New! Committee Reports (2021)

• Introduction
• What's Included?
  • Showing Your Work: Actions & Notes
  • Visualizations
  • Rosters, Committee hierarchy & Contact Information
• How to Create a Committee Report
• Committee Reports: Best Practices
• New! Committee Reports (2021) 1-pager

Introduction

There is a reason the new Stakeholder Reports feature includes committees: they may be some of the most impactful government entities on your or your client's radar.  Read below to learn how to create Stakeholder Reports specifically for committees, what information from committee pages can be included, and a few best practice recommendations for using Committee Reports to your advantage.

What's Included?

3 panels from the Overview tab of committee pages will always be included in Committee Reports:

• Basic Information
• Leadership & Members
• Committee Hierarchy (parent or sub-committee assignments)

**Click here [LINK] to learn more about the overview tab on committee pages.

To enhance committee reports when delivering progress updates to stakeholders, for example, choose to include your own work with Actions & Notes. 

Include any available Contact and Staff should follow-up, outreach, or further research be necessary.

Showing Your Work: Actions & Notes

Documenting key committee hearings, meetings, or interactions is often critical for long-term success.  Even if your organization doesn't actively lobby or interact with government staff, noting updates to the topics you care about will aid in understanding the ebb and flow of the legislature's position. 

Now, when critical updates have been documented with Actions, you can share them with others in Committee Reports:

Visualizations

If Actions are included, committee reports become enhanced with a bar chart, breaking down the total activity by type:

Rosters, Committee hierarchy & Contact Information

The full committee roster from the 'Leadership & Members' panel on the committee page will be displayed.  Rosters are complete with additional graphics, including headshots and yellow stars to indicate those those whom you've already interacted with:

Committee hierarchy will always be included towards the bottom of the report.  This will indicate a full list of sub-committees, or on the contrary, the single parent committee.  If Contacts and Staff are included, those will be displayed in list format towards the bottom of the report as well:

How to Create a Committee Report

First, find the committee within FiscalNote.  Next, follow the steps below. 

**Click here [LINK] to learn more about finding key committees, sub-committees and caucuses.  

1. Click 'Create Report' at the top right of the Committee Page:

2. Within the Create Report panel, Enter a Title. Titles will only be visible by you in the Reports Center.

3. Enter a Headline and Summary.  This section will appear below the committee's 'Basic Information', such as chamber or partisan split.  We highly recommend using this section to detail either: a) what this report entails, or b) the report's purpose:

4. Choose to add or not to add any Group and Organizational Notes that have been added to the committee page.  Clicking 'Group and Organizational Notes' opens the option to include just 1 (Personal Notes will not be included):

5. Choose to add or not to add Actions.  Including Actions will automatically tell the report to include both a) The list of important committee meetings or hearings that you have documented, and b) A bar chart breaking down those documented events by Action type (Ex: Meeting, Hearing, Email, etc.)

6. Choose to add or not to add Contacts and Staff.  If available within FiscalNote, they will be located at the bottom of your report.  Click the 'Contacts & Staff' tab on the Committee Page to get a an idea of what information to expect.

7. Click Generate Report.  That's it!  Clicking 'Generate Report' does two things at once: a) Saves a copy of the Report in your Reports Center, and b) generates a preview:

Committee Reports: Best Practices

1. Use Titles to Your Advantage.  Titles will only be seen by you in the Reports Center.  If you have to generate the same committee report for 3 different audiences, finding the right version will become troublesome.  Add the intended audience to your title for easy recognition.

2. Always add a Headline and Summary.  Much like titles, Headlines and Summaries will help both you and your Stakeholders remember what the report is for.  Headlines and Summaries will be especially when sharing PDF copies that may be stored then accessed by recipients at a future date. 

3. Be Mindful of What You Include.  Most important to remember for large teams working together in FiscalNote, your Actions, Organizational and Group Notes are available for colleagues to view within FiscalNote.  If your audience does not need this information, don't include it.  

For example: Larry just started working at a vehicle safety organization.  His team of 15 people works together in FiscalNote.  Larry has been included in 2 User Groups by the team admin: Dept - Government Affairs, and Cybersecurity.  The Cybersecurity team shares sensitive information via Group Notes on committee pages.  Larry learns from his new team that any government affairs-related notes should be added as an Organizational Note, because the Cybersecurity Group's Notes are not allowed to be included.

Note: We are constantly rolling out updates and making improvements to the platform. Please help us keep the Help Center up to date by reporting any information that may need some updating at support@fiscalnote.com.