July 2011
1 post
Google + Integration on Rally Congress
Google’s new social network offering, is gaining early traction and already has millions of users. You can learn more about Google + from the company’s demo.
Given the importance and reach of Google, including the potential to improve your Rally Congress pages’ standing in Google’s search engine results, we have adding Google + buttons in most of the social network menus...
April 2011
1 post
Rally Congress Adopts Facebook Send
Facebook is launching a new social feature, the “Send” button. This is similar to the “email-a-friend” functionality which Rally Congress already offers, except that it works within a user’s Facebook account. As Facebook describes it:
The Send button is a social plugin that websites can use to let people send a link to a friend through Facebook Messages, post it...
November 2010
1 post
Transitioning to the New 112th Congress
A new Congress was elected this month, and will be formally sworn-in the first week of January. In the meantime, the old 111th Congress is currently finishing its work in a “lame duck” legislative session that will probably last until mid-December.
Since the current House members and Senators are still the official representatives, they continue to have voting power and constituent...
March 2010
1 post
Three House Vacancies in March 2010
There are three newly vacant seats this month:
Georgia, 9th : Rep. Nathan Deal resigned on March 21, 2010.
New York, 29th : Rep. Eric J. J. Massa resigned on March 8, 2010.
Hawaii, 1st : Rep. Neil Abercrombie resigned on February 28, 2010.
As always, Rally Congress will hold messages from these districts until the offices are once again occupied and ready to receive...
February 2010
1 post
Snow Day at the U.S. Capitol
We were out today courtesy of a 4x4, and took this shot of the U.S. Capitol covered in about a foot and a half of snow!
January 2010
1 post
Rally Congress adds Sen.-Elect Scott Brown
After Tuesday’s special election, Massachusetts interim Senator Paul Kirk, Jr., is resigning and the Senate is moving to officially seat Senator-Elect Scott Brown. Rally Congress has made the change in our system and will store all messages to Sen.-Elect Brown. We deliver the messages once he is officially confirmed and sets up a communications channel. Please let us know if you have any...
November 2009
1 post
Special Elections Fill House Seats CA-10 and NY-23
The U.S. House of Representatives returned to its full complement of 435 members as voters in California’s 10th and New York’s 23rd District filled those vacant offices.
The nation’s newest Congressmen won’t have much time to relax. Rep-elect John Garamendi is flying to Washington today from northern California, and Rep-elect Bill Owens is heading down from New York for...
September 2009
2 posts
Senate Seats Paul G. Kirk, Jr. from Massachusetts
The U.S. Senate is back to a full membership of 100 as the Massachusetts Governor selected attorney Paul Kirk, Jr. to temporarily fill late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat until a special election is held in early 2010.
New Florida Senator George S. LeMieux Sworn-in
Today, the U.S. Senate swore in George LeMieux as Florida’s thirty-fourth Senator. He replaces retiring Senator Mel Martinez, whose term ends next year.
Sen. LeMieux is a Florida attorney and former chief of staff to Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Sen. LeMieux says he will not run for the seat in 2010.
August 2009
2 posts
Retiring Sen. Martinez No Longer Accepting...
Florida Senator Mel Martinez, who announced earlier this summer that he plans to retire as soon as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announces a replacement, is no longer accepting constituent email at http://martinez.senate.gov.
Rally Congress will hold all messages for Sen. Martinez until a replacement is seated, and will deliver them at that time.
Senator Kennedy, “Lion of the Senate," Passes Away...
The nation is unified as it mourns the loss of a Senate icon. Edward M. Kennedy, elected to office nine times, was the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in American history, representating Massachusetts in the Senate for 47 years. The Boston Globe has a full tribute.
Sen. Kennedy’s son, Patrick, is a Representative in Congress from Rhode Island, and his nephew, Joe...
July 2009
2 posts
Rep. Judy Chu Joins Congress, Representing CA-32
California’s 32nd District, which stretches across eastern Los Angeles, lost its representative when Rep. Hilda Solis resigned in February to become the Secretary of Labor for the Obama Administration. The seat was filled today by Judy Chu (D-CA), who won in a specical election on July 14th, and was sworn in on July 16, 2009.
Rep. Chu was previously a state assembly member and an...
Senator-Elect Al Franken Completes 111th Senate
The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday ruled in Al Franken’s favor, ending months of litigation over the contested Senate seat. The result means the Senate will finally have a full complement of 100 Senators. Senate leaders are indicating that Sen.-Elect Franken will be officially sworn in as soon as next week.
Rally Congress has been holding all messages sent this year and will deliver...
June 2009
1 post
Rally Congress Attending Personal Democracy Forum
Two or three folks from our strategy and business development team will be attending the Personal Democracy Forum Conference at the end of the month. The conference is a great time and a good opportunity to hear the latest thinking in the political internet space. We’d love to connect with you while we are in New York City — if you are attending the conference and want to grab a cup...
May 2009
4 posts
Sharing Petitions Offline-- a .pdf for Downloading
Rally Congress is rolling out a new feature today— clean, black and white printer friendly .pdf files (here’s an example) of your petition are now available from a link at the bottom of the petition page.
We’ve had a number of requests for this feature. Folks are telling us they post Rally Congress petitions at work and hand them out at meet-ups and rallies. The printer...
