Training - Don’t Send Your Supporters to the Hill Without It
by Seth Turner
on October 06, 2017
Seth Turner, CMF's Director of Citizen Engagement explains why advocacy groups should make training a higher fly-in-event priority. More information about advocacy training is available on CMF's Website or by contacting CMF.
Fly-ins are a big business in Washington. Every year, advocacy groups spend countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars to organize successful fly-ins.
As the saying goes, "that which gets measured, gets done." Fly-ins are commonly measured by 1) the number of supporters who go to Capitol Hill, and 2) the number of meetings conducted. Therefore, fly-in planners focus on getting as many people as they can to Capitol Hill. Because it's hard to measure whether all those meetings influence policymakers' decisions, less effort is put into training fly-in participants to conduct effective meetings.
This is a big mistake. I'll share a personal experience to illustrate why.
Read more »
Registration Deadline Sept. 8: GAI-CMF Legislative Operations Class
by CMF
on September 07, 2017
The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) and the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University (GAI) are pleased to announce that registration is open for our joint multi-day training on Legislative Operations for Congressional Staff. CMF and GAI have a combined 70 years of experience explaining how Congress really works to the public, Executive Branch employees, and the private sector.
Read more »
CMF Featured in Op-Ed in "The Hill"
by Kelsey Tokunaga
on August 25, 2017
While, conventional wisdom holds that the blame for any democratic dysfunction lies primarily with the current occupants of Capitol Hill, Congress may not be working well because it does not currently have the capacity to work well.
Read more »
State of Congress - Lessons for Advocates
by Seth Turner
on August 18, 2017
Give it a try. Walk down Main Street and ask people you meet how they feel about Congress. According to Gallup's May 2017 survey, three out of every four (74%) will have an answer that contains a mix of negative verbs and some juicy expletives about how Members of Congress need to learn how to put party aside or perish.
The Congressional Management Foundation asked similar questions to senior staff members working for Members of Congress. Most agreed that Congress is broken, some probably even mixed in a few choice words of their own as they gave CMF an alternative perspective to the narrative described above.
While conventional wisdom holds that the blame for any democratic dysfunction lies primarily with current occupants of Capitol Hill, CMF's recently released report, "The State of Congress: Staff Perspectives on Institutional Capacity in the House and Senate," suggests that Congress may not be working well because it does not currently have the capacity to work well.
Key findings are as follows.
Read more »
Upcoming Event: CMF Launching NEW Office Toolkit
EVENT DETAILS
Many congressional offices are relying on outdated methods, technology, and standards to interact with constituents. For example, the two-week turnaround deadline for constituent mail. That's the common standard on Capitol Hill, and it was established ... in the 1980s. CMF has exciting new data and guidance to offer Congress for improving constituent communications and making them easier to manage!
Read more »
Upcoming Event: Legislative Operations for Congressional Staff (2-day training)
by CMF
on August 01, 2017
EVENT DETAILS
The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) and the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University (GAI) are pleased to announce that registration is open for our joint multi-day training on Legislative Operations for Congressional Staff. CMF and GAI have a combined 70 years of experience explaining how Congress really works to the public, Executive Branch employees, and the private sector.
Read more »
Upcoming Event: How to Find Economic Data on Your District
by CMF
on August 01, 2017
Pocketbook issues are always on the minds of your constituents. This webinar will help you better understand the economy and employment dynamics in your states and districts by using Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data and web tools – so that you can better staff your boss on your issues. Participants will learn to find key economic information about their state, district, or city.
Read more »
Data, Storytelling, and Congress
by CMF Research Assistant
on July 21, 2017
Influence isn't about data, it's about compelling stories. But when Congress uses stories, where are they getting the data to support them? Are they just anecdotes or is there evidence behind them? Will big data and sophisticated data analytics change how these stories are told? After attending two events related to data and Congress, I've determined that the rise in open data and simplistic data visualization will make data even easier to misunderstand and manipulate than it already is. To ensure this does not happen, Congress will need to place significant thought and attention into how they are obtaining, interpreting, and using data.
Read more »
Someone Really Reads Advocacy Emails - It's Just Not Who You Think
by administrator
on July 18, 2017
I admit it. I launched my fair share of grassroots advocacy email campaigns in the two decades I spent working as a professional advocate for national nonprofit organizations. Once a campaign was launched, my government affairs team would track success measures that reflected our ability to mobilize our supporters to take action. Metrics included click-through rates, open rates, and the number of letters sent.
Unfortunately, we didn't have a good way to measure how well our citizen advocates' emails were influencing decisions made by their Members of Congress.
Read more »
Stuck in Thomas Land No More
by CMF Research Assistant
on July 13, 2017
Technology and Congress - they're doing better than you might think. During my first week at CMF, I attended the Legislative Data Transparency Conference (LDTC) on June 27, 2017 hosted by the Committee on House Administration...and it blew my mind.
Read more »
|
|