Hello! I would like to schedule a meeting with Senator Markey.

“Hello! I would like to schedule a meeting with Senator Markey.” A little over a month ago, the American Astronomical Society posted the following announcement: I originally became a AAS member in order to present my research at AAS conferences, and membership turns out to provide valuable access to new opportunities. In this case, I realized that the dates were during my spring break, said heck yeah, and applied. On Valentines Day, I got a message saying that Id been accepted, and within a week received a whole bunch of homework. Book your travel Get to know your group Schedule meetings with your senators and representatives My group consists of myself, a PhD student from Georgia, and a solar astrophysicist at Harvard. The AAS has a whole website on how to contact and schedule meetings with representatives, so I read through that in order to get myself from Zero Knowledge to Some Knowledge.  My fellow Massachusetts resident and I divided up the labor so that Im in charge of scheduling meetings with Senator Ed Markey and Representative Michael Capuano, and shes in charge of getting hold of Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Katherine Clark. Now, Im normally very happy to pick up the phone and call whoever, but something about calling a Senators office and requesting a personal meeting with him (or one of his science/tech staffers) freaked me out. This afternoon, I drank a cappuccino and in a fit of (possibly caffeine-boosted) confidence resolved to finally make the call. It rang twice, and then, Man: Senator Markeys office, how may I help you? Me: Um. [suddenly completely unable to speak English] Me: Um, yes, hello. May I please speak with Senator Markeys scheduler? Man: Whos calling, please? Me: Oh, yes, um, hello. [thinking: DARN, I already said that!] Im SenatorI mean, no, sorry. Im a constituent of Senator Markeys, living in Cambridge. [thinking: did I really just almost say that Im Senator Markey?] Im going to be in Washington DC on Mach 26th to represent the American Astronomical Society as part of the Congressional Visits D- Man: Okay, the scheduler is currently out of her office, but Ill transfer you to her voicemail. Me: Okay, thank you! I left a message, and am in the middle of composing a follow-up e-mail. Phew. Definitely not a smooth start to my science research advocacy career, but sometimes the hardest part is just picking up the phone for the first time, and Im already over that mental hurdle.