping bad legislation this past session because we showed up and spoke with our legislators about our own experience. Our presence really contradicted the image of RC's in the press and disproved what lobbyists for the licensed mental health groups were saying about us. There really isn't anything as important as personal contact with your legislators. Ideally we would have a group of RC's in every district meeting with their legislators. Most important is meeting with House Health and Wellness Committee members and House and Senate leadership.

What you can do:

Call your legislators' district offices (Find your legislator at <http://www.leg.wa.gov>) and make an appointment to meet with them. Your legislators really need to meet you in person and hear your side of the story.
Feel a little shy about calling legislators on your own? E-mail WaProCA for support <info@waproca.org> . Those of us who have experience lobbying would be glad to go to a meeting with you (yes all the way over in Spokane or down in Vancouver - anywhere in Washington state!).
Contact your legislators even if you can't attend a meeting. If you are not able to go to a meeting, the interim is a good time to write thoughtful letters to legislators - they may have the time to actually read them. Phone calls are possible too. Last April, one WaProCA member got his senator on the phone for half an hour and turned him around!