Sea Cadet Federal Funding for Dummies Or, READ THIS ARTICLE!!!
(Yes, I mean you!!!)

by
LCDR Bill Murphy, NSCC

Ok, maybe we're not Dummies, but how many of us have our Representatives and Senator's mailing addresses handy? We all agree that Federal funding for the Sea Cadets is a great idea. And every letter to a member of Congress increases our chances of continued funding. (If you are a regular letter writer to Congress, keep reading anyway. You may find the end of the article useful.) CAPT Barrett and NHQ have done an effective job of motivating and informing the NSCC membership. But really, how many of us have intended to write a letter to Congress but stopped due to time constraints or due to the information not being handy. A lot of us, I'm sure. I haven't written a personal letter in years.

But what if I could tell you that you could send an email to our Congressional leaders. And this email would be pre-addressed to your Senators and Representatives. Well, I'm telling you that this is easily accomplished and you can do this and that you should do this. The procedure is included at the bottom of this article.

The question you need to ask yourself is this: As an NSCC Adult Leader, Sea Cadet, or Parent, is access to a series of $50 summer training sessions worth 15 minutes of my time? Yes, yes, yes. I know that most of the letters have been written by the NSCC Adult Leadership and by some of the parents. But let's also let the Congressmen hear from the beneficiaries of the funding, the Cadets. Think about it this way. The FY2000 cost of summer training was approximately $240 per session. The FY2001 cost is $50. Is 15 minutes of time worth $190 to you? If we don't get continued funding, we can count on FY2002 training costs to be about $250 or more.

All we have to do is talk about the Sea Cadets. Begin your letter by telling your Congressmen what we want, which is their support for the appropriation of $2,000,000 for the Naval Sea Cadet Corps in the FY2002 Defense Appropriation Bill. Then, just talk about the Sea Cadets. What have you done in the past year with the Sea Cadets? What will you be doing this summer? How has the NSCC improved your child's life? What does our program mean to you and your community? Tell them your stories.

If you haven't written yet or if it's been awhile, now is the time to strike. And here's how. Our sponsor, the Navy League of the United States, has purchased a service called Capital Advantage. It is a system designed to facilitate sending email to your Congressmen. Here's how to use it for writing Sea Cadet funding letters.

1. Go to http://www.capwiz.com/nl/home/
2. Type your Zip Code into the box labeled "Elected Officials" and click the GO button.
3. In the "Write to Congress" box, click the link marked "Compose Your Own Message."
4. Verify that these are your Representatives and Senators. Add your 4-digit zip code suffix if you are asked for it.
5. You should be looking at a box marked "Write Your Message." Fill out the form completely and make sure you fill in your email address and that you say "Yes" to the copy of your message being sent to your address.
6. Hit the Send Message button. (If you chose the Printed Letter option, you'll see the letter on-screen. You need to print it and send it manually now. This is why you should have choose the EMAIL option…)

Now for the difficult part: We want to send a copy of the letter to the House and Senate Defense Appropriations committee members. Two of the three don't have email addresses. So, wait a few minutes and do the following:

1. Open up your email and get that copy of the email you sent.
2. Print and send it to the following members of the Defense Appropriation subcommittees:

Done! Now don't you feel better?

In conclusion, we need your continued help to keep the funding coming. If you are interested in supporting this effort, I urge you to surf to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsccaction and join the email newsletter. There is no cost. If you join this group, several times a year, you'll receive an email asking you to write Congress to support the Sea Cadet lobbying efforts. You can quit at anytime.

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the Sea Cadets and our members.