Rally Congress

Google + Integration on Rally Congress

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

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 across Rally Congress.

Rally Congress Adopts Facebook Send

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:09:00 -0400

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 to a Group, or email it to an individual….

The Send button drives traffic by letting users send a link and a short message to the people that would be most interested. They don’t need to leave the web page they’re on or fill out a long, annoying form. Compared to the alternatives, the Send button has fewer required steps, and it removes the need to look up email addresses by auto-suggesting friends and Groups.

This feature is already live on all Rally Congress accounts that have Facebook Recommend buttons activated. This adds another integration point with Facebook and makes it even easier for your supporters to share your calls-to-action.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Transitioning to the New 112th Congress

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:27:00 -0500

A new Congress was elected this month, and will be formally sworn-in the first week of January. In the meantime, the old 111^th 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 responsibilities. As such, the outgoing 111th Congress remains the constituent contact targets in Rally Congress. Since this can be confusing for users, we’ve added a short message that explains that the 111^th Congress is still completing its work.

There are a couple of notable exceptions— Sens. Coons and Manchin filled seats mid-term, so they are already Senators and are live in Rally Congress. Similarly, two House seats were vacant and Congress seated those new winning members this week.

Once this Congress adjourns in December, we will completely shift the system over to the new incoming members of the 112^th Congress. During this transition, users will can then take action towards the new Congress, and we will hold all messages and deliver them as soon as the 112^th Congress is online the first week of January. The U.S. House does a great job getting the contact forms up and running, so we expect to be delivering messages in early January.

Some advocacy ideas for the transition include creating a “greeting” call-to-action that welcomes the new Congress and highlights your organization’s legislative goals for the 112th Congress. Good luck and as always, let us know if you have any questions!

Three House Vacancies in March 2010

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:33:00 -0400

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 constituent communications.

Snow Day at the U.S. Capitol

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:10:00 -0500

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!

Rally Congress adds Sen.-Elect Scott Brown

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:22:22 -0500

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 questions!

Special Elections Fill House Seats CA-10 and NY-23

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:11:42 -0500

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 their formal swearing-in ceremony.

Rally Congress has updated the system and will begin delivery of all messages once these new Reps. have set up communications channels.

Senate Seats Paul G. Kirk, Jr. from Massachusetts

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:44:47 -0400

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

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:57:00 -0400

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.

Retiring Sen. Martinez No Longer Accepting Constituent Email

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:19:23 -0400

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 at 77

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400

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 Kennedy, is a former Representative from Massachusetts.

A special election will be held in sometime in the next 5 months, and the winner will complete Sen. Kennedy’s term, which ends in 2012.

Sen. Kennedy’s brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, held this Senate seat for eight years before being elected to the White House in 1960.

Rally Congress will hold all messages for Sen. Kennedy until the seat is filled, and deliver them at that time.

Rep. Judy Chu Joins Congress, Representing CA-32

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

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 educator— she holds a Ph.D. in psychology and a B.A. in mathematics.

Senator-Elect Al Franken Completes 111th Senate

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:02:04 -0400

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 them once Senator-Elect Franken is up and running in the weeks ahead!

Rally Congress Attending Personal Democracy Forum

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:09:00 -0400

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 of coffee just shoot us an email: info@rallycongress.com.

Sharing Petitions Offline-- a .pdf for Downloading

Fri, 15 May 2009 11:37:00 -0400

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 friendly version will now allow your supporters to easily print and distribute the latest version of your petition offline!

White House Launches Office of Public Engagement

Mon, 11 May 2009 17:21:00 -0400

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 and user comments. For kicks, here’s the “technology” word cloud:

Improvements in Telephone Handling

Wed, 06 May 2009 06:31:59 -0400

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 new interface in action:

Rally Congress and Automatic Twitter Hash Tags

Sat, 02 May 2009 14:51:53 -0400

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 Twitter from a petition page.

This should significantly expand the audience for your petition on Twitter!

You create a hash tag simply by prefixing a short word or abbreviation with a hash symbol: #hashtag. Tags should be used sparingly— one is fine and never more than two or three for your organization or issue. A good approach is to come up with a specific hash tag for your campaign or organization, and add a second one for your more general issue set.

A great resource to search for existing tags and track the progress of your hash tags is http://hashtags.org.

New Feature: Social Network Links

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:18:37 -0400

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 popular sites back to your petitions will increase your traffic and improve your ranking with search engines. This new report gives you a good idea of which social networking sites are popular with your users and which might need more attention.

Here’s a screenshot to give you some of flavor:

Rep.-Elect Scott Murphy Wins Nail Biter in New York's 20th

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:21:00 -0400

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 the courts.