Gongwer News Service Quick Start Guide

What Do I Get?

Welcome to Gongwer News Service

As a Gongwer subscriber, you have access to unmatched, ground-breaking coverage of Ohio government and politics, as well as the industry-leading collection of tools helping you monitor government operations. You are among the leaders across the state, nation and world who rely on Gongwer to bring them accurate, detailed and unbiased information about the operations and deliberations of one of the largest and most influential states in the nation.

This guide will assist you in making the most of your subscription.

As a new subscriber, you have received login information that grants you access to all Gongwer resources

This login information is yours alone, and cannot be shared with anyone else.

Update Your Preferences

First, take a moment to set your preferences. To do that, login to the Gongwer website, click Update Profile from the menu in the upper right of the site.

This window gives you many options, including:

By default, you will receive all Gongwer messages (the daily Ohio Report, breaking news, legislative floor reports, tracking alerts, media clips and more) via email.

To discontinue any of those email messages, simply uncheck the box next to the message you no longer want to receive.

To receive any messages or notifications via text, simply check the box next to the message you want to receive via text. Text messages are often delivered more quickly than email messages.

Gongwer also lets you choose whether you want to receive tracking alerts in real time or once at the end of the day. Note: On busy session days, real-time alerts are generated frequently, which can result in multiple emails or texts over the course of the day.

Once your preferences are set, click the Update button at the bottom of the window, and your preferences will be saved.

The Ohio Report

At the end of each business day, you will receive an email with the subject line of "Ohio Report" and then the day and date.

This email includes links to the full Ohio Report, which is Gongwer's flagship publication that includes coverage of major Statehouse and political events, including detailed coverage of legislative committee proceedings. To view the entire Ohio Report, simply click on the red text in the message that says Ohio Report and then the day and date.

To read any individual article, click on that headline. To view any committee report, click on the name of the committee.

The end-of-day Ohio Report email will also include links to legislative activity reports (if applicable for that day); the schedule for the following day; and legislative, event and agency calendars.

To access any Gongwer content, you will need to log in with your personal credentials. The Gongwer platform retains user login information for several days, and browsers can be directed to remember login information, making it easy to regularly access content without having to log in for each visit.

Tracking

Gongwer operates a robust tracking system that alerts you about action or scheduled action on legislation and upcoming committee action.

To track any bill individually, simply click on the Track button that appears next to the bill number. The feature is available across the Gongwer platform. To enter a series of bills to track, simply enter the numbers in the Track Bills box at the top of the Tracking page.

The Tracking page is also your home to create, customize and share real-time Status Reports and to organize your tracked legislation into Tracking Groups. In addition to information about the bills you are tracking, status reports can also include lists of recently introduced legislation and the Weekly Journal, Gongwer's headlines for the preceding week.

The Gongwer Bill Tracking Guide provides more detail on this feature.

Gongwer Archives

The Gongwer home page shows the most recent report, as well as any breaking news from the day. The News page defaults to the most recent report, but provides access to decades of Gongwer reporting on the key issues of the day.

All Gongwer resources are searchable via the home page search box or the Advanced Search page.

Schedules

The Schedules page provides the full list of legislative committee meetings, administrative board/commission meetings, and political events for the day. Options at the top of that schedule allow you to select different schedule types and choose different dates and longer time frames.

Legislative committees, where available, include links to view the meetings via webcast and indicate on the calendar which are currently in session.

All events on Gongwer calendars include calendar icons that let you save those items to your Outlook or Google calendar.

You can also track legislative committees to receive alerts when those committees schedule meetings. The same Track button appears after committee names to allow you to add them to your tracking list. Your complete list of tracked committees for a legislative session is available on the Tracking page.

Directories

The Directories page gives you access to detailed legislative and administration rosters, and makes it easy to communicate with targeted groups of lawmakers.

Each legislative directory includes communications tools that allow mail merges and emails for the full chambers and committees. Subscribers can also target communications down to the committee caucus level.

Legislative directories include lists of key staff for all members with options to contact them individually or as groups.

Elections

The Gongwer Elections page includes detailed information about current candidates and, in many cases, information about those who have filed for future elections.

Links on the page allow mass mail or email communications to candidates for the various races.

The page also hosts Gongwer articles regarding specific campaigns.

Responsive Web Design

In addition to email delivery of Gongwer resources, all Gongwer content is delivered through a responsive website, making it easy to view and use regardless of your device type.

Need More?

For questions about Gongwer's extensive services, feel free to contact us at gongwer@gongwer-oh.com or 614-221-1992.

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