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Online Community Lesson
If It’s Broke, We Need
to Fix It
Teacher-authored
with student research
Some important facts do
not make the evening news. For example, have any of us heard that Congress
receives more than two hundred million (200,000,000) e-mail every
year? Let’s do the math: that comes to an average of three hundred
seventy-one thousand (371,000) e-mail per member of Congress, if we
include the three non-voting members. That is an average of more than
one thousand four hundred e-mail per working day. If a member’s staff
worked nonstop for eight hours a day (yes, such would be inhuman and
inhumane), answering each constituent e-mail in one minute, the member
would have to dedicate three staff people to this task—and probably would
have a high “burn out” and turnover among staff.
So, what is to be
done? Congress has implemented a solution:
…some
congressional offices have added authentication measures to their Web forms,
restricting the flow of constituent communications to members.
”Congress
Curtails Constituent E-mail”, Susie Gordon, Capital Advantage, as reprinted
in Philanthropy Journal, July 31, 2006.
Even assuming
that this is a legitimate solution (there are those who say “no”), could any
member’s staff possibly answer all communications timely and adequately,
even if half the communications were blocked by this solution? Obviously,
no.
A member of
E-News team 8 asked city hall, the county supervisor’s district office,
and the congressional member’s district office about their preferred means
of communication. Here are the results:
|
Type of Communication |
City Hall |
Supervisor Molina’s Office |
Congressional Member Napolitano’s Office |
|
Letter |
1
(most preferred) |
Preferred |
No preference |
|
Telephone |
2 |
Preferred |
Ditto |
|
E-mail |
3 |
|
Ditto |
|
Fax |
4 |
|
Ditto |
|
Visit district office |
5 |
Preferred |
Ditto |
|
Attend event where there is a field representative |
6 |
Preferred |
Ditto |
|
Petition |
7
(least preferred) |
|
Ditto |
If you answer the
multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to
lessonanswers@mymontebello.com, with
“E-News answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a
“certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a
local nonprofit organization.
1. What is the root
cause of a member of Congress receiving too many communications?
(a) the ease with which
constituents use e-mail.
(b) too few
staff people
to answer communications.
(c) too many
constituents depending on the member for solutions.
2. What would be most
helpful to an elected official trying to answer constituent communications?
(a) A bigger budget
with which to hire more staff.
(b) Constituents
organizing semimonthly meetings to which a large number of constituents
would be invited, where there could be questions and answers.
(c) Constituents
setting up a nonpartisan survey organization and continually communicating
survey results to the elected official.
3. What is the best way
in which you could help to solve this problem?
(a) Volunteer time at
the district office of an elected official.
(b) With others, set up
and run a nonpartisan survey organization as a business.
(c) Contact elected officials and volunteer to sit on
a constituent committee which would organize and run semimonthly meetings.
December 21, 2006 |