Thanks to Selby D. Pierson for posting this. Speaking as one of the lucky people who had the pleasure of visiting the house last week, it would be wonderful if we could get a campaign together to at least TRY and get it used.
A few thoughts occurred to me in reading everyone's posts. Seriously dating myself as a Fanosaur here, but I do remember the first Save Star Trek! campaign, and most of the basic ground rules back then still apply.
Don't have my copy of Star Trek Lives! to hand at the moment to recap the dos and don'ts, but one thing that did strike me was the mention of the petition sites. Keep in mind that ANY petition, no matter HOW many signatures it has, is never counted as more than ONE letter. When I inquired of people involved in other campaigns, such as the tobasco campaign for Roswell,and those for other shows in recent years, they confirmed that this has not changed.
The IDEAL would be to get the names of executives in decision making positions regarding the DS project. Email addresses would be great, IF they can be obtained; snailmail still works too, BTW. If the latter, make sure you have a name, title and address. Seems silly to point this out here, but many other DS venues are not as courteous and savvy of how things are done in the business world, so I have to say, please point out basics when you alert other groups and boards, using your judgement on the emotional maturity of the posters, not to mention the presence of trolls who would write nasty letters just to make trouble.
Basics:
Be respectful and courteous.
Bring out points about how the use of the house would build interest (read $$$$ in pocket).
Keep it short and concise.
IF using Snailmail, do NOT write "Dark Shadows" or Johnny Depp ANYWHERE on the envelope (unless by some miracle someone actually has an address for JD, and in that case I think they'd know for SURE not to share it). Putting either of those on the envelope is likely to get it routed to the fanmail department, who probably wouldn't know what to do with the letter.
DON'T use a form letter
DON'T reuse the same letter template without changing it. They can figure out its the same person or group of people, which would put a monkey wrench in them taking it seriously.
Thats all I remember at this hour.
The suggestions about professional sites such as IMDB would also be good. For most upcoming projects, studios or production companies have people cruising boards to get a handle on stuff like fan reaction, fan interest etc. Actors and production people have also been known to lurk on boards connected to projects to scope out the fans, so keep that in mind when figuring out your individual approach on how to spread the word.
Jeannie
Oh, MB, if you do get the time to do your hunt for Collinwood candidates in England, you might want to check out Blenheim Palace. Large, multiwinged imposing and spectacular, it's one of my favorite candidates.
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