SPRINGFIELD-GREENE COUNTY

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

P.O. Box 3036
Springfield, MO 65808-3036

Phone: 417-881-5877

Randy’s Guide to Sending Fax Messages with your Computer

At last year’s LWV legislative forum we asked several politicians about e-mail and whether we should use it to communicate with them. Recent events have made politicians hesitant to open paper mail, and they have always been hard to reach with a personal phone call. E-mail has the great advantage that it can be easy to send. It can also be easily ignored.

I recommend that you learn how to send Fax letters to your elected representatives. By using Fax, you can place a physical piece of paper on your politician’s desk within minutes after writing it. A piece of paper is harder to ignore than an e-mail. If you already have a Fax machine at your disposal, you’re ahead of the game. Another alternative is to type a letter and take it to a public fax facility, such as Kinko’s. I have what I think is a better idea: Use the fax machine that probably resides within your computer already.

If you have a Windows PC, and connect to the internet via a telephone modem, it is quite likely that your modem is, in fact, a Fax / Modem. All that is required is appropriate software to enable this function.

Think of a politician’s fax machine as a remote printer. You probably have a printer attached to your computer. With appropriate software installed you can create a letter as your normally do. When it’s time to send your letter you can choose to send it to a remote printer, sitting on your representative’s desk instead of your local printer. i.e. a fax machine. This is marvelous empowering technology.

Fax Software

It is entirely possible that your computer came with fax software installed. When you print something, look to see if you have selections for other printers that are, in fact, a fax modem. This may be part of the operating system or it may have come with your modem. Some office suite software includes this functionality.

The “Gold Standard” in fax software for Windows is WinFax Pro, by Symantec. A little judicious web shopping will find this $99 software on sale for less than $20. There are many cheaper alternatives that will do the job perfectly well too. A good place to start your search is at Tucows (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software). Type “fax” into the search window and you will see freeware and shareware fax software you can download and install.

Who ya gonna call?

Nearly all Fax Software has a built in phonebook where you can store numbers that you use. After a while everyone you want to contact will be in your fax phonebook. Here are a few numbers to get you started:

News-Leader Editor 417-831-1381

KOLR-10 News 417-836-6397

KYTV News 417-268-3100

Federal

President Bush 202-456-2461

Senator Bond 202-224-8149

Senator Talent 202-228-1518

Vice President Richard B. Cheney

Senator Ted Stevens 202-224-2354 President Pro Tempore

Senator Bill Frist 202-228-1264 Majority Leader

Senator Mitch McConnell 202-224-2490 Majority Whip

Senator Harry Reid 202-224-7327 Minority Leader

Senator Dick Durban 202-228-0400\ Minority Whip

Dennis Hastert 202-225-0697 Speaker of the House

John A. Boehner 202-225-5117 Majority Leader

Roy Blunt 202-226-2115 Majority Whip

Nancy Pelosi 202-225-8259 Minority Leader

Steny Hoyer 202-225-4300 Democratic Whip

State

Governor Blunt 573-751-3222

Lt. Gov Peter Kinder 573-751-9422

Attorney General Jay Nixon 573-751-0774

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan 573-751-3032

Norma Champion - 30 573-751-2745

Dan Clemens - 20 573-751-4096

Jim Viebrock - 134 573-526-9882

Charles Denison - 135 573-xxx-xxxx

B. J Marsh - 136 573-526-9791

Mark Wright - 137 573-526-7313

Sarah Lampe - 138 None

Bradley G. Roark - 139 573-522-9264

Bob Dixon - 140 573-526-8965

Jay Wasson -141 573-522-6233

Raymond ‘Ray” Weter - 142 None

Mike Cunningham - 45 573-526-1888

Greene County

Commissioners 868-4818

County Clerk 868-4170

Prosecuting Attorney 868-4160

Sheriff 868-4108

Springfield

Springfield City Council Office 864-1649

Randy Hoops is webmaster of this site.