gold mouse

In April 2014, the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) released the Gold Mouse Awards (and accompanying best practices report) for the 113th Congress. For the first time, 17 Members were recognized for their efforts in using social media to further transparency, accountability, and constituent service. This video discusses what CMF focused on in our analysis of social media practices, the characteristics exhibited by the winners of the Gold Mouse Awards for Social Media, and the strategic questions congressional offices should ask before engaging in social media efforts.

In April 2014, the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) released the Gold Mouse Awards (and accompanying best practices report) for the 113th Congress. Seventy congressional websites were recognized with awards. This video discusses the methodology for the Gold Mouse Awards, the characteristics of effective Member websites, and includes examples from some of the award winners.

In past posts, we've discussed the characteristics of effective Member (personal office) websites. While some overlap exists between award-winning Member and committee websites in terms of usability and timeliness, there is little commonality otherwise.

Today CMF hosted a briefing for congressional staff on how to improve online communications with constituents, based on what we saw in our recent reviews of congressional websites and social media. The program also paid special attention on learning from the policies and practices of Gold Mouse Award-winning staffers.

In this month's Roll Call commentary, Brad Fitch and Kathy Goldschmidt identify some of the outstanding practices that received CMF's first-ever Gold Mouse Awards for Social Media. They also discuss why Members of Congress need to adjust their one-sided approach to social media, and instead use these tools to be more accountable and transparent to citizens.

The 70 winners of CMF’s Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse Awards exemplify the best of online communications in Congress. Websites that won these awards embodied most, if not all, of the characteristics of effective Member and committee websites. For congressional offices seeking to improve their websites, CMF encourages you to browse all of these websites.