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We received this email from Mike Hartnett, editor of Creative Leisure News. He believes that designers and manufacturers alike need to alert their congressmen to block a bill that would keep designers from being able to reap monetary reward for new product development. As a service to our designers, I am forwarding his e-mail below. He has included information about how to contact your representatives. Good Afternoon, Next week (June 4-5) a group of concerned citizens opposed to the Orphan Works bills in Congress will lobby members of the Senate and House of Representatives. The organizations officially opposed to the legislation are the Craft & Hobby Assn., The National NeedleArts Assn., the Society of Decorative Painters, and a wide range of groups representing artists, designers, photographers, illustrators, and cartoonists. CLN has learned from David Brog, former Chief of Staff for Senator Arlen Specter (R, PA), that to get the attention of a member of Congress, the magic number of communications (phone calls, letters, emails, postcards,etc.) is 1,000. It would be particularly helpful if there were 1,000 or more communications received by the time the lobbying group meets with Senators. All of the members of the House and Senate have an easy, quick way to email them through their websites. Fax and phone numbers will be on the site, too.(If you call, make sure the staffer writes down your name/address.) To send a postcard to your Senator, all you need write is "Please vote NO on S-2913," and your name and address. However, do NOT send it to his/her office in Washington, DC, where it takes as long as two weeks (because of scanning and screening) before it's delivered to the Senator's office. Instead, go to www.senate.gov and click on "Find Your Senator" in the upper right-hand corner. That will lead you to your Senators' websites. There look for the address of a district office (one in your home state) and mail the postcard there. The procedure is similar for contacting members of the House. Go to www.house.gov to be directed to your House member's website. The House version of the bill is H.R. 5889. Again, send it to a local office, not Washington, DC. The Senators who introduced the Senate version are Orrin Hatch (R,UT) and Patrick Leahy (D, VT) Want to join the lobbying effort in Washington in person? (Appointments have been made with various Senators.) For info about the trip and how you can participate, call Joanne Fink or Marisa Shapiro at 407-330-4465 or email graphics@lakeside-design.com. To learn more about the lobbying efforts, visit Brenda Pennick's blog. To learn more about the harm the Orphan Works bills would cause: 1. Go to CLN's site, www.clnonline.com, and read "More on the Orphan Works Bills" in the current issue. 2. Click on Designing Perspectives in the left-hand column. 3. Click on Newsbriefs, also in the left-hand column, and read the May 8 issue. No doubt there will be more on all this in the next issue of CLN, online Monday, June 2. Best wishes, Mike Hartnett |
