Here, to your questionable benefit, is Sarah's Theory of Bureaucracy. If your first contact with the organisation is through the local branch, it's highly likely that the person at the desk won't have a clue what to do about you. This is no reflection on their competence (I reserve such musings for alt.flame.paper-pushers.eat-pencil-lead-and-die), it's just that TG'd clients aren't a daily happening for most places.

What the bureaucratic mind does in this case is seek higher authority. Eventually you'll be passed on to a more senior person who either knows what the policy is (unlikely), knows they have one but will need to contact Head Office for the details, or doesn't not have the faintest idea but "if you come back in a few days we'll try and find out".

Obviously, making life easy for our readers means making life easy for the people they're dealing with. The best thing is a hard and fast reference to the particular organisation's policy - "ah, I was told that Circular 96/128/B from your Policy Division explained what we need to do here" (I call this the Conspiratorial Approach - "you don't want me here, I don't want to be here, let's get this sorted out together so we can both go back to sleep").

The next best thing is a contact to give the local people - "oh dear, this must be a nuisance for you - perhaps someone in, say, Department H of your Central Records Office could help?" (the Sympathetic Approach - "you must be having a rotten day you poor thing, let's see what I can do to make this less painful").

Only if neither of the above apply do we want to wave the law under their nose (remember, front-line staff don't interpret legislation, they follow instructions) - "there's nothing in the manual at all? Oh well, I guess someone must be able to tell us what to do, because section 255(8)(e)(iii) of the Itinerant Preachers Licensing Act specifically allows for..." (the Ominous Approach - "please, don't make me have to turn this into an ugly legal battle, none of us want to see your job on the line").

Similar considerations apply for contacting Head Office direct, although obviously they're more likely to know the law.