OK the elections are over and the campaigning has stopped. But now our work begins again. NC has 100 counties of which some are population dense and others are not. NC has 50 Senators and 120 Representatives to the General Assembly in Raleigh. Some representatives cover multiple counties (District 1 has 8 counties) and some Representatives only cover part of a county (Wake Counties has three exclusive representatives and a fourth that covers part of Wake County and another county). Each Senator covers/represents two counties. Go to ncleg.gov and type in your zip-code to find your representative and senator contact information. Send them a Christmas card or a letter and introduce yourself. Let them know you are willing and ready to review any bill before them regarding diabetes. Volunteer your expertise and then keep in touch with them once a quarter. A birthday card, a thank you note for their time and/or just a note about diabetes would be fine. Once the relationship is established it is a lot easier to get in their door when we need them to act on something.
Both the federal and the state officials are home for the holidays and will not go back to DC or Raleigh until mid-January. If they have town hall meetings go see them. If you can invite them to your workplace and let them see what we do and how we help the citizens of NC.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah!