From pvv@cs.washington.edu Fri Jul 25 13:55:08 1997 Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu (mx5.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.6]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id NAA34264 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:55:08 -0700 Received: from derkins.cs.washington.edu (derkins.cs.washington.edu [128.95.2.106]) by mx5.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.04) with ESMTP id NAA14887 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:55:06 -0700 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by derkins.cs.washington.edu (8.8.5+CS/7.2ws+) with SMTP id NAA25759 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:55:05 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199707252055.NAA25759@derkins.cs.washington.edu> To: uwracing@u.washington.edu Subject: OK Gang, it's letter writing time... Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:55:05 PDT From: Peter VanVleet As most of you are aware, there has been recent attempts to ban road racing in eastern Washington by the State Patrol. Not only are there a lot of good races in eastern Washington, but this is a dangerous predecent. Can you image our collegiate racing season without any races in eastern Washington? The Washington cycling community is responding by asking it's members to write to the Governer, Secretary of Transportation, their State Senator, State Representative(s) and the WSDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager. Email is nice, but for real impact this needs to be on paper. If you live in the U-district you are probably in the 43rd Legislative District. That would mean the your State Senator is: Sen. Pat Thibaudeau (D) 414 John A. Cherberg Building P.O. Box 40482 Olympia, WA 98504-0482 Telephone: (360) 786-7628 Fax: (360) 786-1999 And you can write to both of the Representatives: Rep. Edward B. Murray (D) 336 John L. O'Brien Building Olympia, WA 98504-0600 Telephone: (360) 786-7826 e-mail: murray_ed@leg.wa.gov Rep. Frank Chopp (D) 415 Legislative Building Olympia, WA 98504-0600 Telephone: (360) 786-7920 e-mail: chopp_fr@leg.wa.gov If you are unsure which is your local district, you can find out at http://www.leg.wa.gov/www/legdist.htm by entering your zip code. Below is the email Richard Loftin originally sent out regarding this issue. It outlines what your letter should say and also includes the addresses for the rest of the concerned parties. Please take the time this weekend and next week to sit down, write three paragraphs and mail the copies. I will be personally checking up on you to make sure that you've written a letter, and will pester you endlessly until you do. So just do it. Thanks, Peter ------------ Subject: Help Legalize Competitive Cycling Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 02:17:03 -0700 Howdy folks, The time has come to put your pencils to paper in a concerted effort to let the state government know that we want to explicitly and permanently legalize bicycle racing in the State of Washington. The ideas outlined in this letter came from many sources, but credit especially needs to be given to Phil Miller, Beth Perkins, Steve Rapp, Pete Beall, and Richard Loftin. Thanks for your concern and support, Dave ---***--- Who to write ---***--- Note: Addresses can be found at the bottom of this mailing 1. Governor Gary Locke 2. Secretary of Transportation, Sid Morrison Next, send copies of the above letters to: 3. WSP Chief Annette M. Sandberg 4. Your local state senator and representative 5. WSDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager, Mike Dornfeld ---***--- What to write ---***--- The most important thing in writing a letter to lobby for your cause is to KEEP POSITIVE! We'll try and get a sample letter to this mailing list in the next couple of days. Also, feel free to post your letters or ideas to this mailing list for others to read. Although the unfortunate death of Cooper Jones may have provoked your response, please do not include it as part of your reasoning. Suggested points are outlined below. Points to make: 1. Outlawing road racing would almost certainly kill a sport which is the primary recreational activity of literally thousands of Washington State residents. (FYI, there were 1283 USCF licenses issued in Washington in 1996.) 2. Local events bring money into your community. 3. National level events bring money into the state and bring notoriety to the region (e.g. the Olympic Trials last year were televised nationwide). 4. Cycling provides kids with a safe, healthy recreational opportunity thus "keeping them off the streets" and off of drugs and alcohol. 5. If you come from out of state to Washington to ride or race, mention that _you_ are currently bringing money into the state when attending cycling events. 6. Bicycle racing is a real and legitimate sport. 7. MOST IMPORTANT: Write that you'd like to see bicycle road racing protected in the State of Washington by the passage into law of legislation that explicitly allows for pack style road racing. ---***--- How to write ---***--- Remember, in a case like this, it's much more effective to send snail-mail. I know that for those of us who correspond regularly via e-mail, it's much easier to just click the mouse and fire off a letter to each of above people. However, isn't the prospect of continued road racing worth the slight extra effort of finding an envelope and licking a stamp? Also, letters from racers are great (and necessary) but we also need to solicit letters from other riders and institutions: 1. Clubs and racing teams: a letter on official club letterhead looks great. (If you don't have club letterhead, use your word processor to make some up. Remember, it doesn't have to look fancy). You may want to include the number of members in your club and the name and number of events your club promotes each year. 2. Businesses and business owners that profit when you host a race: It doesn't matter if they sponsor your race or not, if your race brings them increased business, they need to be concerned. Hotels, restaurants, and bike shops are good bets for this. 3. Chambers of commerce: Same thing...if your race brings in revenue to local businesses, they need to be concerned. 4. Anybody else who's willing to write on our behalf: local law enforcement officers, recreation planners, school administrators, or anybody else with the message that "cycling is a good thing." ---***--- Addresses ---***--- Governor Gary Locke Office of the Governor PO Box 40002 Olympia, WA 98504-0002 e-mail: Governor.Locke@Governor.wa.gov ------------------------- Sid Morrison Secretary of Transportation Office of the Secretary Transportation Building PO Box 47300 Olympia, WA 98504-7300 e-mail: info@wsdot.wa.gov (this is a the general WSDOT e-mail address and is thus probably pretty worthless) ------------------------- Chief Annette M. Sandberg Washington State Patrol Office of the Chief PO Box 42600 Olympia, WA 98504-2600 ------------------------- Mike Dornfeld Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager Highways and Local Roadways Division Transportation Building PO Box 47300 Olympia, WA 98504-7300 e-mail: DornfeM@WSDOT.WA.GOV *Thanks to Warren Atkey for this e-mail address ------------------------- Both snail-mail and e-mail addresses for your state senators and state representatives can be found at: http://leginfo.leg.wa.gov/ And if you're like me, you can use this page to look up what district you're in and who your legislators are. Forwarded by Richard Loftin WSBA ~ , _o ~ \ \> _@/_@____ .