At open meetings, public boards should constantly ask themselves: ''Who is not here? Who should be?'' Vibrant community engagement provides public boards early grassroots feedback. Furthermore, robust communication harnesses the collective expertise of varied constituents, sometimes even shedding light on alternatives that the board had not considered. It enables citizen stakeholders' voices to be heard throughout the process, preventing surprises, rancor and distrust. Public boards intent on boosting community engagement may be surprised to find that the sharpest tool in the shed is the technology that they use in the boardroom.
That technology does far more than host paperless meetings. With such software, a board can: communicate more effectively; reach constituents where they live; invite public scrutiny and increase curb appeal. Here's how:
- Communicate more effectively. A study by the Pew Research Center found good communication to lie at the very heart of community engagement. ''If people believe their local government shares information well,'' the study finds, ''they also feel good about their town and civic institutions.'' Specifically, it finds that ''[t]hose who are avid information consumers from news media and online sources are more likely to be involved and feel as if they can make a difference''.
- Reach constituents where they live. An online presence brings board business from the sleepy village that is Town Hall to the four-lane highway that is the internet. A Nielsen study found that the average American spends no less than 11 hours every day interacting with non-print media. How often do non-employees walk by public buildings and stop to peruse the postings?
- Invite public scrutiny. Journalists, academics and lawyers have historically researched public records with suspicion. They also have had to devote great time to poring through binders in the bowels of public buildings to find the materials that they needed. As the materials were not indexed, reading report after report could take days, weeks or even months.
- Gain curb appeal. The shift to digital content gives civic affairs an image makeover. With his famous declaration that ''the medium is the message,'' Marshall McLuhan showcased the fact that various technological media convey meaning every bit as much as the content of the texts that they contain. In the case of the internet, that implicit message is: ''This is cool!''
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