If you have ever wanted to express your opinion and speak on behalf of a cause to an elected official, Friends of the Bay offered an informative talk at their office recently, with information on how to do that effectively.

President of the League of Voter Service, of the League of Women Voters, Dr. Dorothy Cappadonna said she has been advocating for environmental and women’s causes for years. She offered information to people on how to be an effective advocate for your issues. Her best advice was, “Use the Sunshine laws and to ‘Know thyself and thy enemy’ – the one you are lobbying. Be comfortable and willing to express yourself.”

She showed the LWV directory of public officials that tells you who your elected officials are and how to reach them. Their website, www.lwvofnassaucounty.org, lets you access the 2010 directory of public officials and/or to order copies. There is also a Citizen’s Guide to Environmental Groups in NYS that has contact information.

She had tips for activists. The first was to always vote and be sure to tell elected officials of that.

“Today,” she said, “There are great many ways to learn about what is happening in government and that being knowledgeable is the best way to get results.”

First learn who your representatives are since they are only interested in hearing from people they actually can help. The district areas change every 10 years after the census is taken, so it is important to keep up to date on the boundaries lines for elected officials, for where you live.

Ms. Cappadonna said they get thousands of requests from people, so make it easy for everyone, and only go to your own representatives. The important thing to mention is if you have a big group that you represent, that bodes well for you. “They are frightened then that they will lose their job,” she said.

Give them your address, affiliation and the purpose of your calling on them – the big issue.

There are websites that will make you a better advocate. Look at www.sun

lightny.com. It was started by Andrew Cuomo and has information about bills being passed and state contracts. There is a list of how elected officials spend their member money and that can give you a way to see what their values are – what charities do they support – so you can see what their base concerns are about. That will give you a hint in how you can connect with the person.

You can also see the corporations that give money to causes, and how much.

For example, in the case of the Bigger Better Beverage Bill – if that is your area of interest – you have to see if the official is getting money from the beverage industry. “If they are you may have to change the pitch of your argument to them,” she said.

You can also visit Open Book, New York at www.osc.state.ny.us/openbook. This site was created by Tom DiNapoli, of the Office of the State Comptroller. It contains financial information on state contracts. It identifies 113 state agencies and public authorities and displays more than 60,000 state contracts. You can see who is doing business with the state, she said.

Another great source is See Through NY. The web address is seethroughny.net. See Through NY gives you 260,000 state payrolls and job salaries including the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. It also has a complete list of some government employees, job titles, salaries, teacher union and supervisor’s contracts for nearly every school district in the state. It also shows the pork barrel projects and internal operations expenditures of the Assembly and State.

“One person’s pork is another’s hamburger,” she said, and added, “Speak from knowledge when talking to the elected officials.”

A new way to communicate with elected officials is through Facebook. Go to Facebook.com/independent voters.

Ms. Cappadonna added, “Be careful in that there are “rogue” sites on the Internet which may give unbalanced and skewed information.”

Another good tip was a way to strengthen your case – get a group of people who agree with you…

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