Does your office have an established telecommuting policy? Or do people telecommute when needed? Do you live someplace that has a smog season or a time of year when everyone in the area is encouraged to work from home?
Everyone in my building was required to take telework training even if we thought we might need to work from home for a single day, like while waiting for a repair person or delivery or a DBA who needed to apply an upgrade in the middle of the night. We signed paperwork certifying that we had a safe work environment at home and indicated what equipment we were taking home (i.e. laptop). Most of us can do our job as long as we have a computer and phone. Although I live close to the office, I work from home one day a week just to get away from the interruptions in the office. I get much more accomplished when I don't have someone saying "hey, do you have a minute to come help me?" at least once an hour. I'm still in constant contact with everyone via e-mail, phone, and IM. We also have an online group calendar where the telework schedule is kept as well as all scheduled leave. This makes it easy for the boss to see how many people will be physically in the office at any given time. I e-mail my group as soon as I get online in the morning, when I'm headed for lunch, back from lunch, and when I'm logging off at the end of the day. Even without the e-mails, they know when I'm at the computer by my IM status. Since my office phone can't be forwarded, I call and check for voicemail on a regular basis throughout the day. Luckily, very few people call me. At the end of the day, I submit a detailed report of my day's activities. This system works for us. And that daily report comes in handy for my weekly status report as well as annual reviews.
I'm not sure my situation helps you much.
I didn't have to lobby for a telework day. In fact, I hadn't even planned to do it, but after the training, the boss went around the room asking which day each person wanted. I just shrugged and picked a day. There's even a virtual office group in our organization. They work from home full time and only come to the office for certain meetings.
Dreamer