Emails and feeling connected
The one time I contacted my Representative by email they failed the e-test. It isn't like I would have ever voted for them in the first place, but still, they are my elected whatever. Email didn't work, so after a couple days of not hearing back I called the office and they responded by tracking down the forms which had been lost by some godforsaken office some place in some office. They got back to me the same Friday I called and my problem was solved by Monday afternoon.
The problems for a Congressional office must be pretty bad if my experience is any measuring stick. And by what "Congress Online" says it is like that for a lot of constituents. If these problems are bad for elected officials, who have a known budget and a relatively stable and predictable timeline it is a wonder that campaigns can do anything right. Being competent in a response is great, but as in my experience, it is worthless unless the problem reaches the right person (I recall being handed off several times, from the person who answered the phone at the local office, to a correspondence person in the local office, to someone in the DC office, to a correspondence person in the DC office, to yet another person (who's title was not known to me) in the DC office. Like an email wouldn't have gotten totally lost even if the first person would have read it. Hey, it took four people to get me to someone who could help me with my problem, since they work in congress I'm sure they have a collective IQ of about 237, but I doubt that EchoMail would have done that much better).
When an established system has so much trouble one can't help but to wonder how difficult it is for a campaign, with a timeline that can be very much up in the air and a hand-to-mouth budget. Of course from what I've seen in other areas in which I've worked tech issues can be very easy or very hard--depending on two things: First, the devotion of the decision makers to having good (and appropriate) tech solutions--this doesn't mean the best or newest, but the most functional. Second, having an IT person who is good at it. Of course there are lots of good IT people and providers out there, but it can be hard to tell, for those of us who aren't 'tech savvy' to tell them from the one's who were educated with a banana and an inner tube.
The problems for a Congressional office must be pretty bad if my experience is any measuring stick. And by what "Congress Online" says it is like that for a lot of constituents. If these problems are bad for elected officials, who have a known budget and a relatively stable and predictable timeline it is a wonder that campaigns can do anything right. Being competent in a response is great, but as in my experience, it is worthless unless the problem reaches the right person (I recall being handed off several times, from the person who answered the phone at the local office, to a correspondence person in the local office, to someone in the DC office, to a correspondence person in the DC office, to yet another person (who's title was not known to me) in the DC office. Like an email wouldn't have gotten totally lost even if the first person would have read it. Hey, it took four people to get me to someone who could help me with my problem, since they work in congress I'm sure they have a collective IQ of about 237, but I doubt that EchoMail would have done that much better).
When an established system has so much trouble one can't help but to wonder how difficult it is for a campaign, with a timeline that can be very much up in the air and a hand-to-mouth budget. Of course from what I've seen in other areas in which I've worked tech issues can be very easy or very hard--depending on two things: First, the devotion of the decision makers to having good (and appropriate) tech solutions--this doesn't mean the best or newest, but the most functional. Second, having an IT person who is good at it. Of course there are lots of good IT people and providers out there, but it can be hard to tell, for those of us who aren't 'tech savvy' to tell them from the one's who were educated with a banana and an inner tube.
1 Comments:
It's not just limited to congressional offices, though they do see the bar pretty high (low?) when it comes to confusing contacts. Over the last two weeks, I've sent three e-mails to a particular office in Pennsylvania asking for clarification of a particular rule, and I've yet to receive any indication that my messages are even being read.
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