1. Ashley Terry
Field Period Journals
Summer 2014
Day 1: 5/23/14
Today was a very exciting day. I was able to meet the Congressman for the first time.
Our first part of the day we went to a Rotary meeting where the Congressman was the honored
guest for the afternoon. I got to observe how a rotary meeting ran and see Congressman Gibson
give a small speech. Then we went to a campaign kick-off where he invited veterans and spoke
about hoping to get re-elected in the fall. After, we took pictures, handed out signs, flyers, and
bumper stickers, and talked to constituents. When this was all over all the interns helped pick
up. After I met with my supervisor and she showed me a bit about what I would be doing in the
coming weeks while in the office. She expressed that today was a more exciting day than most
and that I would usually be doing data entry and filing.
Day 2: 5/27/14
Today was a more quiet, learning day. I filed paperwork for most of the day. While
filing I learned about the different topics Congressman Gibson focuses on. I also got to read
some of the letters sent to him through the office. Some were of support while others were
complaints. It was very interesting to see all that must be kept in the office. I also had to file
closed cases, this helps in case something new happens to come up or Paula just needs to make a
reference back to an old case. Paula also discussed more of what I will be doing during my time
there. I also got to send a Privacy Action Release Form, also called a PARF, and learned about
franked mail.
Day 3: 5/29/14
Today I was given more to do. To start the day out I observed Paula working a bit more
before she put me at the desk for the afternoon. She taught me about Fireside, which is the
program used to log in information about cases. For the rest of the day I answered some phone
calls, read emails, and printed awards for upcoming ceremonies Paula and Chris were going to. I
also prepared Paula for her meetings next week by printing out what her meetings were and any
important information that went along with it. We put them in folders so she could just grab
them when she was ready to go. The last couple hours she had to leave so I was in the office by
myself. During this time I logged in contact information, filed more paperwork, and sent another
PARF.
Day 4: 6/3/14

2. Today I was in the office by myself the whole day. Paula was out with the Congressman
at a presentation and then a funeral of a very important man. During the day I logged in more
contact information, answered telephones and read emails. While answering telephones I could
not really do much so I had to take down as much information as possible for Paula to get when
she came back the next day. After each phone call I had to log it into fireside, this involved
finding the constituent in the program and writing a brief summary of what they had to say. I got
some calls involving case work and some that just wanted to make their opinion known about
certain issues. Paula had a meeting the in the office about a case but could not make it so I had
to take up the persons information and let them know she will give them a call as soon as she
can. The office also received a PARF via snail mail which I then scanned into the computer and
uploaded into Fireside.
Day 5: 6/5/14
Today was a short day, Paula was very busy on the computer doing casework so I could
not do much. Most of the work she has me doing is on the computer and she tries to schedule
meetings out of the office the days I am there. While I was at the office I made collages of the
Congressman to hang on the back wall of the office. I also read some articles about the
Congressman in local newspapers to learn more about his views and the topics he finds most
important. Before leaving for the day, I filed more paperwork and tried to fix a part on the filing
cabinet in order for more papers to be filed.
Day 6: 6/10/14
Today I did the same general thing I will be doing from here on out. I entered more
contacts into the computer, answered phones, filed paperwork, sent more PARFs, logged in
information on Fireside and got Paula ready for her events. I also started to make phone calls to
constituents and witnessed more constituents come into the office. We received a letter in the
office that was a bunch of opinion polls from some high schoolers in the district. Paula had me
get there addresses to send a response back to them. Paula also had me work on cases and start a
new case. It was nice to see that the photos I set up earlier were hung up on the wall behind the
computer.
Day 7: 6/12/14
Today I had to come in a bit later than normal because the second computer is still not up
and she had a lot of computer work she needed to get done. While I was there I filed more
paperwork, answered phones and worked on some cases. Paula showed me a new part of
Fireside today called mailroom that is where she sees all the cases that are referred to her. We
worked on some together and ended up starting some new cases because of it. A few were just
comments, but Paula made sure to call the person anyway to check up. After that she had a few
events to get to so I stayed in the office to continue answering phones. Between phone calls I
would look up any events in Delaware county newspapers that might be a good place for the
congressmen to stop by at. I had to enter the information into the universal calendar entitled

