The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) recently released their draft report, Communicating with Congress: Recommendations for Improving the Democratic Dialogue. It is only a draft because they want to hear from YOU!

The report examines the trend of increased constituent email to Hill offices, the role of advocacy campaigns and the systems and procedures in place to manage it all in your offices. The report does an excellent job of identifying the “stakeholders” involved, namely you in Congressional offices, your constituents, issue advocacy organizations, vendors that provide software for advocacy and vendors the provide software for constituent mail management.

The reality of the situation is that staffers have a very hard time keeping up with all the mail coming in…and that’s not going to change anytime soon. The CMF recently extended their public comment period until July 28th, so take a moment today or next week to:

  1. Download and read the report (PDF)
  2. Take the CMF Survey to register your feedback

Kudos to the dedicated team at the CMF who have been the leaders for years in examining these issues, bringing the relevant parties together and moderating the discussion.