WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) will announce the 112th Congress Gold Mouse Awards for the best websites on Capitol Hill on Monday, October 24, 8:00 AM via email and its website. CMF created the research project and awards in 2001 to provide congressional offices with best practices guidance for enhancing their online communications with constituents. Accompanying the list of award winners will be a report by CMF on the website best practices trends identified during the nearly year-long research process.

A total of 98 personal office, committee and leadership websites will receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze Mouse Award. Four of these offices will receive Platinum Mouse Awards for the top websites in each of these categories: House Member Website, Senate Member Website, Committee Website, and Leadership Website. With the assistance and guidance of faculty from the University of California-Riverside, the Ohio State University, and Northeastern University, CMF staff assessed and graded 618 congressional websites from June 22 to September 2, 2011. Each website was given a numerical score, which was translated into a grade of A through F.

The criteria for website assessments have been developed and refined by CMF over the past decade based on survey research, focus groups with constituents, and interviews with key stakeholders to congressional offices. A total of 92 criteria were used to grade personal office websites, 66 criteria for committee websites, and 53 criteria for leadership sites. Reviewers assessed 10 categories of criteria: usability of website; timeliness of content; breadth and depth of information on issues; constituent services and casework information; promoting accountability to constituents; legislative process information; district/state information; floor proceedings information; availability of diverse forms of content; and availability of diverse forms of content channels. CMF reviewers also included social media components in the criteria.

CMF will release only the names of award winners (congressional offices that earned a grade of A-, A, or A+). Each congressional office will be notified privately of their grade on November 21 and provided with a customized report explaining their grade and ways to improve their website. This is the sixth round of Gold Mouse Awards CMF has issued since 2001. In 2009 CMF moved the Gold Mouse Awards to a once-a-Congress schedule, and the awards are now issued in the first year of a new Congress. Award-winning offices will be invited to an awards reception on November 16 at 101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.