Your Online ASU Legislative Connection
Volume 1 Issue 5

Dear ASU Advocate Friend,

2004 was an amazing year for Arizona State University!

It was a year that brought a Nobel Prize in Economics, the final Presidential debate, the announcement of the expansion of one campus and the creation of a new one and a winning football season that culminated with a berth in the Sun Bowl.

We also made great strides with our advocacy efforts. The advocacy department is fully staffed with individuals that bring many years of experience and diverse backgrounds.

We redesigned our Sun Devil Advocate Network website and expanded its functionality by adding a program that will easily allow you to email your state senator and representatives during the legislative session. Additionally, we revised and edited our advocacy training manual and put it online for your easy access — check it out at:

http://www.sundeviladvocates.org/advocacytips.html

Former Arizona House Speaker Mark Killian agreed to chair our 34 member Advocacy Steering Committee — these volunteers are serving as legislative district captains by helping us to recruit new members and advocate at the Capitol.

And the really fantastic advocacy news of 2004 is this: We started with 298 advocates on July 1, 2004. Our advocacy army has now grown to 782 members — that’s an increase of 162% in six months!

We want to thank you for joining the Sun Devil Advocate Network — our work together is just beginning with the legislative session set to kick-off next month on January 10th. We will be facing a challenging legislative session and we’ll need your help to convince our 90 legislators of the importance of Arizona State University and higher education in general.

782 members are great, but the more advocates we can recruit, the more powerful our voice will be at the state capitol. So please take a few minutes and e-mail or call folks you know and give them our web site address — www.sundeviladvocates.org — tell them you’re an advocate, explain to them what it means and tell them they too can become an advocate in three easy steps:

1.) Go to www.sundeviladvocates.org
2.) Click on the link “Become a Member.”
3.) Fill out the quick and easy form and in less than two minutes they’ll become an official member of the Sun Devil Advocacy Army.

ASU Day at the Capitol — February 21, 2005

Plans are underway for the 22nd Annual Statehood Legislative Picnic. This year’s event will be on Monday, February 21, 2005, starting at 11:00 a.m. Our goal is to make February 21st at the Arizona Capitol more than a “free picnic”. We really want to make it “ASU Day at the Capitol” by showcasing all of the great things happening on our four campuses.

Additionally, for the second year in a row, we are recruiting ASU advocates from across Arizona who would like to meet with their state senator and representatives during ASU Day at the Capitol. We are putting together groups of 4-5 constituents to chat with their legislators about ASU’s budget priorities.

All that is required is for you to spend a few hours at the Capitol on February 21st and to attend a one-hour training class where we’ll brief you on key points of our budget request and how to effectively communicate those points to your legislator. If you are interested in participating in ASU Day at the Capitol, please contact Grant Klinzman at grant.klinzman@asu.edu or via phone at 480-965-4282.

ASU E-mail Accounts –VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

For our advocates who are currently registered with an “asu.edu” e-mail account, you will need to update your contact information and use an alternate e-mail address by going to this link:

http://capwiz.com/azsu/mlm/

Once there, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page, enter your email address and hit the “Go” button. From there, you’ll be able to enter another email address (home, personal or alternate) and thus be able to send email messages to your legislators during the upcoming legislative session.

ASU strictly prohibits the use of their property for personal use — including the use of university e-mail accounts. To read more on the policy please access: www.asu.edu/counsel/brief/political.html.

If you do not have an alternate e-mail address, there are many free e-mail providers in which you can subscribe to. Some of these include Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) or Mail (www.mail.com).

We hope this newsletter has been helpful and especially informative. As in our past newsletters, we want to thank you for your signing up to be a Sun Devil Advocate. If you have any suggestions, comments or observations you would like to share with us, just click on this link advoteam@sundeviladvocates.org and let us know.

Go Devils! Beat Purdue!

Jeff Grant, Director of Advocacy
ASU Alumni Association

P.S. If you want to become an active member of the ASU Alumni Association, one of the best ways you can give back is through membership in the ASU Alumni Association. The annual dues of $45 offer an affordable way to help build ASU’s reputation. Visit www.asu.edu/alumni/membership or call 1-800-ALUMNUS.

P.S.S. If you have a different e-mail address you would prefer us to use, just e-mail us at advoteam@sundeviladvocates.org with your new e-mail address and we’ll make the change.

If you don’t want to receive further issues of this electronic newsletter, send an unsubscribe e-mail to advoteam@sundeviladvocates.org with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line and the message field.