I worked 2 days this week, from 9-5 both days.
On Thursday, I did a variety of things. When I got there, they had me start up by cutting newspapers like I have done almost every other day. However, the amount of newspapers increased (3-4), so that took me more time. There were two articles I believe that I had to copy and file away. One was from the day before Thursday criticizing the NOAA and their restrictions on the fishing industry, explaining that many fishermen predict that their caution will end the industry as a whole in places like Gloucester and New Bedford. The second article, written on Thursday, was a response to the previous one. It explained that the NOAA believed things were going to only get better from the situation they were in in the year 2009.
I also started faxing stuff down to Washington DC and opening mail for the secretary. I would open the mail and put it in the respective person's folder (each person deals with a specific issue, and most went to the scheduler because they wanted the Congressman to show up at an event). The rest of the day, I answered phones. It was my first time doing that for an extended period of time. A lot of the phone calls I got were from people who already knew what they wanted, but one lady wasn't sure who she was supposed to talk to in the office. She had heard something about Social Security and wanted to know if it was true. I transfered her to the secretary, who told her that the group that sent her the letter with all of this information was known for trying to threaten people into giving money to the organization (they claimed they could stop the "crisis") and that there was nothing to worry about. I got out around 5:30.
The next day, I was told to show up around 8:45 AM because Gary Barrett, the District Director, would be taking me to a speech in a Salem Hotel where Congressman Tierney would be speaking. We went to the hotel and got our respective seats, and I watched the Congressman talk about Medicare, Social Security, and senior citizen health for about 15-20 minutes. He was one of a few politicians, mostly state, there to convince this senior citizen group that they were doing all they could to help out their situation.
Then, I had my first experience with Congressman Tierney personally. Me, him, and one of the office workers all drove back together to the Peabody offices. It was about a 20 minute drive. The Congressman was extremely kind, talkative, and personable. I was amazed at how nice he was, as the media nowadays tends to show politicians as being selfish, elitist, and arrogant human beings. We talked about sports, high school, colleges, and a few other things. He never made me feel out of place as an intern. He even asked if we could stop at a Dunkin' Donuts (which we did) and then asked me if he wanted him to get anything for me in there. While I was already full, I could tell that the Congressman was a really genuine and nice person from the beginning.
We got back around 11 AM, and I went straight to work with opening up the mail like I did the day before. After I sorted all of the mail out, I was given a stack of 6 or 7 newspapers and had to find articles, like every other day, that mention Congressman Tierney or in some way link local issues to the Federal Government. The only main article I remember seeing was in the Jewish Journal (though there was a minor one about FEMA again). There were actually two articles, both on the topic of Tierney and his support or, as one said, lack there of, of Israel. The first article claimed that he didn't have the strongest voting record in supporting Israel, and had a really long quote by the Congressman. What both I and the secretary found interesting was the fact that the Journal interviewed John Tierney personally, but that they used the quote to negatively portray him. I got the feeling that the office sort of felt like the journal was cheating by not telling them the purpose of their article before interviewing him. The other article was a response to the criticism by another Jewish man, who claimed the exact opposite, that Tierney always votes to support Israel as much as he should.
For the rest of the day, I answered phones and sent out a couple of letters to people who wanted to have a tour given to the in Washington of the Capitol.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
May 5, 2010
This week, I worked at John Tierney's office on Tuesday and Wednesday. I worked about 5 hours each day.
I did the same thing essentially each day. Though it was still a bit boring, it's a bit better than what I was doing before (filing closed cases) because I got to go on the Internet and sometimes use the phone. At first, I needed to update all of the information for all of the police and fire department chiefs' contact information on a sheet of paper. This ended up being about 16 pages long, with about 3 towns per page more or less.