3. “What’s Doin’ in Delaware” and forward it to Paula. Before I left a man came in and donated
money to Congressman Gibson’s reelection campaign.
Day 8: 6/7/14
Before I start today I wanted to mention something that happened to me yesterday at my
job. I work for the ARC and there was an award banquet this past weekend. One of the
consumers I work with received an award and a bunch of certificates from the areas government
officials, one of the certificates was one a printed out weeks earlier at the congressman's office.
It was very cool to see the work I was doing was reaching outside the office. The consumer was
very happy and proud of her certificates and awards and I was happy I was able to be a part of
that.
While at the office I organized paperwork, opened mail, updated cases, answered phone
calls and read more articles on the congressman. I also tried to set up a computer to be able to
work on cases and answer phones the same time as Paula. However, we could not figure it out
and are waiting on IT. We also watched a video on Congressman Gibson’s opponent, Sean
Eldridge. We observed how he conducted himself in an interview and listened to his opinions on
different topics. Paula noticed he was a very good speaker. I specifically felt that him and
Congressman Gibson had very similar ideas about certain topics, but different opinions how to
change and implement them.
Day 9: 6/19/14
Today I was alone in the office, Paula gave me a big project to work on all day. I had to
go through all her cases and make sure they all had the information they needed. If they did not I
was to upload the missing information into fireside. I also had to make sure her hard files were
up-to-date and remove any closed cases to get filed. I also answered phones, read more articles,
and updated events. When I was done with the cases I added more contacts into her contact
book before heading home for the day.
Day 10: 6/24/14
Today there was not much excitement. I did the same general things I do most days, took
phone calls, file paperwork, entered contacts, scanned files, sent mail and updated cases. I also
searched for information that Paula needed as well as finally fixed the filing cabinet. Paula also
had me look for articles with the congressman’s name in it and any articles that had information
about the big topics the office is dealing with at the time. One of these topics is the Constitution
Pipeline, there is a lot of controversy regarding this pipeline in the district. I found out today that
Congressman Gibson and his offices can write recommendation letters for people in search of a
new job. Paula had to write one today and made a bunch of phone calls to make sure this person
was worth writing a recommendation for. This may be a possible idea for my future job search.
Day 11: 6/26/14

4. I started alone today, I almost did not think I was going to make it in because of the
severe flooding in my area. While there I answered a phone call regarding the flooding updating
me about the road closings. I also read emails and articles about the congressman. When Paula
arrived, she had me look for articles regarding the congressman in the local papers, update cases,
open snail mail, and send faxes. She had to leave early so she left me to update the Delaware
county calendar and contacts.
Day 12: 7/1/14
When I walked in today there was a phone conference just starting. Paula had me take
notes. It was about a program that is going to be held regarding a local river. After the meeting
was over, roughly an hour and a half later, Paula had me open and send snail mail, read emails
and articles, and label some folders. After lunch, and for the rest of the day I worked on getting
my computer set up so Paula and I could work at the same time. There were problems and I am
going to have to try again Thursday. Hopefully the computer gets set up before I finish this Field
Period.
Day 13: 7/3/14
I started the day alone. I read articles, updated contacts, and filed paperwork while
waiting for Paula. Once Paula was there I observed her working and helped to work on a few
cases. I got a phone call to work on the computers, unfortunately the original man that I was
working with last week never let his colleagues know that they needed to call our office. The
woman that called me about the computers said I would have to wait until he got back from
vacation. This is getting very frustrating. Paula had to leave early so I was able to do computer
work while she was gone on her computer. I answered more phone calls, sent and read emails,
updated the calendar and searched for more articles on the congressman.
Day 14: 7/8/14
This week I am alone in the office because Paula is on vacation. I had to listen to any
messages left and call back everyone who was having a question regarding their case. I had to
inform them that Paula is out of the office this week and she will get back to them as soon as
possible. If the caller sounded angry or upset in some way I was to contact Paula and she would
see what she could do from vacation. I got one angry call and an email from different people,
but most of the day was smooth sailing with few calls. Most of the day I did the standard of
answering phone calls, updating cases, filing paperwork, reading emails, reading articles on the
congressman, entering contacts and updating the calendar. While emailing I was informed that if
I ever wanted to stop down to DC I just had to let the office know. This excites me because I
love DC and I really want to do a field period and maybe even work there. I will definitely keep
this in mind for my next Field Period option. Still no update on the computers.
Day 15: 7/10/14

