Necessity is the Mother of Invention

There is little doubt as you look around over the past nine days that things in the United States are a bit...well chaotic. Regardless of the political spectrum you land on, and the issues that are important to you, there is much change going on.

What follows is an example of TWO new organizations that have launched in the past nine days to help individuals connect with their legislators and the White House. My disclaimer for this post is that I am intentionally focusing on progressive, liberal organizations. If that bothers you, then you should just stop reading right now, although these organizations can certainly be used by those who support the current policies of the administration.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the "regular person" is to be able to reach out to their legislators. For younger people it can feel daunting -- having to find out who they should reach out to is the first issue. Then, for a generation more focused on email and social media, the concept of "making a call" is not surprisingly worrisome. What do you say? How do you talk with someone in a Senators office? For us older folks, we know what to do (at least I think so), but it still means looking things up. It takes effort. Ok...well maybe not that much effort...but effort nonetheless.

5calls.org

So to fill that void in steps 5calls.org an open source tool launched just about a week ago in order to help individuals make actual phone calls to their legislators. What's particularly awesome about this tool, besides its open source nature and that it was developed by volunteers, is how quickly it connects an individual with their representatives. As I'm writing this they list 155,909 total calls made.

In just a few easy steps I can easily get the information I need to be able to make an effective phone call. Input my zipcode and I'm given a list of issues. Click on the issue that I care about and up comes my first Senator, with their phone number and a script!

Once I make the call I can indicate what happened and get the next call. Also note the ability to Tweet or share on Facebook to spread the word. Great open source tool and very timely.

WhiteHouseInc.org

The second organization is actually really interesting. You might have seen people sharing information about Bernie Sanders setting up a new way for people to call the White House, since the White House comment line has been taken away. Well, in actuality, it isn't Bernie (although it would be awesome if it was) it's the MARKETING FIRM that worked with the Sanders Campaign: Revolution Messaging.

What they've created at whitehouseinc.org (and honestly, it is BRILLIANT) is a way for individuals to actually connect with President Trump through his many business holdings. Their thinking is simple:

When you submit your phone number on the right, you’ll receive a call and be randomly connected to one of Trump’s properties. Don’t be fooled, they’ll ask you to make a reservation or a tee time, but remember, you’re talking to the White House, so use the opportunity to discuss important issues.

In this case, employing a robo-dial tool allows those who are deeply concerned about both the lack of access to the White House comment line AND the President's conflict of interests to effectively take care of both issues at once.

Invention

These are just two interesting examples of entrepreneurship and business meeting social activism at a time when Americans across the world are being challenged to reflect on what it really means to be an American. I'm sure there are others.