Over the past few weeks, as we’ve neared our goal of documenting 100 Stories for Over 50 and Out of Work, we’ve tried to email every U.S. governor, senator and representative  about the project and invited their responses.

Have you ever tried to email a governor or member of Congress?  Very few accept direct emails any longer.  Most require you to fill out forms on their websites, so trying to contact them becomes a tedious and time-consuming process of filling in the non-standardized forms.  But we sent info about and the link to Over 50 and Out of Work to as many as we could.

Amazingly, many websites screen by your zip code, even for senators, who are supposed to take a national perspective.  If your zip code does not match their states’ or districts’, you are often not able to submit the form.  We were not able to contact many governors or members of Congress due to our N.J. zip code.

FYI — Here was the response from our government:

• One exploratory phone call from a staff member in the office of Lincoln Chafee, governor of Rhode Island

• One form letter from Daniel Inouye, senator from Hawaii