Can’t Congress Just All Get Along?

Since President Barack Obama’s historic inauguration and awe-inspiring campaign have ended, there has been little unity between either side of Congress within and between Democrats and Republicans.

I’m not sure I can recall a more polarized Congress, as many members in each side seem to be more worried about election results than actually serving the people who elected them. Most recently, there has been a jobs bill on the table that has been approved by the House but hit a stalemate in the Senate. Republicans refuse to compromise with Democrats on issues like this, which have a direct impacts on not only Millennials but also most hard-working Americans who need to get back to work.

This past week, however, prominent Democrats and Republicans in the Senate reached a rare bipartisan agreement on steps to spur job creation. But Democratic leaders said they would move ahead on only some elements as the two parties maneuvered to address both the voter unease over gridlock in Washington and how to combat the dire strait of the economy. Progress? I’d say so, but unfortunately there is still a ways to go for complete success.

This poisonous partisan atmosphere has been apparent all throughout Obama’s first term, most notably within the healthcare reform where the bills approved through the House and Senate were strictly party-line votes. Meaning, only Democrats voted yes on both sides.

Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinion, and our champions of public service who we elected to represent us are entitled to theirs, but at what cost? At what point do these lawmakers need to simply sit down, shake hands, and come to grips with the reality of the situation? The economy has continued to cripple despite the recent drop in unemployment rate, people are still dying everyday because they do not have health insurance, and children are losing the resources they need to prepare them for the real world because of continued budget cuts and deficits.

At the end of the day, can’t we all just get along?

Keep Your Bridges Up

During the course of my college career, I have become connected to and friends with all kinds of people who I never would have imagined doing so with prior to my undergraduate career.

It is through these experiences and friendships I have learned the art of keeping up with people, staying in touch, and doing my best not to burn any bridges. Why? Because you never know when you might need somebody for something.

Some associate the word “networking” with a negative connotation, and feel that you are only talking to and meeting as many people as possible only to get something out of them. The true meaning of friendship they say is lost, and replaced by a “necessity when needed” mentality, but I beg to differ.

This is an outlook that can and should be carried into your professional career as well, for one wrong comment or one wrong move could set you back before it advances your career. Your worst enemy today could be an HR respresentative for your dream company eight years down the road. Do your best to make amends with those you may have offended or may have acted hostile towards whether it be unintenional or intentional.

Part of my job as the public affairs intern for Come Recommended is to try and establish relationships with different offices of members of Congress. When establishing relationships with strangers, it is also important to not come off to strong, abrasive or aggressive. Always remember that strangers are simply friends you haven’t met yet.

Keep your bridges up, and maintain them at the earliest sign of disaster and reap the benefits later on.

E-mail: A Forgotten Art Form

Amid the new media hysteria that Twitter, Facebook, Skype, YouTube, and others have conjured up, it is e-mail that still remains as the leader in business communication. As Gen Y members make the necessary yet impending-doom-like transition from the classroom to a cubicle, it is the sense of business tradition that may suffer and set you back before it can move you forward if forgotten.

Of all the Internet communication resources, it is e-mail that has been around the longest. Like a PB&J sandwich, e-mail is reliable and is something you can always come back to you when everything else fails and lets you down, as it is still the easiest to search and archive. Attaching files to e-mails, then downloading them to your computer, is a simple procedure that school-aged children to the elderly can manipulate, master, and control.

Like Twitter, Facebook, etc., you can use e-mail to reach a large amount of people and groups and those you are trying to reach do not have to be limited or constrained by the “network” or closed system in which you reside.

Just as e-mail did not kill the use of telephones nor regular mail letters, new media communication tools will not supplant nor replace e-mail. Additionally, it’s important to remember that as a broad term, e-mail encompass different kinds of electronic mail and some forms may remain far more prevalent than others.

Keys to successful emails:

1. Subject Line: The most important part of an e-mail by leaps and bounds, the subject line in addition to the actual sender helps determine whether you want to open it, save it, or simply delete it unread.

2. Signature: A solid signature adds a level of professionalism that is not only suggested, but is expected in the real world. It should tell people all your necessary information and the best way to reach you, so including your name, number, and business/school with expected graduation date, and possibly an important position you hold on campus.

3. Length: While pleasantries and simple small talk in appropriate in some instances, most people may not have tim to read extensive emails detailing your life story, so understand your audience and adapt appropriately prior to clicking the “send” button.

Remember, as times change there will always be things that stand the test of time and remain steadfast anchors in a sea of technological evolution. E-mail will continue to be a vital form of business communication and should be treated as such.

Stay Informed, Stay Ahead

Keeping up with the news is more of a chore than a hobby in college, as the average undergrad will probably admit. However, if one wants to succeed past being aware of the typical agenda of what’s going on that weekend in their respective college town, tune into CNN sometime or skim the NY Times headlines every few days. Knowledge and information are power, and should be treated accordingly.

My most recent assignment at Come Reccomended was to put together some appropriate research on healthcare reform for an upcoming e-book on health insurance. Instead of having to ask myself “Where do I start?” I was able to ask myself “Where do I stop?”

