Who Cares About IQ?

I was entering names from a petition into the database system that Cohen's office uses the other day, when one of the constituent representatives, Hank, came up to me. He had expressed concern in the past about whether or not I was actually learning anything useful during my time here, since he always just saw me doing the same job of entering data into the system. Of course I have learned things, but these mostly confirmed things I had already learned from the classroom. By being at the office I was able to see firsthand the employees of Congressman Cohen working to make it seem as though the Congressman really wanted to help his constituents. After I gave my brief response, Hank asked about IQ. He asked if I understood why it was important, and what functions it served. Despite using the system myself for so long, I had never before considered IQ's importance in any detail. After some time, I was able to determine some of the main functions that IQ serves.

IQ is a program that runs off of internet explorer. It catalogues every contact that either the Memphis or D.C. office comes into contact with. Every employee of Congressman Cohen has access to the information of every single person entered into IQ. This means that the data entered into IQ from the D.C. office is readily available at the Memphis office. Those people who have been entered into IQ can then be assigned to cases, allowing the constituent representatives who are working on the case to see all the progress that has been made on it in real time. It also categorizes all workflows and people records based upon their affiliations and areas of interest. In this way, one can quickly and easily pull up all persons who are relevant to a specific piece of mail. For example, last Friday, Cohen hosted the Annual Veteran's Day Lunch. Everyone who attended filled out a guest card, and those cards were given to me. I entered all the names into IQ, and attached an affiliation of "Veteran's Day Lunch 2011." Now, an employee in D.C. can search for that affiliation, create a batch of all those people, and send a form letter to each and every one of them. This is a prime example of the benefits that IQ provides.