| Communicating with Congress Conference: Detailed Agenda |
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On October 1, 2007 CMF hosted a conference for information sharing, education, and problem-solving with all sides of the communications equation. Our role in the conference was acting as an independent, honest broker primarily interested in improving the democratic dialogue. In June 2008, CMF will release a draft report which will synthesize discussions from the conference and original research conducted by CMF with both the senders and receivers of congressional communications. The conference consisted of 3 panels and a keynote speaker: Panel 1: How Do Messages Get from Citizens to Capitol Hill and Back? This panel presented the tools and practices that congressional offices and advocacy groups use in their communications, in order to provide each side with a better understanding of what is happening on the other side during each step in the process. It included representatives from Congress, the vendor community, and the advocacy community.
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Panel 2: What About Constituent Communications Isn’t Working? This panel framed the problems as viewed by each side. The panel included representatives from congressional offices, the advocacy community and the vendors that assist each group in managing communications. The objective of this panel was to provide an overview of the crux of the problems faced by congressional staff, advocacy groups, and citizens in their efforts to communicate with one another effectively, especially through organized advocacy campaigns.
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Panel 3: Options for a New Model for Constituent Communications that Works for Everyone. This panel discussed possible solutions to the problem. It included one representative from Congress and one representative from the public affairs/advocacy community, as well as two neutral third parties who are knowledgeable about the problem, about Congress, and about technology. These panelists were provided in advance with a list of the key issues that must be solved, and they were asked to devise a high-level concept that will solve as many of the problems as possible and present their concept at the conference.
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Key Note Speaker: The results from survey of citizens who communicate with their Member of Congress. A representative from Zogby International provided a preview of the results of a national survey of citizens that details why and how often they communicate with their Members of Congress and what they expect from Members in return. The results are the basis for the report Communicating with Congress: How the Internet Has Changed Citizen Engagement.
Read the full report: This conference was made possible by grants to CMF from the American Library Association, The Humane Society of the United States, the National Association of Realtors, National Write Your Congressman, Pitney Bowes, the Public Affairs Council, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with special appreciation to the Communicating with Congress Working Group: Capitol Advantage, Convio, Democracy Data & Communications, Grassroots Enterprise, Issue Dynamics, Inc., Stakeholder, Vocus, and voterVoice.
conference materials
About the Communicating with Congress Project
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CWC_CitizenEngagement
CMF would also like to thank 
cwc-conference-program (2.3 MB)