How does your department/company communicate your planning projects, initiatives, and achievements? Do you rely on one method or employ multiple methods? Website? Newsletter? Facebook? Twitter? Cable-access show?
We are looking for some new ideas on ways to spread the word on what we're actually doing.
We have our own department newsletter (e-mail), and we share space with other city departments for announcements, etc., on our Facebook page. In each, we usually link to documents on the city website, but we don't use the city website to broadcast what we're doing - it's more of a document depository.
What an intersting thought.
My city does next to nothing. We have a city website that does nothing and we rarely put anything even in the city's paper newsletter.
TO, Do you think you see increased interest from the public based on the kinds of outreach you're describing?
" It doesn't take all kinds.....that's a lie the weirdos started." - Madam President
We have a website (actually multiple websites), Twitter, and Facebook. It seems like people use all three sources, though the website is by far the most visited. We have a few media people following on Twitter, which is interesting. Perhaps they feel that Twitter is most likely to be current (or live, local, and latebreaking)?
EDIT: We also maintain a Constant Contact database and send out periodic e-mails on various subjects when appropriate.
My muni has a quarterly newsletter that gets mailed out, so I usually put something in those about current/upcoming projects.
We also utilize www.blogger.com through our website/Google to get the word out on things.
Similar to what TexOk said, we provide for a multitude of documents on our website.
I've never considered any type of social media, largely due to the low amount of citizen interest in land use issues in my muni (which is a whole different topic by itself based on the population). I honestly don't even know if I could get the go-ahead to do something like Facebook. I'm probably going to push for it when we do our next Master Plan in a few years.
"I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany"
We need to do a better job of this, but currently we use the website, a quarterly newsletter, and internal memos to department heads.
The higher ups here are scared of social media, so we are still behind the times on that front....
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams
I haven't really seen any increased interest from the general public. I have seen people not be as vocal against our activities, since they've been "in the loop", than before we added a Facebook page. It's really a PR activity as much, if not more, than it is a tool for public outreach and participation.Originally posted by ursus
We provide a department activity report that details almost everything going on within the department. Open government around here is a good thing.....cuts down on the conspiracy theories
On the ground, protecting the Cyburbia Shove since 2004.
Judging from the other comments it seems to be the case in most places. Still, a little PR would go a long way for me as I gear up for the General Plan update. People are not sure what we're doing and the political mood makes people oppose anything they don't understand or see a clear need for.
" It doesn't take all kinds.....that's a lie the weirdos started." - Madam President
I do a monthly cable access show, and in the coming months will be incorporating social media into our communications toolbag.
"Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how." -- Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund
NHP, what do you discuss on your cable access show? My PD has suggested this method and I'm curious about subject matter & format.
We currently just use our website and press releases to communicate. We are doing a lot of work and often important initiatives don't get communicated and fall by the wayside. The PD wants this to change.
I wish we could do this. We don't have a TV station. Who do you do the cable access show through... city owned air waves? Although having meetings on a TV station is boring, I think it is important to make all public meetings available. Not many people care, but some do. I like this idea.
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams
My city recently started using social media, with frequent updates on facebook. For awhile, it was quite the forum for free speech, but that included critics of local officials, and shortly, dialogue on the City's facebook page got out of hand, being overfilled with rants and raves. The City has since changed the page as an outlet for information, as opposed to a free exchange of communication. I would have still promoted the free exchange of thoughts, if there was a way to keep dialogue more civil, through some monitoring or ground rules.
Is this an in-house GP update, or are you contracting some tasks out to a consultant? How's the budget looking for your update? We finished our 3.5-year comprehensive update in 2009, with a pretty extensive outreach effort, but didn't use social networking media. In hindsight, I think it would have been useful in tapping a greater segment of the population. We mostly got seniors with free time coming to our General Plan workshops, with exception to a few workshops we designed strictly for youth/students. We got the nimbys and political gadflys at our meetings as well, but a good facilitator goes a long way in keeping the workshops productive.
We have yet to see. Budget is not looking great, but we may have enough to contract out portions to a consultant. That's my hope, anyway. No details yet. My experience in the past has been similar to what you described, within reason. I am hopeful that some PR might bring out a more diverse sample of our citizenry and other stake-holders to participate. Well, call me "cautiously optimistic" rather than hopeful!
" It doesn't take all kinds.....that's a lie the weirdos started." - Madam President
I'll PM you a link to a couple of shows....our cable access station puts them online as well.
As part of the cable franchise agreement between the Town and the cable provider, the Town operates a cable access studio open to any resident to produce cable access shows. My show is hosted by the Planning Board vice chair, who has long been a cable access host for other shows. We have 5 different cable access channels in our community, devoted to local government programming (all local Council, School Board, Planning Board, ZBA, and other boards/committees have live broadcasts of their meetings, which are repeated several times per month), school district programming, resident programming, etc. The assistant cable director is the one that suggested the show to me...we've been doing them since February pretty much every month.
"Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how." -- Edward T. McMahon, The Conservation Fund
We were lucky enough to have started our GP update in 2006, back when times were good, and the Council was still willing to spend money on planning efforts. We are consequently updating our zoning code now, and doing everything in-house, with fewer resources for outreach. Good luck in your future efforts... Good PR, resulting in positive coverage from local press should help.We have yet to see. Budget is not looking great, but we may have enough to contract out portions to a consultant. That's my hope, anyway. No details yet. My experience in the past has been similar to what you described, within reason. I am hopeful that some PR might bring out a more diverse sample of our citizenry and other stake-holders to participate. Well, call me "cautiously optimistic" rather than hopeful!
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