Being a public affairs intern requires me to be aware of  relevant issues and news that will help Come Recommended out with our mission. I have been keeping up with the pieces of healthcare reform legislation since it’s inception from last year, and by staying up on current events and everyday headlines, I can place myself under the informed citizen bracket of the spectrum and rightfully so.

No matter what profession you ultimately get into, you will be able to contribute to the relationships with your fellow professionals and co-workers via your knowledge of issues that will affect not only yourself but the potential clients you are ultimately trying to provide a service to.

Additionally, when it comes time for an interview for a certain position, by knowing about events and issues that could be pertinent to your potenial employer could be helpful in the interview process during the “questions for them” portion, and possibly move you ahead a slot or two past your fellow competitors for the same position.

I’m not saying you have to replace a lazy Saturday Law and Order: SVU marathon with a Wolf Blitzer “Situation Room” one on CNN, but reading the bylines of a newspaper or taking a glance at the news ticker on the bottom of the screen will pay off in dividends now and later.

Spreading the Word, Social Media Style

Having a party, book club meeting, or bridal shower? Make a Facebook event. Trying to solicit a vote for a candidate? Mass text people. Want to get today’s news in a flash? Check your Twitter account. Trying to spread news about a controversial election in Iran, generate and provide donations for a country in need, or figuring out Google’s departure from China? Use all three.

The impact of social media is one that has been a heavy and powerful one, especially in the past year. We’ve seen some major world events unfold on the social media stage in the past couple weeks alone, with the biggest being Google’s threat to pull out of China and the Haiti earthquake that shook up the world.

Social media allows for an almost instantaneous absorption of information and constant 24/7 flow of communication. This communication flow showed its abilities by way of the charity text message campaign in Haiti that has already raised more than $22 million for victim relief. While social media spread the word, technology made it possible.

Among other things, the summer of 2009 will be remembered in part for how the Iranian government clamped and closed down information regarding their presidential election, enforced censorship and how the social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr became the primary mediums for bringing intel out of the embattled nation and spread notes between dissidents. At the end of the day, while social media didn’t sponsor the crumbling of any governments, it did help shift Iran’s political climate.

In China, Google’s recently threatened to shut down their operations due in part to China’s attempts to “limit free speech” in addition to citing assaults from hackers on its computer systems. When news of this first broke out, hash tags went flying through Twitter world like they were going out of style. As a result, those who used Google most frequently in the world’s most populated country responded in outrage to their officials in the government.

In all three cases — China, Haiti and Iran — social media has had some kind of substantial effect and impact one way or another. As the time line of events progressively advanced, the use of the social media platforms exploded. Real-time communication platforms like Twitter and Facebook have spread the word about what’s happening within these nations, long before the mainstream media prints the story. These tools have also created a level awareness we’ve never seen before.

Here at CR, we like to use these platforms to get our message out through a 24/7 network as well, with the hope that our message will reach its intended audience and many more. As the public affairs intern, I am engaging myself within all available outlets and trying to reach our lawmakers one way or another. While social media may not necessarily be the question anymore, it is certainly establishing itself as the answer.

Greetings from a Poitical Junkie

I’d like to use my first post as an introduction of sorts, so readers can get a better feel of whose words and rambles they are digesting and interpreting. I’m Tyrone Gayle, the 2010 spring semester public affairs intern for Come Recommended. I’m currently finishing up my final semester at Clemson University, dreading yet quietly anticipating my May graduation with a B.A. in communication studies and minor in psychology.

Like most of my fellow Millennials, I was bit hard by the political bug and media frenzy that President Barack Obama’s historic presidential run created. Now, I’ve always been involved in politics, more or less, serving as a member of my respective schools’ student governments nearly every year since 5th grade, including a four-year reign as Class President in middle/high school. But it took the inspiration, fervor, and active involvement of Obama’s candidacy that really opened up my eyes and turned me into a political sponge turned junkie, eager to soak up everything and anything about politics.

For you see, if you can understand the whole “who determines who gets what and why” dynamic of politics, you can understand the world. Whether it be education, health care, environment, energy, or heck even transportation, obtaining a firm grasp on a topic opens up your brain for opportunities you never thought possible.

Not only do I feel more intelligent, but I consider myself as someone who’s more apt to understand what make this country tick, with its leaders and policy makers. Here at CR, I will be able to use the skills developed from my curriculum and past internship experiences to help reach out to these lawmakers and get them to invest their time into our generation. Our futures. Our livelihoods.

My primary responsibility is to research the best ways for us to get in contact with politicians and other organizations with goals similar to CR, and then solidify partnerships with them.

If you think your organization has similar goals to CR or merely want to chime in about education/labor force issues pertinent to CR, please free to contact me:

Email: tyrone.gayle@comerecommended.com

Twitter: @TyroneGayle

Skype: tyrone.gayle

Stay tuned for more political quandries, updates from CR, and anything else that may come your way through me.