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Module 2 · The weekly workflow · Lesson 5 of 13 · 10 minutes to set up, seconds per bill after

Organize bills by issue

You can answer 'what's happening on this issue nationally?' with a filter instead of a reading exercise.

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The BMS scenario

Leadership asks what is happening on one issue nationally, and the answer requires a person to read every state sheet. Issue tagging is what removes that person.

When to use it

Before session opens, and whenever a new issue enters the BMS agenda.

Why it matters

Every dashboard, alert and leadership readout downstream is a filter on top of this taxonomy. A messy or duplicated tag list doesn't just look sloppy — it silently splits one issue's bills across two tags, so no single filter ever shows the whole national picture.

Before you start

  • The BMS policy issue list as leadership talks about it — six to twelve items.
  • Agreement from the team that this list is the only tagging vocabulary.

Field guide

Tag / issue field on the bill record
Enter tags exactly as defined in the shared doc — inconsistent casing or spelling ('Step Therapy' vs 'step therapy') creates silent duplicates that split your filtered results.
Secondary tag (if the platform supports multiple)
Reserve for bills that genuinely span two BMS issues — using it routinely defeats the purpose of a clean primary taxonomy.
Tag definitions document
Link it from the sheet itself, not just a shared drive folder, so anyone tagging can check it in the same click.

If your situation is different

  • If leadership's issue language changes mid-session (e.g. a rebrand of a priority), rename the existing tag rather than creating a new one, so historical tracking under the old name isn't orphaned.
  • If a bill touches two BMS therapeutic areas equally, apply both tags rather than picking one arbitrarily — the definitions doc should already say how to handle overlap.
  • If you inherit a taxonomy with clear near-duplicate tags already in use, don't merge silently; announce the merge, migrate tagged bills, then retire the old tag so nobody re-creates it later.

Step by step

Steps describe the general Quorum workflow. What your seat shows depends on the BMS subscription — check with your Quorum admin if a control isn't there.

  1. 1

    Agree the issue list before anyone tags anything

    Keep it short — roughly six to twelve issues that match how BMS talks about policy internally. A long taxonomy always drifts.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 1.1Write the candidate issue list in a shared doc first, not in Quorum.
    2. 1.2Merge anything two people would use interchangeably.
    3. 1.3Cap it at twelve. If you need more, you need sub-filters, not more tags.

    You know it worked when: The list fits on one screen and nobody argues about two of the entries.

  2. 2

    Write one line of definition per issue

    State what belongs and what doesn't. Ambiguity is what produces two tags meaning the same thing.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 2.1Write one line per issue: what belongs, and the nearest thing that does not.
    2. 2.2Circulate it and get an explicit yes from each person who tags.
    3. 2.3Keep that definition doc linked from the sheet so newcomers find it.

    You know it worked when: Every issue has a written definition a new joiner could apply.

  3. 3

    Tag as part of triage, never as a clean-up job

    Apply the tag at the moment you decide to track the bill. Retro-tagging a session's worth of bills is a day's work nobody schedules.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 3.1Create the tags in Quorum exactly as written — same spelling, same case.
    2. 3.2Apply the tag at the moment you decide to track the bill, inside triage.
    3. 3.3Add a second tag only when the bill genuinely spans two issues.

    You know it worked when: No near-duplicate tags exist in Quorum.

  4. 4

    Use the tag as your filter everywhere

    Filter sheets, build dashboards and scope searches by the issue tag so the taxonomy earns its keep.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 4.1Filter your sheet by one tag and confirm the result reads like that issue.
    2. 4.2Build one dashboard view per priority issue from the same sheet.
    3. 4.3Scope new searches by tag so the taxonomy keeps earning its place.

    You know it worked when: Filtering by tag returns a list you would send to leadership unedited.

Common mistakes

  • Letting the tag list grow past twelve because a subtopic feels distinct.

    Fix: Use a sub-filter or note on the existing tag instead of adding a new one — more tags fragments reporting.

  • Creating tags directly in Quorum before the team agrees on definitions.

    Fix: Finalize the list and definitions in a shared doc first, then create tags in one pass.

  • Inconsistent capitalization or wording creating near-duplicate tags.

    Fix: Copy-paste the tag name from the definitions doc rather than retyping it.

  • Tagging a bill days after triage instead of at the moment of decision.

    Fix: Apply the tag inside the triage pass itself, never as a separate follow-up step.

Prompts to run in Quincy, inside Quorum

Quincy is the agentic layer in Quorum — it works on your live data. Copy a prompt into Quincy after you log in. If you want the steps explained first, ask the site guide.

  • "Which of my tracked bills have no issue tag applied?"
  • "Group these bill titles into the issue categories in my taxonomy and flag any that don't fit."
Open Quincy in Quorum

Practice it now

  1. 1) Filter your sheet for bills with no issue tag and clear the list to zero.
  2. 2) Pick the two tags most likely to be confused and tighten both definitions.
Open Quorum and try it

Done looks like this

  • One agreed taxonomy, written down, applied in triage.
  • Zero untagged tracked bills.

When to stop and ask

If you can't create or rename tags yourself, or you suspect duplicate tags already exist across the team's shared setup, ask a Quorum admin or the BMS account team (Michael Fuentes, michael.fuentes@quorum.us) to run the cleanup rather than merging informally.