WORLD WIDE WEB — This message is to alert NAR and TRA members to pending actions in the United States Senate regarding rocket motor propellant, and to outline specific steps that members can take to support these efforts. Please redistribute this message as soon as possible via your section's / prefecture's website, listserver, and/or mailing lists. We need the support of every NAR and TRA member.

We expect that action will be taken in the US Senate this week to begin developing support for legislation that will be filed in the coming weeks.

This will be the first step in the legislative chain of events that could ultimately relieve the sport rocket community from burdensome ATF regulation. But relief will not come overnight, and we caution Members to understand that this will be the first of several times that we'll ask for your assistance.

The outpouring of member support for legislative relief will need to be sustained over a multi-month period for this campaign to work. The main thing to remember is that it can work and Member support will be the key - elected officials generally respond to requests from those who elected them.

We will be specifically asking you to ask your state's Senators to sign a "Dear Colleague" letter being circulated by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and to commit to be co-sponsors of legislation Senator Enzi is preparing for introduction. We will provide more details when we actually make the request for letters, which we expect will be within the next few days.

In the interim, here a few tips for letters:

• Make it clear what you're writing about in the first paragraph (sign the Dear Colleague, co-sponsor a bill).
• Tell your senators you support this initiative because it's good for rocketry, and that the existing ATF regulatory scheme is unnecessary and threatens to destroy sport rocketry as a hobby.
• Stay positive and mention the benefits of a healthy sport rocketry hobby (teaches science, etc.).
• Include brief personal experiences if you have them (rocketry led me to become a {scientist, engineer, etc.}).
• Don't' waste time "bashing" the ATF, and don't reference the litigation.
• Keep your letter to one page or less.
• Make sure your letter has your name, address and daytime phone number listed.
• Say "thank you."

More tips on letter writing to Congress can be found at these websites:

http://archive.aclu.org/action/tips.html

http://www.bacweb.org/govtrelations/communicating.asp

Contact Information:

A complete list of US Senators by state is listed on the government website located at:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

We thank you for what we know will be a tremendous supportive response, and appreciate your patience and input during the past few weeks. We will have additional messages regarding the pending ATF rulemaking shortly.

Dick Embry,
TRA President

Mark B. Bundick, 
NAR President