By Scott Miller
President
Posted: January 4, 2021 10:33 AM

With the 134th General Assembly set to convene on later today, Gongwer News Service offers the following notices and reminders about bill tracking, schedules, directories and other services.

Effective immediately, Gongwer's platform will recognize the 134th General Assembly as the current active session.

As a result, all bills tracked during the current session will continue to be available through the Bill Tracking page by selecting the 2019-2020 session on the right side of the screen.

Additionally, tracking groups created for the 133rd General Assembly will remain in each user's profile and bills from the previous session will continue to display in those groups.

Gongwer has prepared a series of resources for subscribers as the new session begins. This includes directories, photo guides and other resources. Gongwer's contact tools are active for the entire legislature, and committee-level contact tools will be activated when committee assignments are announced early in 2021.

A pocket directory for the new legislature will also be available when committee assignments are released.

Information on members of the outgoing 133rd General Assembly will remain in the Gongwer archives.

Gongwer's news and legislation archives date to 2003, and access to that information is available to all subscribers.

2020 marks the end of a year when Gongwer implemented countless new subscriber services and improvements, including:

• integrating committee webcasts into the Ohio Report and schedules;
• allowing the upload of documents and positions for display on bill status reports;
• establishing more robust committee pages to include Gongwer coverage from each meeting, webcasts and witness & testimony information;
• enhancing users' ability to assign tracked bills and tracking groups to colleagues and co-workers;
• launching a new dedicated resource on the upcoming redistricting process;
• increasing flexibility in terms of receiving messages via email or text;
• expanding the number of pages where bills and committees can be tracked;
• boosting website response and server speeds;

Additional service enhancements are in development and will be announced in early 2021. Subscriber suggestions for upgrades, changes and adjustments are welcome and can be sent to smiller@gongwer-oh.com.

The Gongwer staff wishes all subscribers, their families and friends the best for the new year.