Change to the Law As of Friday (April 1, 2011), the following is now part of the Open Meetings Law [Public Officers Law, Article 7, Section 103, subdivision (d)]: “1. Any meeting of a public body that is open to the public shall be open to being photographed, broadcast, webcast, or otherwise recorded and/or transmittedRead… Read more »
Woah…useful alert here! Ever go to a town meeting in person or virtually only to witness exploding emotion, frustration, and basically pandemonium? Turning these forums around into useful, productive, and encouraging experiences is the goal of the National Coalition for Dialog and Deliberation. In October of this year, NCDD published a sweet Resource Guide onRead… Read more »
We attended the National League of Cities conference last week and got a lot of questions about streaming council meetings online to increase transparency. There were some concerns raised about pricing and complexity, we wanted to address these in a blog post to give people some key things to consider when deciding what type ofRead… Read more »
Your email inbox is overflowing, your phone is ringing constantly, and your assistant is on vacation. Requests are pouring in for more detailed information about the council meeting, and you haven’t even turned on your computer yet. If only you could check-off the most important post-meeting task, “Finish Minutes,” within an hour of arriving intoRead… Read more »
Local, state, and federal Freedom of Information and Open Meeting laws govern the public’s right to know what’s going on in their government. These statutes don’t often make mainstream media headlines; however, the effects of them are far-reaching. As technology advances, governments need to keep their websites up-to-date with the latest tools for transparency, thisRead… Read more »
We hosted a successful webinar yesterday, How to Manage Citizen Feedback and Reduce Overhead. Nearly 60 governments attended to hear Citywide Records Manager, Wendy Klock-Johnson from the City of Sacramento, discuss how the city successfully streamlined citizen participation with a new tool called eComment and why social media didn’t work! Wendy posted a blog articleRead… Read more »
(This was originally posted on GovFresh back in June. Luke was kind enough to let me re-post it.) ——— You’re busy – and so is your local government. You have work, errands, family activities, chores … the list goes on. Your local government, on the other hand is constantly working on issues that affect youRead… Read more »
Perhaps one of the most popular blog topics in the working world is bagging on meetings. Perhaps some of them are even written on smart phones during meetings. No one is talking about the one-on-one with a boss or a colleague to work out an issue or smooth through wrinkles in an action plan, orRead… Read more »
How to Hold a Meeting and Survive Adam Sulewski “A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.” – Milton Berle We all have had the pleasure of attending a poorly-run meeting. Hopefully, these experiences will motivate you to ensure your own task-driven gatherings do not earn the same evaluation. Meetings can beRead… Read more »
I have a great (part-time) job. I run my town’s PEG (Public, Education, Government) cable TV station. After struggling to stay on the air with antiquated equipment and no money as a volunteer for the last four years, I was able to completely rebuild our station here in Ringwood, NJ this year as a contractor.Read… Read more »