Then, Claudia (the secretary) had me cross reference the information (including phone, fax, email, address, and name) with those in their database, which had last been updated in early September of 2009. Their database allows them to send out standardized letters to each of the chiefs without having to personalize them themselves. The computer does it for them, so we had to make sure that all of the contact information was correct. On almost every one of them, there was something to change. Whether it be the way we address them (Chief _______) or the phone number, things changed in almost all of the chiefs contacts.
A lot of towns had also had elections recently, since September, and chosen new fire chiefs or police chiefs. So, if that was the case, I would look up the old fire or police chief and replace their name with the new one, and make sure all of the contact information was up to date.
If there was an irregularity, for example if I couldn't find the address or email address of the chief on the police department's website, I called the police department to ask for it. I probably made at least a dozen calls to various police and fire departments asking for email addresses. It was the first time I had been asked to call someone representing John Tierney's office.
The man who asked for the information said he needed it updated because the Congressman is about to send out new "grants and information" to each of the fire and police departments, so he needs to have some way to contact the heads of those departments.
They're all really nice at the office, and they even made me a birthday card (May 3rd) with each of them writing a little note appreciating my work. I certainly learn a lot about how a local Congressman's office functions.
Though I haven't seen Congressman Tierney since before April break personally, I have been able to pay attention to how things work in the office and its atmosphere. Everyone there is much more human than I expected, to be honest. I knew I was going to work for part of the bureaucracy, so I expected essentially hardcore machines to be hammering out facts, statistics, legislation, and information. However, in reality, they are based around talking and dealing with the constituents and their cases, so emotions, both good and bad, certainly can come out. Everyone there has unique personalities, and the people are much more entertaining and talkative than I expected them to be towards an intern.
Oh, and the other day, I got to go into the Congressman's office for the first time. He wasn't there, and I was just shredding paper, but it was an awesome experience for an aspiring politician. I wrote down, with the Secretary's permission, almost all of the books he had in his office so that I could eventually buy them and read them. There were some very interesting ones!
I did the same thing essentially each day. Though it was still a bit boring, it's a bit better than what I was doing before (filing closed cases) because I got to go on the Internet and sometimes use the phone. At first, I needed to update all of the information for all of the police and fire department chiefs' contact information on a sheet of paper. This ended up being about 16 pages long, with about 3 towns per page more or less.
Then, Claudia (the secretary) had me cross reference the information (including phone, fax, email, address, and name) with those in their database, which had last been updated in early September of 2009. Their database allows them to send out standardized letters to each of the chiefs without having to personalize them themselves. The computer does it for them, so we had to make sure that all of the contact information was correct. On almost every one of them, there was something to change. Whether it be the way we address them (Chief _______) or the phone number, things changed in almost all of the chiefs contacts.
A lot of towns had also had elections recently, since September, and chosen new fire chiefs or police chiefs. So, if that was the case, I would look up the old fire or police chief and replace their name with the new one, and make sure all of the contact information was up to date.
If there was an irregularity, for example if I couldn't find the address or email address of the chief on the police department's website, I called the police department to ask for it. I probably made at least a dozen calls to various police and fire departments asking for email addresses. It was the first time I had been asked to call someone representing John Tierney's office.
The man who asked for the information said he needed it updated because the Congressman is about to send out new "grants and information" to each of the fire and police departments, so he needs to have some way to contact the heads of those departments.
They're all really nice at the office, and they even made me a birthday card (May 3rd) with each of them writing a little note appreciating my work. I certainly learn a lot about how a local Congressman's office functions.
Though I haven't seen Congressman Tierney since before April break personally, I have been able to pay attention to how things work in the office and its atmosphere. Everyone there is much more human than I expected, to be honest. I knew I was going to work for part of the bureaucracy, so I expected essentially hardcore machines to be hammering out facts, statistics, legislation, and information. However, in reality, they are based around talking and dealing with the constituents and their cases, so emotions, both good and bad, certainly can come out. Everyone there has unique personalities, and the people are much more entertaining and talkative than I expected them to be towards an intern.
