Just Like the One You Wrote For Grandma, But on Office Letterhead

My parents always made me write a thank you letter to my grandmother when she sent a gift, even if the gift was a hand- knitted peach angora sweater vest. I hated writing thank you letters and did quite a bit of whining to avoid putting pen to paper.

In the end, no surprise here, mom was right. A timely, genuine and specific thank you letter should follow any meeting you have with an elected official. Write the letter to the elected official, but send it to the staffer who attended the meeting. If you met with them in DC, send the letter to the district office, because everything going to Capitol Hill still gets irradiated and ends up three weeks late, crunchy and brown. If you really must send it to DC, turn it into a pdf and e-mail it.

You should always write a thank you letter to your elected official after a meeting. Even if said elected official gave you the political equivalent of a hand-knitted peach angora sweater vest.