Copy this and fill in the blanks and paste in your email!!
DATE: October 21, 2009
TO: Four Lakes Metal Detecting Club
FROM: Amy Winters, Contract Lobbyist
RE: Metal Detecting Bill Draft and Next Steps
First, thanks to everyone for your patience through the process of getting our bill drafted, it has taken a bit
longer than expected, but I think our final product is a great one!
The drafting attorney is currently going through one last round of modifications/clarifications which we expect
to be done next week, but we wanted to get you what we have at this point so you can see where we are and we
can start to get moving on our grassroots support. Along with the bill draft, I have attached a sheet explaining
the modifications currently being drafted as well as some issue areas that we may need to address or
compromise on as we move this through the legislative process.
We have worked very hard to get what we believe is a really solid draft that will give you much more rights
than you had previously under the DNRs permit system prior to the policy change last fall. We have given very
broad rights to metal detectors, while also trying to insure that other recreational groups are not infringed upon
(or feel that they may be).
It is now, finally, time for you to get involved! We are at the point where we need you to contact your own
legislators and legislators who are on the committees these bills will be referred to, to ask them to sign on as a
co-sponsor of the bill. Once a legislator signs on to co-sponsor a bill, it is an almost certain guarantee of their
support through the legislative process, so the more that sign on the better!! I have attached lists of the
committee members and their contact information.
If you do not already know who your own legislator is, you can go to the Capitol Strategies website at
www.capitol-strategies.net, go to Get Involved, and click on Who Are My Legislators. Please make these
contacts, it is very important that we start to get a strong groundswell on the issue and we need numbers,
numbers, numbers!! Please do not think that everyone else will do it, we need your involvement!
Phone Calls: Please call your legislators and the legislators on the attached committee lists to ask for their
support. I YOUR NAME the legislator or their staff, you can also call after hours
and leave a message on voice mail. All you have to do to ask
Representative/Senator ________ to sign onto Senator
They will probably ask for your name, address and phone number, which you should provide to them, you can
then thank them and say you look forward to hearing from them.
P.O. Box 771 Madison, WI 53701 Phone: 608 235-8443 Fax: 608 237-2244
www.capitol-strategies.net amywinters@capitol-strategies.net
If you are leaving a voice mail, make sure to give your name, address and phone number along with the request
Emails: You can also send emails; put Recreational Metal Detecting Bill on the Reference line and in the body
of the email say something to the effect of: Dear Representative/Senator _________ please sign onto Senator
. Make sure you include your name address and phone number. (if
you make contact by email, please bcc me on the email and make sure it is a bcc and not a cc; my email address
is
amywinters@capitol-strategies.net).
Also, If you do provide additional information on the issue, please keep it at the recreational metal detecting
restoration of the ability to metal detect in state parks which was taken away by the DNR last fall with no public
Please stay calm and professional in your communications, we definitely do not want to be perceived as
an emotional reactionary group, but rather an articulate, responsible and mature recreational group.
We will be working on talking points for everyone to use, but at this point we would just like you to ask the
legislators to sign on to the bill and make sure it is hitting their radar. We will be doing another round of
communications after the bill is introduced and we have the bill number (Right now it is only referenced by a
Legislative Reference Bureau draft number LRB 2682/4, which you can tell legislators if they ask for it).
When the bill is introduced it will have both a Senate Bill number and an Assembly Bill number, it will then be
referred to a standing committee in each house of the legislature. These committees will then schedule and hold
public hearings on the bill, we will need a lot of bodies at those hearings and several who are willing to
speak/testify. If you are willing to testify, please let us know and we will start to prepare you for that.
Please do not hesitate to contact Jim Klein the FLMDC legislative liaison if you have any questions and he or I
will get back to you right away.
Thanks in advance for your attention to this and for your active involvement in getting this through the
legislative process!