White House Launches Office of Public Engagement
The Obama Administration today rolled out the “Office of Public Engagent” or OPE with a new web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ope/ . (hat tip: Personal Democracy Forum ) The OPE also released a new 33-page Citizens Briefing Book with the final results of the user-submissions and votes on policy ideas during the transition last winter. The document also includes some word clouds...
Improvements in Telephone Handling
Currently, 137 members of the House and Senate require a phone number in order to process an incoming email. The Rally Congress system asks for this information at the last step before sending, and only if one of the user’s officials requires it.
By popular demand, Rally Congress now tells users which Representatives and/or Senators are requiring a phone number. Here’s a shot of the...
Rally Congress and Automatic Twitter Hash Tags
Oprah and even President Obama are now on Twitter, so Rally Congress is working to help you join the conversation in more effective ways.
“Hash tags” are one way Twitter users organize discussions. Now, Rally Congress petition managers can also create hash tags for their organization and petitions, and Rally Congress will automatically insert those tags when site visitors post to...
April 2009
10 posts
New Feature: Social Network Links
Notice the “Bookmark” button at the top right of your petition pages?
A new report in your Rally Congress control panel tracks when users click one of these “bookmark” or “share” links. When the user clicks on the link it carries them to the third party site (i.e. Facebook) and pre-populates that site’s submit form with your petition link.
Links from...
Rep.-Elect Scott Murphy Wins Nail Biter in New...
This weekend Scott Murphy was declared the winner in a tight special election in this Albany-area district. The office became vacant when the governor appointed Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York’s junior Senate seat. Once Representative-elect Murphy is seated, there will only be one vacancy in the House (CA -32), and one in the Senate— the Minnesota Senate battle continues in...
2009 Politics Online Conference Photos
A great time was had by all! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth and to the organizers of the conference at George Washington University and Campaigns & Elections. See you again next year!
Rep. Mike Quigley Fills Illinois 5th District Seat
Yesterday Congress swore in the Honorable Mike Quigley, who fills the open 5th District of Illinois after winning a special election earlier this month. The seat became open when Rep. Rahm Emanuel joined the Obama Administration last winter. Congrats to Rep. Quigley— we’ve got a backlog of letters waiting for you!
Sponsoring the 2009 Politics Online Conference
We’ve just finished two days at the annual Politics Online Conference in downtown Washington, DC, where we sponsored and had a table to demo the Rally Congress platform. We had a great time. Photos and details to follow!
A Few Tweaks to the Control Panel
Clients logging in to their control panel may notice a few changes today. We’ve created a new box for “System-wide” adjustments that impact all pages on your site. These include uploading a logo or header image, changing the color scheme of your Rally Congress pages and title text, and editing the default forward-to-friend text. Hopefully this improved layout will make...
Easter Server Upgrades!
The Rally Congress team was up before dawn yesterday as we migrated the entire technical platform and all client databases to a new set of servers. We did the move on the holiday to minimize the disruption and downtime, and to do it when the system was least busy.
The move was smooth and the result are web pages that are even faster than ever! The new capactity will also allow us to handle even...
Adding Guam's Delegate Madeleine Bordallo
We’ve just added support for Guam zip codes and emails to Congresswoman Bordallo after several requests from Guam residents. Of course, for U.S. servicemen and women temporarily serving abroad, the best thing is to send email to the officials representing your permanent address.
Guam, of course, is a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean— “Where America’s Day Begins!”
New Feature: Edit Your Forward-to-Friend Pages
Every Rally Congress client has “Forward-to-a-Friend” pages that are standardized for all of your calls to action. These pages, of course, allow your users to engage their friends through system-generated emails. (You can view an example.) Every account includes some default text, but now you can make changes if you prefer something different. Just use the “Edit...
Congressional Twitter and Facebook Contact Info
Have you heard that John McCain is a profilic tweeter on Twitter, with over 340,000 followers?
Many members of Congress have a Facebook presence, and some are even on Twitter! These are important new avenues where you and your advocacy campaign can reach them. One of the great features of Facebook is the comments “Wall” where friends can leave a public message.
There’s a...
March 2009
4 posts
Rally Congress Introduces "Learn More" Pages
A petition is a great tool to advance your cause, but many users want more in-depth background information and talking points than can be provided in a petition format. That’s why Rally Congress now includes “Learn More” pages— content pages that you can associate with your petitions.
You can create, edit, and delete your own Learn More pages in the Rally Congress...
Senate.gov Launches History of Russell Senate...
For those of us who love Congressional history, there’s a cool new online feature on the Russell Senate Office Building, which was constructed at the turn of the last century. Of all of the Congressional office buildings, Russell is the most richly ornate…its marbled and columned hallways embody the phrase “corridors of power.”
Current House Vacancies
There are currently three vacant House seats, all the result of President Obama staffing his White House. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Illinois, 5th District), the new White House chief of staff, resigned prior to the 111th Congress swearing in. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (New York, 20th District) was appointed to the Senate to fill Sen. Hillary Clinton’s seat in late January. And Rep. Hilda Solis...
Rally Blog Launches!
As we grow in 2009, we wanted to create a blog for the Rally Congress community. Check back again soon for tips on maximizing your online campaigns.