The next session of the Maryland General Assembly is only a few short months away, so now is a good time to make sure that you will be ready to make your voice heard in Annapolis.

Although it's fine to contact any public official about an issue, your opinions will carry particular weight with the representatives of your own district.

First, you will need to make sure you know who your representatives are. Here is a very handy link: http://mdelect.net. Just type in your home address; the names and contact info for both your state and federal representatives will be provided to you.

If you are writing about a particular piece of legislation, it's also good to contact the Committee members who will initially be considering the bill. You can find the list of committees and their members here: http://mlis.state.md.us/Other/Roster/Roster.htm. You can find out which Committee has been assigned a particular bill by entering its number on the Bill Information and Status link here: http://mlis.state.md.us/#gena. Note that this link will only begin to work after bills have been introduced for the 2012 session. You can also click on the Bill Indexes link on this page to search for proposed legislation by subject matter.

When contacting a legislator, be sure to identify yourself, where you live, and how and why you personally are affected by the issue. Be sure to include as many hard facts and figures as you can to back up your opinion, and be sure to state specifically what you want the legislator to do, e.g., "vote yes for SB 100."