One of the omnipresent facts of congressional life is hearing from constituents by letter, email, or increasingly through social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. For many Americans, writing to Congress is as essential to democracy as voting. It is a way of expressing their ideas of what their government should be doing — and a Member of Congress would do well to pay attention, no matter what other demands are placed on your time.

CMF has extensive guidance on managing constituent mail, including an entire chapter in our signature publication, Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide, which also outlines a model mail system to help you handle the mail responsibly and efficiently. Below are some excerpts from this chapter.

Assessing the Priority of Mail in Your Office

Operating effectively in Congress is a balancing act that requires trade-offs. There is no Member who is great at everything — every issue, every press opportunity, every legislative effort, every speech, every piece of mail. As with budgeting and personnel issues, your decisions about mail should be guided by your strategic plan.

Most Members consider three broad criteria in determining their approach to mail:

1. View of representative government. Some Members feel it is important to establish and carry on an effective dialogue with their constituents. Under this perspective, the people who sent you to Washington should be an integral part of your work. You should respond to their questions, provide information they may not have requested, and actively seek their advice. Other Members believe they have been sent to represent the district/state as they see best. They will listen to their constituents' views and explain their positions, but feel that an active outreach mail program would tap resources that could be put to better use for the district/state.
2. Definition of your job. Some Members view their job as one that requires them to be an ombudsman for constituents, cutting through red tape, providing casework services, and facilitating the acquisition of federal grants. Others view their job as legislating. All Members do both, but the emphasis can vary dramatically, affecting the amount of resources devoted to mail.
3. Electoral situation. Some Members are from politically marginal districts/states. They may be to the left or the right of their constituents' leanings. These Members often find that they need to be highly responsive to communications from their constituents, who may not be certain that their interests are being represented.

Establishing Mail Policies

Using proactive strategies effectively should help reduce the volume of incoming mail, but you cannot stop its flow. You can, however, control how you will respond. When establishing your office's mail policies, consider:

• Desired turnaround. Will you attempt to respond within two weeks of receiving each message? Perhaps four weeks will satisfy you? In CMF's experience, many Members promote a particular turnaround goal and are shocked to find many messages go unanswered for three months, six months, or even longer. For most offices, acceptable and achievable average turnaround goals are less than one week for constituent mail answered with pre-approved form letters and two to four weeks for mail requiring that new text be drafted and approved.
• Quality of replies. Can you respond substantively in one page? Can you feel responsive enough with a short "thank you for your views"? How do your quality requirements affect your turnaround times? In our "on demand" society, most constituents would rather receive a one-page letter promptly than wait six to eight weeks for a long, detailed letter.
• Which mail you will answer. You can reduce the mail load by deciding to answer only certain letters. Most Members answer only those from their districts or states. Perhaps you'll also respond to out-of-district/state letters that address topics within your committee jurisdiction. What about petitions? Which categories of mail should be answered in the DC office and which in the district/state office? How will phone calls be handled?
• Degree of Member involvement. Many freshmen Members feel a moral obligation to personally see and answer every letter and review each for legislative accuracy, tone, and grammar. This sentiment is easy to understand, but is simply not pragmatic. It is a better use of the Member's time to get involved only at critical times, such as determining the response for a particularly sensitive issue or high priority topic, and leave the proofreading to others.
• Correspondence format standards. Establish a sensible letter length: one page is usually sufficient and if responding via email, even shorter is preferred. Use a consistent, standard salutation and closing. Create a standard layout (indentation, spacing, margins, etc.) and adhere to it.

CMF Model Mail System

Developing a systematic approach to congressional mail is essential. If your office has only one function governed by strict standard operating procedures, it should be the mail. The diverse nature of Congress assures that every office's mail system will be slightly different, but there are some basic concepts that can serve as a model:

1. Timeliness is of the utmost importance to constituents. A quick response matters most to your constituents. Seriously consider eliminating any steps in your system that do not directly contribute to responsiveness or accuracy.
2. Establish a goal of answering 85 percent of the mail with form responses. Some new Members feel they are somehow cheating constituents if they send them form letters. Consider, however, that if your response is sufficient for one person, then it is good enough for others. With House Members representing 710,000 people on average and state populations varying widely, it would not be possible to answer every letter with an original response.
3. The system should be as simple as possible. Minimize detours and duplications, with mail passing through as few hands as possible.
4. Correspondence backlogs are an office problem, not an individual staffer's problem. Establish turnaround goals for each point of the process, and create "backlog alerts" and contingency plans for when the entire office will need to deal with surges in volume. Why? When faced with the possibility that your mail turnaround and standard might get off track, it is the Member's reputation at stake, not a single staffer's, and the office should work together to resolve the issue.

Still have questions? Review the frequently asked questions about the CMF Model Mail System.