The Culture of Congressional Meetings

It's been over two weeks since my last blog post. I really should be prepping for the class that I am teaching that starts tomorrow, but like all academics I know, I can put class prep off indefinitely. Heck - if I can't improvise in the classroom after 13 years of teaching, then what am I doing there anyway, right? The fact that I have taught this class, or a class like it, three or four times means that I should essentially be a pro by now. We'll see if I'm feeling like a pro when my class starts tomorrow at 9:00pm. Yes, that's right, a 9:00pm class. Thank goodness it's online. Did you hear about those classes that Bunker Hill Community College was offering at 11:45pm-2:30am? I can't imagine.

But, I digress.

So much has happened since I last blogged on November 1. Little did we know about the upset that we would experience in the presidential election. I'm reluctant to say too much about that because of my current position. So, I'll talk about a safer topic. Less exciting, I am sure, but safer.

Every workplace has their own culture. I get that. To some extent I didn't even realize that my world of academia had its own culture until I joined another office and saw how they differ in terms of physical layout, working in close proximity to each other, the difficulty in having a quiet space to carry out work, the inability to have a private phone conversation, and more. The style and culture of meetings here is especially interesting. 

When Congressional fellows are first getting their feet wet, they attend a lot of meetings. They are shadowing someone else - learning about flow of meetings with interested parties, the concerns that are brought to Congressional offices, and the questions that are asked by staffers, what they write down, what promises are made, and how they wrap up meetings. I have been impressed with how genuine staffers are with interested parties. They are interested and respectful. Always. (Or, at least in the meetings that I have attended.) The first thing that you will note upon attending one of these meetings is that there are a lot of business cards exchanged. Mary Crane taught us that the business card is a necessity in Washington and truer words were never said. 

The business card - a necessity in Washington

Meetings which are just comprised of staffers are interesting, too. One of the first things that I noticed is that in meetings where there are many people in attendance, there is a pecking order to where people sit. Those with higher level positions sit at the conference table; those with lower level positions sit around the edges--against the wall. In academia this would never happen. All faculty would be at the table. 

Everyone is busy in Washington. Always. Even in meetings. Congressional email can only be checked from within Congressional offices. So, everyone is issued a Congressional cell phone so that email can be checked 24/7. I was issued a Blackberry. Yes! They still make Blackberries. I can barely figure out how to use mine, but I can get email and check my calendar. Everyone also has their own personal cell phones and I have learned from meetings in academia, that one can basically not make it through any meeting without checking one's cell phone. We might expire if we tried. Except here in Congress? There are two cell phones to check! They are often times stacked like this. They are not always silenced. Dinging, buzzing, vibrating, all through meetings. And, people -- myself included -- check their phones all through meetings: email, texting, and Facebook alike. 

The "stacked cell phones" - a common sight in Congressional meetings.

In academia and other meetings that I attend, everyone has a bottle of water. I'm not sure how we all managed to survive before we discovered the "necessity" of having water within an arm's reach at all times of the day, but you can step back in time if you attend a Congressional meeting. No one brings water, or any beverage, to a meeting. Not even me, because I don't want to stand out as a newbie. 

Congressional staffers may not bring water to meetings, but they definitely bring notebooks. The same notebook. Everyone has one. I noticed it within one hour into my fellowship. Everyone uses a spiral-bound notebook that says SENATE on the front with some type of shield accompanying the letters. Inside one can note the date, reason for meeting, page number, and then you get to lined paper. 

An example of the coveted Senate notebook.

An example of the inside of a senate notebook.

Finally, all offices in the Senate and House buildings have special clocks. These are clocks which use a lighting system which I can barely understand, but which light up based on how much time is left to take a vote or when other activities are going on. You can learn more about them here, because I've got to get back to the academic portion of my life and finish prepping for tomorrow night's class. It's especially fitting that I'm teaching a class on social action, methods of persuasion, and policy advocacy. I'll be tempted to start class tomorrow night with insider-stories, but I think that I'll stick the most consistent area of confusion for students studying policy: the difference between a legislaTOR, a legislaTURE, and legislaTION. Keep it simple, Dr. Douglas. 

Congressional clock