One congressional question may be routine. Three or four on the same subject can signal an emerging issue.
Ashley Davis, Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA), and Mark Melino, Special Legislative Technology & Operations Assistant, help the office identify those signals early.
As VA’s coordination point for Congress, OCLA manages congressional interactions, briefings, hearings, and questions affecting Veterans. The office uses Quorum to track that work, identify emerging patterns, prepare VA leadership, and demonstrate the team’s impact.
Dashboards and documented workflows make that work visible, while an internal governance committee and ongoing support from Quorum’s Professional Services team help OCLA refine the system and maintain adoption.
Challenge: Turning Congressional Activity Into Measurable Impact
Government affairs teams do essential work, but their value can be difficult to quantify. A congressional relations officer may answer questions, coordinate briefings, prepare officials for hearings, or resolve issues before they escalate. The impact often becomes clear only when those interactions are viewed together.
OCLA needed to turn a high volume of congressional engagement into actionable intelligence:
- Which issues are generating the most interest?
- Are multiple congressional offices asking similar questions?
- Should VA organize a proactive briefing?
- Where is the team focusing its time?
- How does that work advance the Department’s mission?
“That is one of the biggest uses of [Quorum]. Its ability to demonstrate our value in the organization,” said Davis. “For as long as government affairs has been around, [that] is a difficult thing to quantify.”
OCLA also needed stronger adoption. The office had previously attempted to implement Quorum, but that effort occurred before Davis and Melino joined the project. When they approached the platform again, they knew access to technology alone would not solve the problem.
“Because it is so customizable, we needed an implementation specialist,” said Davis.
Success required clear workflows, internal ownership, leadership participation, and an experienced partner that could help OCLA adapt the platform to its operations.
Solution: A Five-Step System for Turning Activity Into Action
OCLA developed a five-step system for capturing congressional activity, identifying emerging issues, demonstrating impact, and improving how teams use Quorum over time.
Step 1: Build the Workflow Before Launch
Before implementing its new approach, OCLA defined workflows, documented expectations, and established standard operating procedures for different teams.
The team documented how each operation should use Quorum, set expectations through training, invited feedback, and established a process for refining the system over time. This gave team members a clear starting point without treating the initial setup as permanent.
“From a management perspective, I think how you implement the tool is 100 percent how successful it will be,” said Davis.
Davis and Melino also created a way for people to continue shaping the system after launch. Directors, senior advisors, and other users could identify improvements based on their responsibilities and experience.
“Make sure you have a plan. Make sure you’re communicating with your staff. And then — make sure that you build something on the back end,” said Davis. “It’s an iterative process.”
Step 2: Treat Implementation as an Ongoing Partnership
Joanna Ramirez of Quorum’s Professional Services team supported OCLA as it built and refined its system. She began by asking what the office wanted to accomplish and offered to either build the system or teach the team how to manage it. OCLA chose to develop that knowledge internally.
“Joanna was amazing. She reached out and said, ‘What do you want to do? Let’s sit down and talk through the process,’” said Davis.
After Melino joined OCLA, he began meeting every two weeks with Ramirez and OCLA’s Account Manager to review issues, discuss enhancements, and explore new capabilities.
“One thing I appreciate is how they take our issues seriously. And they are collaborative,” said Melino.
OCLA valued the partnership enough to pursue additional Professional Services time in its next contract.
Step 3: Turn Repeated Questions Into Early Signals
By recording congressional activity in Quorum, OCLA can examine interactions collectively rather than treating each request as an isolated event.
One congressional question may require a response. Several questions about the same subject may indicate that VA should address the issue more broadly.
“Because [Quorum] can identify that we’ve gotten three or four questions about this same topic, we’re now able to go and say, ‘Hey, let’s do a briefing on it. Let’s get ahead of this,’” said Davis.
OCLA can use these patterns to recommend a briefing and prepare VA leaders before additional congressional offices raise the same concern. The data becomes more than a record of past activity — it becomes an early indicator of where congressional interest may be building.
Step 4: Make the Team’s Impact Visible
Dashboards give OCLA a consolidated view of the work performed by its congressional relations officers. Instead of relying on individual anecdotes, leaders can examine activity across teams and translate it into a clearer picture of organizational impact.
“Just giving us the snapshot of the work that we’ve done helps us translate that into impact,” said Melino.
Together, those insights show VA leadership where congressional interest is building and how OCLA is responding.
“We’re starting to see the tangible benefits of that, and it should only improve as we get more in the zone,” said Melino.
This visibility helps OCLA explain both how much work the office performs and what that work allows VA to accomplish.
Step 5: Create Shared Ownership
OCLA established a monthly governance committee composed of directors and senior advisors. The committee provides a formal forum for discussing feedback, reviewing enhancements, and guiding the continued use of Quorum.
“It can’t just be Ashley and me making the decisions about this tool,” said Melino.
The committee gives each operation a voice, creates accountability among directors, and prevents the platform from depending on two administrators. It also allows leaders to shape how Quorum supports their teams, even if they do not enter information daily.
With Quorum becoming the office’s backbone, Melino said the teams now need to move forward in lockstep.
“I think that’s what really drives consistency and use of the tool,” said Melino.
Impact: A More Proactive Congressional Affairs Operation
With Quorum, OCLA has used patterns in congressional questions to identify topics that warranted proactive briefings. Dashboards make the work of congressional relations officers more visible, while the governance committee helps teams use the platform consistently.
Ongoing support from Quorum’s Professional Services team gives OCLA a way to review issues, evaluate enhancements, and introduce new capabilities as its needs evolve. Combined with OCLA’s internal ownership, that partnership has helped generate stronger adoption than during the office’s previous implementation.
As OCLA records more activity in Quorum, each interaction adds context to the next — helping the team recognize emerging issues earlier, prepare VA leadership, and demonstrate its impact.
What Other Government Affairs Teams Can Learn From OCLA
OCLA’s experience with Quorum shows that implementing government affairs technology depends as much on governance as it does on the tool itself.
Teams planning a similar rollout can apply five lessons:
- Design the workflow before launch.
- Treat implementation as an ongoing partnership.
- Look for patterns — not only totals.
- Give leaders a role in governance.
- Refine the system as organizational needs change.
For OCLA, Quorum helps the office understand what Congress needs, prepare VA leadership for emerging issues, and make the impact of legislative affairs work visible. Quorum’s Professional Services team helps OCLA continue adapting that system as its needs evolve.