Congressman Ted Deutch took office just a few short months ago, and his staffers wasted no time in setting up a new web site that would give their constituents immediate access to important resources and keep them up to date on his work in Congress:

There’s a lot to admire about House Republican Leader John Boehner’s newly redesigned web site, but its excellent presentation of news stories and social media might be its key features.  Between blog posts, press releases, tweets, and video feeds,  the GOP Leader’s office generates a lot of news, and their site offers visitors a great way to sift through recent updates right on the homepage.  And make sure you check out the internal pages, too, for the Facebook share and Retweet features.

What are the issues that really get voters talking? What motivates them to pick up the phone, write a letter, or send an email to their representatives in Congress?

We wanted to find out. So, together with Adfero Group and some of our clients on the Hill, we began compiling a monthly survey of the top issues Congress hears about from citizens.

We call it the Congressional Conversation Index (CCI). We’re eager to see how these issues change over time, and we think it will be an interesting gauge of citizen interest – both for the public and for Congress.

Want to see what the top issues are so far? Check out the press release, here.

A big thanks to the Members of Congress who have agreed to participate. We’d love to get more offices involved, so please contact us if you’d like to contribute to this ongoing project.

Congressman Bob Etheridge uses a few carefully-selected and prominently-displayed photos to focus visitors’ attention on some of most important issues in North Carolina’s 2nd district:

We’ve taken to calling this the “quick-and-easy-button” around here, and I think you’ll see why the next time you print or email a batch that contains duplicate pieces of correspondence.

Have any of the constituents in your batch already received that form letter? Or are there more than one of the same form letter open for a single constituent? Fireside CRM will detect any duplicate pieces of correspondence to prevent you from sending your constituents the same form letter twice.

That much is old news, but you can now resolve those duplication issues with a single click. Select “Automatically process duplicates” on the Print/Send screen for batches, and Fireside CRM will close out any duplicate correspondence and send the remaining. Quick and easy, isn’t it?

Kudos to Congressman Brad Ellsworth and his staff for taking their web site design in such an original direction.  With its modern look and revolving color schemes (try it out - refresh the page a few times), constituents with an eye for design will be pleased: