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We have revamped and updated our state legislative advocacy page. Please check it out!

ONLINE ADVOCACY TOOL - CAPWIZ

ACC is pleased to offer a new online chapter grassroots tool for your website to help you reach your members and allow them to take action. Your new tool is called Capwiz, and it is quite simply the most advanced and effective grassroots communications tool on the market today. And the ACC is providing you with your own Capwiz webpage at no cost to you.

The ACC has just begun using this innovative program, and our page can be found here:

www.capwiz.com/acc 

For an example, check out the Ohio chapter’s page here:

http://capwiz.com/ohioacc/home/ 

Your new online advocacy tool offers:  

* Custom legislative action center plug-in for your Web site 
* Email, fax, mail and hand delivered constituent letters to elected officials 
* The ability to match your members with their state and federal lawmakers

* Legislative data matching 
* Federal and state vote scorecards and bill information 
* Flexible content layout, which allows you to customize your site 
* Election guide and voter registration  
* Built in e-mail marketing 
* Custom "For Policy Makers" page to educate lawmakers on key issues 
* Powerful database to track Chapter members’ advocacy actions 
* Viral marketing to increase individual participation and peer-to-peer recruiting 
* 24/7 Customer service 
* Free training sessions 
* Guide to the Media and ability to post alerts on major media sites 
* Secure site protection

This online tool is being provided because we know how hard you are working to get the message out about the CMS cuts. In addition, with state legislatures gearing up for their 2010 session, your new Capwiz page is a fantastic way to keep your members informed about the state-level issues that will affect their practice and patients.

What do you need to do now? We will need to create your online advocacy page from one of your existing webpages. (You’ll notice that the Ohio chapter’s Capwiz page looks no different from their regular website.)

To participate, send Elizabeth Ellis (eellis@acc.org) the website that your Capwiz page should "imitate." For most of you, this will simply be your chapter’s homepage. For example, if the Alabama chapter wants their online advocacy page to look like their chapter’s homepage, they would send the URL "www.alacc.org." We would then build their Capwiz page to imitate that page.

Please send Elizabeth Ellis (eellis@acc.org) this page as soon as possible - the sooner we get your response, the sooner we can build out your website.

After your pages are built, we will be touch with the chapter executives individually to set up trainings for the software. While we encourage the chapters to control and maintain the content of these sites themselves, ACC advocacy staff is always happy to post and modify content and help you maintain your database. This state-of-the-art software will change the way your chapter does advocacy and we want to help you in any way you can.

Advocacy shapes your practice. 

The ACC's mission in advocacy is to develop sound healthcare policies and to foster an environment in which research, disease prevention and patient access to quality cardiovascular care are understood, valued and promoted.