I want to send the same letter to all the members of a governmental commission. There are about 10 members, plus a chairman.
I’d like to make it apparent to each recipient that every other commissioner was sent the letter too. I do not want to just address it to the chairman and cc everyone in a list at the end, nor do I want to address it to just the “Xyz Commission.”
Ideally everyone’s names would go at the top, just before the body of the letter (as in: Dear Chairman A, Commissioner B, Commissioner C, etc.). But that makes for an ugly jumble of names or an ugly stack of names. Still, this is the format I’m leaning towards because it satisfies my above requirements.
Instead of fiddling with cc:s and whatnot, address a letter to each of the commissioners, and somehow state in the body of the letter that each commisioner was sent the letter.
I agree with the above to a point – address each member in a separate letter, with a “cc: XYZ Commissioners” at the bottom. I presume you’re sending them a position or opinion memorandum about something they’re going to be making a decision on. If this is the case, another option is to have a memorandum-style field above the body of the letter containing all of the recipients’ names and titles.
I see this pretty regularly at work: a group of three senior decision-makers are often written a letter by a person who knows one of them personally. The memo comes in triplicate, with each of their names at the top. They’ll be addressed to Mr. Bigshot, Col. Bigwig, and Col. Wossname. The sender maintains the politeness and formality of addressing the group as peers, but each member gets the benefit of a copy for record.
I’d address it to the Chair and cc: the other members. I know you don’t want to do this, but it’s by far the most elegant, and there’s no perfectly satisfactory way I know of to solve your problem. My rule of thumb (which didn’t originate with me) is that you can address a letter to up to three people, but beyond that you need cc:'s. It’s not so much the greeting that creates a problem there, but the unwieldyness of address after address after address before you get to the body.
Alternatively, you could address it to the commission, c/o the Chair, and then cc: the individual members. Alternatively alternatively, you could address it to the Commission and cc: all the members, including the Chair.
I spend too much time thinking about this. I’m the only person I know who makes sure all the cc:'s in a letter are in order (my client, others in my firm in seniority order, our local counsel, our experts, counsel for our co-parties, their experts, anyone else, and finally the other side).
If you want to send it to the Commission as a body, then you should address it to them as a body. Sending a separate copy to each commissioner doesn’t change how it should be addressed:
XYZ Commission
Government Building, Room Number
Washington DC
Dear Mesdames and Sirs:
…
If you happen to know they’re all male or all female, you use just “Dear Sirs:” or “Dear Mesdames:” instead.
Address the envelopes to each one individually and don’t bother with a cc: list at the end.