Congressional Management Foundation http://www.cmfweb.org
Organization Overview:
The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is a small, non-profit, non-partisan educational organization that provides management guidance and services to the U.S. Congress and individual congressional offices.
Projects:
Nisha Erinjeri worked with staff of the Congressional Management Foundation to assess the current practices followed by offices in the House of Representatives. Her goal was to develop a written document that would identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current and common practices and develop a set of recommendations -- or possibly a model records management system – to improve the current practices. CMF plans to distribute a report to all House offices based on this analysis and recommendations. This report will serve as a critical tool used by current and future Representatives (and their staff) to make informed records management decisions during the course of their careers in Congress.
What Students Had to Say:
“I loved my assignment. The only thing I wish is that it was longer."
"The ASB experience has me thinking not only about going back to DC for the summer, but
also a possible career there."
"[My mentors] were great. They really helped me to define the project and gave me all the
support that I needed, even after they realized I wouldn't be able to do as much as they
had hoped."
Original Projects:
1) CMF would be very interested in recruiting students with records management training to conduct a consultation assessing CMF’s current record management practices. In specific, CMF would like a trained analyst to assess our current records management practices, clarify our short-term and long-term needs, and make recommendations on how CMF could better manage its work and better incorporate the principles of knowledge management to the way it manages its research and information. The student analysts would be given full access to CMF’s records as well as full access to CMF staff. CMF would use this analysis/report as the basis for revamping its current records management practices.
2) CMF would like to recruit Alternative Spring Break students from the Human-Computer Interaction program to develop a blueprint for a legislative document system for the House of Representatives. The legislative document management process currently operates in much the same traditional, paper-based environment it always has. Among the actors involved in the production of public law, from the initial drafting of a bill to the publication of the U.S. Code – including the Office of Legislative Counsel, the Office of the Clerk of the House, committees, the Government Printing Office, and the Office of Law Revision Counsel –there is little coordination or standardization of processes, formats, or technologies. In a paper-based environment this has little impact, since few benefits can be realized through greater coordination and standardization. However, an electronic, networked environment, provides the potential for far greater efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-savings.
Over the next decade, the House of Representatives would like to move to an electronic system in which the House provides capabilities that enable Members to access relevant documents during committee and/or floor debate, to see the changes amendments would make to bills and that bills would make to public law in real time, to have access to all bills in searchable electronic formats before they are considered on the House floor, and to receive timely access to the updated U.S. Code. The House is now working with CMF to help achieve this vision. Ideally, the Alternative Spring Break student(s) would develop the concept for the design of a secure, reliable legislative document system that would allow the House to accomplish these goals. If time does not allow for the development of the complete concept, the student(s) would be asked to develop written recommendations and general guidance for designing such a system.
3) In the House of Representatives, there are 435 individual Representative offices that each has virtually complete autonomy to manage their records and information as they see fit. These offices are given very little guidance on how they should manage these records as the records are the property of the elected Representative and not the House of Representatives. These offices struggle to create record management and archive systems that address their current operational needs as well as create historical records that may ultimately be archived in special libraries upon the retirement or death of long-serving Members of Congress. Decisions about managing information and records are typically made by House staff that have no training in this field.
CMF would like to recruit students with records management training to assess the current practices followed by House offices and develop a written document that would identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current and common practices and develop a set of recommendations -- or possibly a model records management system – to improve the current practices. CMF would seek to distribute a report to all House offices based on this analysis and recommendations. We would hope that such a report would serve as a critical tool used by current and future Representatives (and their staff) to make informed records management decisions during the course of their careers in Congress.
The School of Information's Alternative Spring Break is open to graduate students studying at the School of Information. Undergraduates looking for Alternative Spring Break opportunities should look into the University of Michigan Alternative Spring Break program administered by U-M's Ginsberg Center.