Email Forwarding Tutorial
Legislata allows you to log messages, add constituents, and create new tasks - all without leaving your Inbox.
Contact chris@legislata.com to be given an email address for the forwarding service to be set up.
How does it work?
When you forward an email to the Legislata address, the system creates the new message in the database and attaches it to your office.
It will also search for a constituent in your database with the email address of the sender. If it finds one, it will add the message to their account. If it can’t find a constituent with that email, it will create one.
The message will then appear in your Message Dashboard and when you go to that constituent’s page, just as if you logged it in the system directly.
Adding additional data
One of the benefits of Legislata is that every message can be connected with a variety of other things, like bills, issues, and topics.
When you forward an email, you can do the same.
Simply add a few lines of text in the forwarded email and the system will match with items in the database.
Add it by typing any of the following:
Bill [put the bill’s number here]
Issue [put the issue name here]
Topic [put the topic here]
You can add the constituent’s position on the bill with
Pos [code for position].
The code for the positions are:
ss = strong support
ws = weak support
no = no opinion
wo = weak oppose
so = strong oppose
You can also immediately record whether a response is needed and whether one was sent already by adding:
Response [yes/no]
Sent [yes/no]
Create a Task
If you add:
Task yes
Legislata will create a task from this message. It will default to unassigned in your office.
What it looks like in practice
In the below email, Cornelius Vanderbilt has written into my office about bill HD62, which he supports.
I forwarded that to my email forwarding address (hidden in this screenshot). I told the system to record:
That he’s writing about bill HD62
That he wanted a response
That I sent him a response (so no one else in the office follows up)
That I should create a task from this message (perhaps because I wasn’t aware of HD62)
That Cornelius’ position is Strong Support
That the issue is Neighborhood parks
That the topic is Culture
When this email was logged in, Legislata created a new message for me with the above information, created a task, and added Cornelius to my constituent database, since this was the first time he had written to my office.
All of that with fewer words than a tweet.
