july12b.indd


C&RL News July/August 2012  436

Corey Williams is assistant director, ALA Office of 
Government Relations, e-mail: cwilliams@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCorey Williams

Summer advocacy
by Ted Wegner, grassroots coordinator, ALA 
Office of Government Relations, e-mail:  
twegner@alawash.org 
Summertime here in Washington, D.C., is 
always marked with heat and humidity and 
a frenetic July with Congress pushing to act 
(or not) on legislation leading up to their 
annual month-long recess in August. Though 
traffic may dwindle inside the beltway with 
Congress returning to their home districts, 
our work here in ALA’s Washington Office 
does not. 

As such, my colleagues and I would like 
to share ways you can continue to advocate 
on behalf of libraries and the issues we 
champion.  

Keep in mind as we head into the August 
recess, many of your Congressional mem-
bers will be holding town hall meetings in 
your area. Town hall meetings present a 
great opportunity to both inform legislators 
of the work your library does and also ask 
where they stand on issues of importance 
to libraries. 

During the recess, the ALA Washington 
Office will send alerts with talking points 
to Congressional districts where a member 
is holding a town hall meeting in a library. 
There is no better place to ask about librar-
ies than when your legislators are actually 
in them. 

Introducing Mobile Commons for library 
advocacy
In addition, ALA is launching a new advocacy 
tool called Mobile Commons. This service, 
already being used by nonprofits and major 
companies alike, will allow ALA to commu-
nicate advocacy messaging in a quick and 
effective fashion using an innovative texting 
and calling feature. 

How does Mobile Commons work?
Mobile Commons is an opt-in service that 
will allow users to receive text message alerts 
from ALA. These text messages may be strictly 
informative in nature, they may ask a ques-
tion for a poll, or they may ask for legislative 
action through a call alert. 

What is a call alert?
A call alert is a text message that asks you to 
call your legislators on a particular issue. To 
make this easy, Mobile Commons does most 
of the work for you. After receiving an initial 
text from ALA, you simply text back with the 
word call. You will then receive a call from 
ALA where upon answering you will hear 
a recording of talking points for the issue. 
Then, you will be automatically transferred 
to the office of your representative or senator.

You are connected to the right office based 
on the address you enter when you sign up. 

How do I sign up?
There are two ways to sign up:

1) Simply text the word library to 877877 
or

2) Sign up online at districtdispatch.org 
/textalerts.

How often will I receive texts?
ALA respects the time of its members. You 
can expect to receive two or three texts a 
month on average.

Will my information be shared?
ALA does not share member information with 
any third parties. You will only receive text 
messages from ALA pertaining to libraries and 
library advocacy if you opt-in.

Will it cost me money?
You will always have the option to call your 
legislators toll-free through Mobile Commons. 
Depending on your wireless service, standard 
messaging and data rates may apply.