Members of Congress have incredibly busy schedules. CMF research supports that they work in excess of 70 hours a week when Congress is in session and over 50 hours a week when they are home in their districts and states. The staff person who is responsible for managing this beehive of activity is the Scheduler, putting them at the nexus of many office decisions as constituents and others try to get a slot on the Member's calendar. For this reason, we often refer to them as the "gatekeepers" for each congressional office. A strategic approach – a focused framework for the scheduling process that is reflective of an office's strategic plan – to tackling the variety of scheduling requests an office receives can go a long way towards addressing the inherent chaos.
This toolkit outlines some of the best approaches CMF has learned from working with offices for our 40+ year history, with a focus on applying routine criteria to the onslaught of scheduling requests.