Oh, and the other day, I got to go into the Congressman's office for the first time. He wasn't there, and I was just shredding paper, but it was an awesome experience for an aspiring politician. I wrote down, with the Secretary's permission, almost all of the books he had in his office so that I could eventually buy them and read them. There were some very interesting ones!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
April 28, 2010
I worked at John Tierney's office on Tuesday and Wednesday, for a total of about 12 hours I believe. I actually got in a car crash unfortunately on my way to work on Tuesday, so I was a bit late that day.
However, literally all I did the entire time was help clean the office. The other people who worked for Tierney had found closed cases that they had long stored away when they were cleaning, and the secretary (Claudia) gave them to me to file. I would record them in the computer (the name of the person with the request, the issue, and the date it was resolved/closed) and then bring them to the basement to file them in that year's box. There were literally hundreds of cases for each year. I did that for all cases closed prior to 2009. For the ones closed in 2008, I placed them upstairs in a file so they're closer to everyone, because it's more likely they'll need those for reference than the older ones.
They literally have hard files back to the late 1990s downstairs in case the case isn't accessible through the computer, it's amazing how much information is down in the basement. They clear the cases after 6 years (so the ones closed in 2009 will be gotten rid of in 2014).
The two new things I did were cleaning up the newspaper files and logging into Tierney's District Office website with a confidential username and password. The newspaper files were all messed up and looking really bad, so I just organized them. They get daily newspapers from literally every newspaper in the county to see when Tierney's name or the Federal Government is mentioned. And then they store the newspapers if they need to come back to them. I got rid of the newspapers prior to April (they only keep them for one month) and stacked them up in a nice, clean way. I also got to look at a more compact way to navigate around what's going on in DC (the bills being debated, passed, and their specifics) by logging in with the help of the secretary. It has literally all the information one could ever need in there, it's quite interesting. I wish it was available to the general public, I don't believe there were any real secrets in there at all.
It was kind of boring these past two days, but Claudia mentioned that I may answer phones soon, so hopefully it'll get more interesting
However, literally all I did the entire time was help clean the office. The other people who worked for Tierney had found closed cases that they had long stored away when they were cleaning, and the secretary (Claudia) gave them to me to file. I would record them in the computer (the name of the person with the request, the issue, and the date it was resolved/closed) and then bring them to the basement to file them in that year's box. There were literally hundreds of cases for each year. I did that for all cases closed prior to 2009. For the ones closed in 2008, I placed them upstairs in a file so they're closer to everyone, because it's more likely they'll need those for reference than the older ones.
They literally have hard files back to the late 1990s downstairs in case the case isn't accessible through the computer, it's amazing how much information is down in the basement. They clear the cases after 6 years (so the ones closed in 2009 will be gotten rid of in 2014).
The two new things I did were cleaning up the newspaper files and logging into Tierney's District Office website with a confidential username and password. The newspaper files were all messed up and looking really bad, so I just organized them. They get daily newspapers from literally every newspaper in the county to see when Tierney's name or the Federal Government is mentioned. And then they store the newspapers if they need to come back to them. I got rid of the newspapers prior to April (they only keep them for one month) and stacked them up in a nice, clean way. I also got to look at a more compact way to navigate around what's going on in DC (the bills being debated, passed, and their specifics) by logging in with the help of the secretary. It has literally all the information one could ever need in there, it's quite interesting. I wish it was available to the general public, I don't believe there were any real secrets in there at all.
It was kind of boring these past two days, but Claudia mentioned that I may answer phones soon, so hopefully it'll get more interesting
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
April 14, 2010
Today, I worked my second day at Congressman John Tierney's (D-MA) local office. I worked from 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM. I had two AP classes in the morning.
I had one new assignment today. One of the people working there had me order, both chronologically and alphabetically, all of the letters of support for various things that Congressman Tierney had signed since approximately 1998. There were, I estimate, about 150 of these personal letters, and this took me about two hours. While I am not allowed to discuss the specifics of what I was filing, I believe I am allowed to say that they varied from letters of recommendation to letters simply supporting the allocation of funds to local public works projects.
