M.G. McIntosh
OPINION
01/12/2021
CONCEPT REPORT
- Voice in the Wind Magazine Inc.
INTRODUCTION
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we interact with our Municipal (City/Town) Governments. I realized that there isn’t really a quick easy way to submit items for the agenda in my little town. Perhaps this is true of your town too. I also figured out a solution: a town e-hub or electronic bulletin board.
PROPOSAL
I think it’s time to start the next chapter of civic engagement in our town: we need to develop a website that is much easier to use and covers a broad range of posts. It’s primary function would be communication. Specifically, we need a way to register an account so we can login and view our submissions for the town agenda, delegation (speaking) times we booked and in general receive information pertaining to the town’s interests. It is my hope that it will function similarly to a college or university bulletin board – which basically means that the town council can post things there for the people to read and respond to. The people, in turn, can post things in response. Of course it will have to be much broader in scope than just tweets. It should essentially be one stop shopping for civic engagement. Below is a list of things that might appear in the hub.
POSSIBLE POSTS FOR THE HUB
- Petitions (and the ability to sign/vote on them)
- New Legislation (may require a certain level of access or be council-only access)
- Newsletter
- Rocky Mountain Outlook/Crag and Canyon Articles (town specific)
- Town Announcements/Updates
- Relevant Documents (surveys, questionnaires, polls, etc)
- Public Input (for town projects/land or building use)
- Forms
CONCLUSION
This kind of setup would help facilitate communication with the town government and encourage civic minded people to give back to the community. It will probably end up looking like an intranet, which is essentially how college and university campuses create a direct link to the students. The hope is to mirror that direct link between administrators and students, by creating a version that links the people and the town council. Thanks for reading!!! Please like, share and subscribe to read my book!!! Please follow me on twitter – the link is the little white bird on my home page. I could use the retweets too!!! Thanks so much 🙂
CONTACT US
Phone: 403-497-WIND (9463)
Twitter: @vitwmagazine
Voice in the Wind 