NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello,

I'm planning on creating a NSWiki entry summarizing telegram campaigns. What they mean in basic terms, a few ways they might work, and a suggestion or two on ways to construct a polite telegram.

In short, I've sent out telegrams before, but never having received them, I have no idea what the better ideas look like. Those of you that are UN Delegates, however, have had the chance to see good telegrams.

Could you please post a few or write a generic one you'd like to see here? Or just make a short list of do's and don'ts for telegram campaigns?

Thanks! :)

Don't
- Bad Grammar
- Numerous Spelling Errors
- Doesn't give reasoning behind their side, i.e. says, "Act is bad! Don't Vote!"
- Condescending Attitude
- Under or Over abuse of capitilization, or tools of the English language.

All in all, make it look professional. The one thing that will make me delete a TG without reading it, is if you obviously didn't think it through. I have strong oppinions, and if you want to sway it, I want the TG to be professional.

Also, for those who know I'm a native Italian, and try to speak Italian to me. Don't do so, unless you know the language.

The Venerable Libertarian Guide to writing a Telegram seeking support from a Delegate...........

1, A personal formal greeting. eg. Greetings Venerable Libertarians, not WUZZUP!
2, Outline the reason for telegramming with brevity and keep your point consice.
3, Do not waste telegram space instructing how to find it on what page etc. Delegates are not stupid.
4, remember your manners at all times ending with a thank you and a formal signing off.

Most delegates do not wish to read eassay lenght reasons nor do they like having the proposal/repeal pushed down their throats. A personal Hate of mine is having 6 lines of the telegram dedicated to where the subject can be found.

I'm not a delegate and have never been a delegate. (Translation: I don't know what I'm talking about.) ;) I thought I'd offer a suggestion anyway....

During the approval stage of your Hydroelectric Plants proposal, Ecopoeia posted a "permanent" link to the proposal up for approval. I'd think it would be good to include such a link in a TG asking for approvals.

There's a principle of Performance Technology which, stripped of the jargon, goes something like this: "The easier it is for people to do something, the likelier they are to do it." It seems this would be a way to apply that principle.

Remember, your goal is to inform them of this resolution and to state why it is a resolution worth considering - in effect, you are trying to argue at least part of your preamble. In fact, swaying their opinion is almost a secondary goal - as one of the bigger things you are trying to overcome is....laziness of the delegate.

I think one of the things that worked well for me when I was telegramming for CRPW was that I copy/pasted the delegates name into the TG, so it started with "Hi "blank".

I recieved one back from a delegate that went along the lines of "wow, you took the time to paste my name in, so I'll take the time to read your propsal".

Be nice, unique greetings are helpful, personalization works but it works better if you can do it seriously, which gets hard, leave instructions as to where to find the proposal (delegates aren't stupid, they're lazy), link to the thread the debate is taking place in, leave a signature, show sincere respect for the influential people and their decisions, and don't ever, ever spell things wrong. I will often take a side just based on grammar, and I'm very good at defending it for other reasons which I will promptly make up.

Seriously, spellcheckers, people.

Esteemed <nationstate name>, Delegate for <region name>:

A proposal has recently been submitted to the United Nations for your consideration. Entitled "Universal Library Coalition," it would act to provide a replacement for the recently repealed Global Library resolution. This proposal corrects the flaws of the original and provides for an attainable library for all nationstates without the science fiction.

I'd appreciate it if you would consider this proposal. Today (Monday) you can find it on Page 16, or at the top of the following page: http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin...oposal/start=76

Otherwise, as always, you can search by name for this particular proposal at the bottom of each page listing off the proposals. This proposal is open for approval through Thursday, so I'd appreciate it if you would consider approving this one at your earliest convenience.

Should you have any questions, or need any further clarification, please don't hesitate to contact me. The UN Forum discussion of this resolution can be found at http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=401390

Thank you very much for your consideration,
<Your signature here>

p.s.: <comment on the nation's flag, motto, size, animal, currency>

I like this template, which was used (obviously) to gain support for the Universal Library resolution. It contains:

The name of the proposal
Where the proposal is on the list
How long until the proposal expires
An invitation to discuss the resolution, by TG or on the forum
Personalized fields, including the address and the postscript.

I find that all of these items are crucial to getting support for a proposal. I remain, however, ambivalent about the formulaic approach to proposals that now causes proposal authors to resort to a TG campaign *before* publicizing a resolution, but that's another issue entirely. ;)

Here's the one I was sending when I was campaigning for my resolution.
Dear Delegate,

I'm sending you this telegram to call my Nuclear Armaments proposal to your attention. This proposal will insure that the decision about possessing nuclear weapons will remain where it belongs, with the individual nations.

You can find it by searching for Nuclear Armaments.

I hope that you will give it your approval.

Thank you for your time.

Bob Flibble
UN Rep., Rogue Nation of Flibbleites
Regional Delegate of Final Fantasy

I like to include the following things...

A polite but friendly greeting,
The name of the resolution proposal,
A brief (one sentence) explaination of the proposal's aim(s),
An equally brief explaination of where it is (eg. - page whatever, as in Krioval's example)
A note of thanks,
Personalisation - perhaps the name of the nationstate in question, perhaps something quirky like a comment on their flag or motto if I like it.
Signing off :)

I basically put together my resolutions based on what I like best to read from someone else...not too long (I get bored or annoyed more easily if it's long), but with enough information so I know what they're on about.

Here's my example from my current telegram campaign.

Greetings from beyond! (or - greetings to the nation of...)

The Bountiful Bunnidom of Markodonia is seeking support for our resolution "Fair Trade Provisions", which has been created to alleviate some of the economic causes of third world poverty and cut dependence upon aid.

It can currently be found on page four of the UN proposals and has a UN forum topic at the following address:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=436874

We hope you will be able to offer us support.

Many thanks for your time, (or a personal comment to the nationstate in question)

Swarmy, deity-queen of Markodonia.

Krioval quoted Asshelmetta's TG - this was good, though a permanent link to the proposal (as stated by Ausserland) is a huge plus.

Here is a link to the *start* of the NSWiki article.

http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Telegram_campaigning

This is a community resource, so let's work together to make something that will be helpful! :)

Excellent! Clear, concise and informative. I can't wait to read the part about suggestions for successful campaigning.

Excellent! Clear, concise and informative. I can't wait to read the part about suggestions for successful campaigning.

Thanks! If it wasn't clear or if a typical Miervatian typo appeared in the text, the NSWiki philosophy would be to be bold and just make the correction. :) We can always go back and change things later.

I was thinking that for the next half that I'd do two things:

1) make a long bullet list based on points raised here,

2) copy and paste a few example telegram letters based on what has been posted here.

:) The bottomline is to make something that serves two purposes: (1) explains what a telegram campaign is and feels like, and (2) also nudges newbies in hopefully a good direction.