5. While alone today because Paula is still on her vacation I did the same old things.
Worked on cases, answered phone calls, read emails, etc. The office did receive some snail mail
and a few constituents came in, but the majority of my day was transferring contacts from
Paula’s big notebooks into the computer. I did not get very far though. There were not a lot of
phone calls and the ones I did get said they would just wait for Paula to return on Monday. Kind
of a boring job when you are not the main person who knows what they are doing.
Day 16: 7/15/14
Today, Paula was back in the office and was very busy playing catch up. I tried to get the
computer working and the man told me he would call back later, he never did. I did end up
getting it to connect to the internet though. I also tried to connect my securID, but that did not
work either, very frustrating. So for the rest of the day I ran some errands and made calendars
for events going on. This took most of the day and I will have more to do on Thursday. A
couple constituents came in today and called wondering what Chris’ views were on the recent
immigration bill going through Congress. They seemed very upset about it. Paula also invited
me to Fair on the Square in Delhi on Friday. They will be campaigning for Chris there. She also
invited me to the county fair when the congressman goes. I am pretty excited about this, they
both should be great learning experiences to see how on the road campaigning goes. However,
Paula told me that this race is very mild compared to two years ago and the man the congressman
is running against, Eldridge, is already around 30 points behind Chris. Paula also made the
interesting point of if Eldridge wants to change the way congress is being ran why run against
someone who is doing a good job? There are many people in congress who are not doing any
good there or have been there too long and he has enough money to move anywhere, so why
here? This makes a lot of sense to me, Eldridge seems like there is some other agenda he is after.
Day 17: 7/17/14
Today I worked on a large community calendar and looked up events in the newspapers,
as well as articles on the congressman. Two constituents came in that were having a problem
with the VA. While talking with Paula and I about the problem they were having, Paula had to
keep digging for information because they were not giving her much. After they left she pointed
this out to me and some of the flaws in their story, as well as how their story kept changing with
the more questions she asked. I hardly noticed, which is why I am the intern and she is the
constituent representative. Paula had to leave early so I closed up the day by working on some
cases.
Day 18: 7/18/14
Today was Fair on the Square. We had a tent on the strip and handed out lawn signs,
bumper stickers and pamphlets about the congressman. We had a lot of constituents come up to
us with questions or just wanted to comment about the congressman. A lot of people in the area
seem to like him, which is great for the campaign. Some people did come and complain of
course, but Paula handled it very well and I was very impressed. I hope to have her people skills

6. one day. It was great to be out of the office and interact with all these new people. I enjoyed
myself and I hope they invite me to the county fair in August.
Day 19: 7/22/14
I was alone today, Paula has another short vacation this week, but she will be back
Thursday, my last day! When I came in I listened to the messages and called the people back to
let them know Paula was out of the office and will be back Thursday. I also logged the calls into
Fireside and left a note for Paula with the person’s contact information. Then I read the emails
to see if there was anything that needed to be logged into Fireside and read the most recent
articles on the Congressman. I continued the rest of my day with finishing up the community
calendar, filing papers, and checking the local papers for Gibson articles. There were a few
phone calls, but none wanted to leave a message, they just said they would try back when Paula
was there. I finished the day by updating the contacts from “Big Bertha”.
Day 20: 7/24/14
Today was my last day in the office. It was a bit sad because Paula is such a great
supervisor and person. However, she said she will contact me whenever the congressman is in
the area so I can join with them to get more ‘in the field’ experience. I will be joining them at
the county fair on August 12th, it should be a good day. While at the office we received more
newspapers so I looked through them and updated the community calendar. I also found a few
articles on Congressman Gibson that were sent to his media advisor. I finally set up the laptop
and the intern email for the next intern that comes. Before heading home I sent some
constituents letters through franked mail and closed a few cases.