Taking advantage of this capability does require the development of a data base of detailed information about individual grassroots participants to be correlated with available legislative data. Software and list serves for this purpose can be obtained from a variety of commercial sources. Personalized letters seemingly crafted for each individual recipient are a powerful mode of communications. They facilitate rapid rates of response, and convey a sense that the individual is truly important to the grassroots program and to the writer. The fact that university people are quite knowledgeable about the use of computers does not detract from the gratification they experience when receiving a personal letter from someone they respect.
Computers can add communications targeting capability to the personal dimension.
Action appeals and other legislative mailings can be targeted to convey a specific message to specific participants, avoiding those common situations in which generalized messages to grassroots members ask them to get in touch with lawmakers they may not know or who are not immediately involved in the current issue. Putting the message into a personalized letter rather than a general bulletin substantially increases attention and response to the request. For example, you can send highly personalized communications to just those grassroots participants whose legislators sit on a particular committee or subcommittee - with different messages to different groups of participants, depending, for example, on which way the legislator is leaning and whether the participant is known to have a relationship with the legislator. Signatures can also be varied, depending on whose will be most effective with the individual recipient. Techniques like these can be used in both personal letters and computerized fax and electronic mail.