I then finished the job that I was doing last week. Some of the cases that I was originally filing were from years before 2008, so I had to add them to the computer list (with the first and last names, issue, and case closed), and then put them in a box alphabetically and file them in the basement. There were dozens of boxes from issues going all the way back to 2002 downstairs, which amazes me. They said they can't keep them in their computer database because, since they represent a political figure, they get a lot of spam and things that shut down their networks.
That's about all I did today, it was generally boring, but I did go get lunch with the District Director and was told I'll be hopefully going out with the Congressman soon.
I had one new assignment today. One of the people working there had me order, both chronologically and alphabetically, all of the letters of support for various things that Congressman Tierney had signed since approximately 1998. There were, I estimate, about 150 of these personal letters, and this took me about two hours. While I am not allowed to discuss the specifics of what I was filing, I believe I am allowed to say that they varied from letters of recommendation to letters simply supporting the allocation of funds to local public works projects.
I then finished the job that I was doing last week. Some of the cases that I was originally filing were from years before 2008, so I had to add them to the computer list (with the first and last names, issue, and case closed), and then put them in a box alphabetically and file them in the basement. There were dozens of boxes from issues going all the way back to 2002 downstairs, which amazes me. They said they can't keep them in their computer database because, since they represent a political figure, they get a lot of spam and things that shut down their networks.
That's about all I did today, it was generally boring, but I did go get lunch with the District Director and was told I'll be hopefully going out with the Congressman soon.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
April 9, 2010
Today, I worked my first day at Congressman John Tierney's (D-MA) local office. I worked from 9:00-10:45 and 3:00-6:00 (I had class from 11:09-2:15).
I was first introduced around the office and met almost everyone who works there (some of them were not in the office at the time because they were with Tierney in Amesbury, where he was meeting with some local companies). It struck me that there was probably only one male working there out of the dozen or so people who do. Here's a list of what I did that day:
I was first introduced around the office and met almost everyone who works there (some of them were not in the office at the time because they were with Tierney in Amesbury, where he was meeting with some local companies). It struck me that there was probably only one male working there out of the dozen or so people who do. Here's a list of what I did that day:
- At the office, they have dozens of daily newspapers from the towns in his Congressional District. I sat down and underlined/highlighted about 4-5 newspapers with articles that pertained to the Federal Government becoming involved. All of the articles I highlighted (and continued to copy and store in a folder) had to do with the March floods that our county had. FEMA and other organizations were coming to Essex County to help give out supplies.
- I then was assigned to filing numerous the complaints and requests that Tierney's office had in 2008 in alphabetic order. I put them into boxes (3 in total) so that they could move the files to storage downstairs and proceed to put the 2009 complaints and requests in the same place where the 2008 ones used to be (so that they are easier to access). I finished this at 10:45 (A-Z) and then went to school
- I got back around 3:00 PM, and they let me park in their parking lot so I didn't have to pay to park on the street. I then started to alphabetically order the cases on an Excel Spreadsheet. I had to do every single one of them (I only had time for A-C) and include both their first and last names, the Issue (ie. IRS or Immigration), and the date the case was closed (the last time somebody worked on it). I worked on that for the final 3 or so hours.
I also met Congressman Tierney briefly. He grew up in Salem and was a much bigger person than I'd have expected. He was nice, as I really didn't expect him to take even a few seconds out of his daily life (he had a schedule from 7:30 AM until 10 PM that day) to converse with an intern.
The people also vented from time to time about the obviously inept constituents that called up from time to time. They'd get very angry for no apparent reason on the phone. Obviously, tensions do run high, but for a lot of the conversations, there was no point in them complaining so much about random stuff. I can't discuss the specifics, but there were some interesting things going on that I've obviously never seen.
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