Sunday, January 23, 2011

A sneak peek preview

Today I celebrate 100 posts and 20 followers (Hi you lovely followers you!)

I am giving you all the opportunity to help me in my mission to get funding for our IVF.

This is my letter that I am planning to send to my local Member of Parliament. If you can spare me a few minutes to read it, and comment or email me with your thoughts I will be forever in your debt. I really need to know I'm doing the right thing here, saying the right thing. This letter could win the battle for us. What do you think?

Also, in case you're curious, here is the CPAC form as mentioned in the letter.

Thank you thank you thank you for reading and helping me fight for justice!

xxx

Kaitake

6 comments:

  1. I think your letter is very good! Informative, factual and just the right amount of asking for help. I am thinking of you and I hope you get through to someone and get your chance at IVF!

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  2. Wow--very thorough! I thought you brought wove in studies and supportive detail when needed. I also thought the end where you clearly defined what you exactly you wanted them to do was great! My only hesitation is the length of the letter knowing that governments often don't get past the first page (if that far)--however, the information is needed and if they only read one letter from you, then you need them to have the information there (it's a doubled edged sword--just like IF treatment options....yay!). Anyways, good luck! I hope they at least the grant you a meeting for further review on the basis of your very well made points!

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  3. oh--and thanks for the ongoing encouragement on my blog. I really appreciate it!!

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  4. That letter is very frank and spot-on. A bit long maybe but it grabbed my attention to keep on reading. Good job, you write well. Ridiculous rules around the 3-year wait. Sorry you have to fight for this. The best of luck.

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  5. Wow girl - this is AWESOME. You are awesome for writing this and for championing the issue. I sent a similar letter to my representative in the US a few years back regarding the exclusion of maternity coverage from insurance plans. There happened to be a bill in the works to remedy the situation and I was invited to testify before the State Health Committee. The bill was vetoed by our governor 4 years in a row, but this year we have a new governor and expect that it will finally pass! (All that work just so that insurance plans can't exclude maternity coverage - crazy, right?)

    I now work for an elected official and receive letter like this everyday. I would recommend clearly articulating your most urgent request in the first page (if not the first paragraph). Remember that an Aide will likely read the letter and meet with you and do most of the work to advance the issue. The more that you can appear to them as rational, informed, helpful, and generally not crazy the better. (You'd be surprised at how many incoherent people with mental illnesses contact us.)

    Does NZ have lobbyist? It might be helpful to contact a lobbyist who can help route your letter to a sympathetic elected official. You may have more success working with someone outside of your district.

    As hard as it is, try to be realistic about the results that you would like to see in the short term and in the long term. And also try to figure out exactly what power and authority your elected official has. We often have people wanting us to take actions that are outside of the jurisdiction of my boss's power. If that is the case, ask for assistance in navigating the 'system' so that you can focus your efforts where it will have the highest probability of success.

    Gosh, I could go on and on. If you have other questions feel free to email me and I'll keep going :)

    on a slightly unrelated note, I am just blown away at how differently our countries are... I am still fighting to be able to BUY maternity coverage... Meanwhile we spent 25% of our gross income last year on infertility, and just put our March IVF cycle on our credit card...

    Please keep us posted! and Good luck!

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  6. I gave you an award- come over and check it out!

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