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Module 2 · The weekly workflow · Lesson 7 of 13 · 5 minutes

Use hearing transcripts without reading them

You can extract what was actually said about a BMS issue in a hearing without reading the transcript.

Open QuorumWatch the official tour firstFormal training in Quorum School

The BMS scenario

A committee heard your issue for three hours and you need the two minutes that matter.

When to use it

After any hearing on a tracked bill.

Why it matters

Testimony is often the first real signal of how a bill will move — before amendments, before a vote. Missing it, or misattributing a quote, weakens the record BMS relies on when explaining its position later.

Before you start

  • The hearing or committee you care about, and the bill record it belongs to.
  • Two or three phrases you'd expect a witness to use.

Field guide

Hearing/transcript search field
Search issue phrases directly rather than scrolling — long transcripts hide relevant testimony in unpredictable places.
Speaker/affiliation metadata
Always capture this alongside the quote; a quote without its speaker's affiliation loses most of its value in a briefing.
Bill record note field
Include date, speaker, and committee inline with the quote so it's usable without returning to the transcript.

If your situation is different

  • If no transcript is available for a hearing, only a recording or summary, note that the source is a recording, not a verified transcript, and flag the quote as unconfirmed until the transcript posts.
  • If multiple witnesses discuss your issue in the same hearing, capture each attributed separately rather than merging them into one paraphrase — their affiliations may cut in opposite directions.
  • If the relevant testimony is in a different state's hearing on a near-identical bill, note it on both bill records if BMS treats the bills as related, so the context isn't lost on the one without direct testimony.

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

    Open the transcript from the bill or hearing record

    Working from the linked record keeps whatever you capture attached to the bill.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 1.1Find the hearing or transcript record for the committee and date.
    2. 1.2Confirm it is the right session and the right bill before reading anything.
    3. 1.3Check the witness list to see who testified before searching text.

    You know it worked when: You have the correct hearing for the correct bill.

  2. 2

    Ask Quincy for the exchange you care about

    'What was said about manufacturer rebates?' returns the relevant passage far faster than skimming.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 2.1Search inside the transcript for your issue phrases rather than scrolling.
    2. 2.2Note the speaker and their affiliation for each hit — the affiliation is usually the point.
    3. 2.3Note the timestamp or page reference so the quote can be re-found later.

    You know it worked when: You have named speakers, not just matching text.

  3. 3

    Confirm the quote in the transcript

    Before you circulate a quote, read it in place. Context around a line changes what it means.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 3.1Ask Quincy to summarize the relevant passages and who said what.
    2. 3.2Read the underlying quote before you use the summary anywhere external.
    3. 3.3Flag any passage where the summary and the quote seem to diverge and re-read that section directly.

    You know it worked when: You verified the summary against at least one direct quote.

  4. 4

    Note the takeaway on the bill

    One line on the bill record — what was said and by whom — so the next person reading the sheet doesn't repeat the work.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 4.1Paste the two or three quotes that matter into a note on the bill record.
    2. 4.2Include the date, speaker and committee so the quote is usable later without re-finding it.
    3. 4.3Link back to the transcript record itself, not just the pasted text, so it can be verified later.

    You know it worked when: The bill record now carries the testimony without anyone re-reading the transcript.

Common mistakes

  • Scrolling a long transcript instead of searching for issue phrases.

    Fix: Use the transcript's search function first; scroll only to confirm context around a hit.

  • Using a Quincy summary externally without checking it against the direct quote.

    Fix: Always read the underlying passage before the summary leaves your notes.

  • Pasting a quote without speaker or date.

    Fix: Capture speaker, affiliation, date and committee at the same time as the quote — not after.

  • Confirming the wrong hearing because titles look similar across committees.

    Fix: Check the date and bill number on the hearing record before searching its text.

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.

  • "Summarize what was said about step therapy in this hearing and who said it."
  • "Compare this witness's testimony to their written statement — do they say the same thing?"
Open Quincy in Quorum

Practice it now

  1. 1) Take last week's most relevant hearing and get three attributed quotes onto the bill record in ten minutes.
Open Quorum and try it

Done looks like this

  • Testimony lives on the bill record, attributed and dated.
  • You never read a transcript end to end again.

When to stop and ask

If a hearing record or transcript you expect to exist isn't showing up in Quorum, check with a Quorum admin or the BMS account team (Michael Fuentes, michael.fuentes@quorum.us) before assuming the hearing wasn't covered.