We know you are being deluged with calls from constituents, businesses, and municipalities wondering how President Trump’s executive orders on federal funding (and its unconfirmed clarifications), immigration, military service, federal employment, etc. will affect them. I know how difficult it can be to take those calls from scared and angry constituents when you don’t have the answers yet yourself. We just wanted to say that we see your work, and just by being there to pick up the phone, check your email, you are showing constituents that you and your boss are accountable and there to support them — that is valuable and meaningful work.

There’s not much we can tell you that you don’t already know, but if you’re overwhelmed right now (and especially if you’re new to casework), we’ve wrapped up a few pointers on where to start on handling a casework surge below.

If you have suggestions for how we can be helpful, or if you want to tell us about what your office is hearing from constituents, we have an anonymous form here. Please feel free to reach out by replying to this email, or shoot me a note at anne@popvox.org.

Hang in there everyone — thanks for your work.

Anne Meeker
Deputy Director
POPVOX Foundation

Lessons from previous high-volume casework periods

Over the last year, we’ve spent time talking to casework teams who have handled high-volume casework events, including government shutdowns, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and natural disasters across the country. A few common best practices stand out for casework teams facing a similar spike in demand:

Triage, triage, triage

Figure out ways to designate incoming cases by priority level. Someone is facing immediate harm or irreparable financial damage due to halted or frozen funds? High priority. Someone is worried about the potential impact of frozen funds that haven’t officially been frozen yet? Lower priority, but add them to a distribution list for information (see below). Working with your CRM or a spreadsheet, make sure that all of your interns, staff assistants, and anyone else who might answer the phone is clear on how to log and prioritize these calls so that you know who to follow up with later. Send your phones to voicemail for fifteen minutes to get this set up.

Share as much information with each other as you can

The giant Microsoft Teams caseworker chats in either chamber can be unwieldy, but in previous crises, they have been invaluable for making sure that everyone has access to the same information as quickly as possible, and for making the best use of the limited time caseworkers get with agency liaisons. As always, use good chat etiquette: reread to see if your question has already been answered, stay on topic, share good information when you have it, and be good to each other. If your team is not already in those Teams chats, reach out to your delegation colleagues to be added.

Create processes for quick issue-specific updates

Many of the calls you’re getting are people looking for answers, not necessarily direct help. Talk with your comms team about how to create some process efficiency to share information with these lists as you have it — maybe that’s creating issue-specific 499 lists for quick emails or texts, or hosting invite-only Zoom meetings once a week to share information with limited groups of people.

Tap into your local networks

Both the House and Senate allow Member offices to cosponsor constituent service events. Make use of this flexibility by reaching out to local service organizations like immigration law clinics, food pantries, community centers, senior centers, disability advocates, etc. to host info sessions and resource fairs.

Think about telling casework stories

If your office is interested in sharing personal stories of how executive orders have impacted your constituents, build that into your process: consider sending selected constituents to a form on your website that collects information about their experience, and collects their consent to share that information publicly.

Newsletter: Where to start with a casework surge