Scientists Report That Communicating With Congress Is Simple, Effective

SIDEBAR : Sources For Help In Contacting Congress TIMES CHANGE: Robert Park says scientists can no longer afford to rest on their laurels. With continuing calls for massive cuts in federal R&D spending, scientists are finding it ever more important to lobby Congress for continued funding. Those who have taken the plunge report that lobbying Congress is easier, more productive, and less aversive than it may appear. "For years we felt that what we do is so important that anyone but a fool

Robert Finn

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SIDEBAR : Sources For Help In Contacting Congress

TIMES CHANGE: Robert Park says scientists can no longer afford to rest on their laurels.

With continuing calls for massive cuts in federal R&D spending, scientists are finding it ever more important to lobby Congress for continued funding. Those who have taken the plunge report that lobbying Congress is easier, more productive, and less aversive than it may appear.

"For years we felt that what we do is so important that anyone but a fool would recognize it, and all we have to do is sit back and they should come to us and ask us what we need. And that used to work," notes Robert L. Park, director of public information for the College Park, Md.-based American Physical Society and a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park.

But those days are over, observes R.D. Shelton, a professor ...

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