THE SNELL ING CENTER FOR GOVERNMENT

ADVANCING MUNIC IPAL COMMUNICATIONS

Vermont Connected Summit

9/23/2014

THE SNELLING CENTER FOR GOVERNMENT

The Richard A. and Barbara W. Snelling Center for Government is a non-partisan, non-profit (501(c)3) corporation. Established in 1992 in memory of Governor Richard Snelling, the Snelling Center is committed to the vision of government that works for the people of Vermont.

Mission

The mission of the Snelling Center for Government is to foster responsible and ethical civic leadership, encourage public service by private citizens, and promote informed citizen participation in shaping public policy in Vermont. This is accomplished through:

Offering the premier leadership development programs in Vermont.

Engaging the public in issues of strategic importance to Vermont.

Consulting on projects to make government and government programs more effective.

WHY WE CARE ABOUT MUNICIPAL WEBSITES

Municipal websites;

Expand opportunities for citizens to participate in and be informed by local government

Enable towns to communicate with visitors and residents how they are accustomed to

Powerful tool for towns to communicate with their citizens and allow site visitors to get quick answers to easy questions

Showcase a communities and are a drive economic development

SNELLING CENTER FOR GOVERNMENT & MUNICIPAL WEBSITES

SCG implemented 40+ municipal websites in the last 4 years

eVermont Project

Vermont Digital Economy Project

ADVANCING MUNICIPAL COMMUNICATION

What does it take to create a successful website as a municipality? How can technology be used to improve citizens’ engagement and overall interaction with their municipal government? This workshop will walk through the building blocks of what it takes to have a municipal website that will perform well.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE AS A MUNICIPALITY?

Planned

Automated Content Management System

Governed by Town Officials, with knowledge spread across government

Measurable

Resourced & Valued

Updated

Engage citizens with valuable information

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Measureable

Bounce Rates

Engagement Numbers

General Site performance

User Feedback

Process Measures

Planned

Automated Content Management System

Governed by Town Officials, with knowledge spread across government

Measurable

Resourced & Valued

Updated

Engage citizens with valuable information

OPEN MEETING LAW CHANGES

Mid project (16 sites built) – changes were made to the OML

Audited sites and assessed if they would be compliant right now

All of the VDEP towns were well positioned to respond to OML Changes, when other towns were deactivating

Four key factors to success: 1. VDEP Towns are managing sites internally 2. Sites built on easy to use Content Management System 3. Planning4. Training

PLANNING: CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS

Have a plan in place before the site is launched. 1. Who has final decision making authority the website and budget?

2. Who will manage the site once it launched?

3. List each person’s Roles/Responsibilities

4. Have a privacy and linking policy in place on the website.

A town should be able to answer these questions before the site is built and before any requests are made to have a volunteer/vendor create a website.

INTERNAL MANAGEMENT

Very Basic Example from a VDEP Town : Purpose is to clearly identify Roles & Responsibilities of each website user. Make sure the SB, Town

Clerk and other officials understand who does what for continuity of operations, especially in an emergency and for standard business.

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Administrators: Jane Doe and John Smith

Task: Upload Agendas (SB, PC, DRB). Upload Minutes (SB, PC, DRB)Who: Jane Doe When: Minutes will be uploaded within five days of the meeting. Agendas will be posted 48 prior to a regularly scheduled meeting, and special meetings will be posted 24 hours in advance.

Task: Emergency InformationWho: Jane DoeWhen: In and emergency!

Task: Keep News and Announcements Current and Update Announcements BoxWho: John SmithWhen: News and Announcements will be updated weekly, on Tuesdays.

CHOOSE A COMMONLY USED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A CMS is the platform that enables a town to enable website updates. Some of them require a user to know how to code.

“A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything you can think of.” Source: google.com

Make sure your town’s CMS is automated

A commonly used CMS prevents vendor lock in

CMS makes towns more flexible in the future

CHOOSE A COMMONLY USED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

GOVERNANCE / MANAGEMENT

Relying on volunteers to manage and carry out critical functions like uploading minutes and agendas uploading the credibility of government sites and leaves towns vulnerable. Volunteers are great and towns should engage them in any other way than in the management of the website.

Websites should be managed (updated and maintained) by town officials

Compliance with the recent changes to the open meeting law is easier to achieve if town officials are charged with managing sites

Good news is that we think towns and cities are moving away from this model

TOWNS NEED TRAINING

With adequate 1:2 or 1:1 training, town officials have been quick to realize that updating and managing their municipal website is nowhere near as intimidating as they had originally anticipated.

Capacity building/training has proven to dissolve this perception that it takes a technical expert to update a municipal website

RESOURCED

Successful municipal websites are valued by town leaders and officials in the form of Human Hours or Budget Dollars.

The model of “set it and forget it” is becoming less relevant in with recent changes to the Open Meeting Law and with increasing expectations of government being available and useful online.

We need more cultural competency around this in Vermont

BUILDING BLOCKS TO MUNICIPAL WEBSITES

Planning

Content Management System

Managed by Officials

Measurable

Resourced No website

Deactivated Site

Volunteer based

Stagnant

Under Resourced/Valued

Governed by officials

Up to date

OML Compliant

Resourced and Valued

ENGAGEMENT

How can technology be used to improve citizens’ engagement and interaction with their government?

Basic Usability

More Push, Less Pull

Self Service Models / Transactional Services

Community Discussions

Community Television / Public Access Station Partnerships

Information for non-residents

USABILITY & BUILDING FOR MOBILE

User friendly website should be easy to navigate and ADA compliant.

Build for mobile: Landscape is rapidly changing

oBy 2015, more Americans will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs.

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government.html

oIn 2011, global smartphone shipments exceeded personal computer shipments for the first time in history.

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government.html

MORE PUSH, LESS PULL

More avenues for two way communication with residents. Most government sites in Vermont are only useful if a visitor goes to the sites. Information should get to the visitor in more ways than the

website

Integration of push notifications (Ex: Montpelier)Emergency Alerts

Water Interruptions

Reminders

Integration of newsletter notifications on certain subject matter (Ex. Wilmington) Notified by subject matter

Social media- push information to users in real time on platforms they know and that aren’t that hard to learn and are free; FB / Twitter (low penetration VT). (Ex: Starksboro: https://www.facebook.com/pages/TOWN-OF-STARKSBORO/86755053935)

TRANSACTIONAL MODELS

Enable residents to pay for services online and are:

Free to towns, in some cases (Self Funded)

Provide value to residents

Capture visitors who may never come to the town office, but will use online services.

Ex: Town of Rochester

Ex: Town of Johnson

SELF SERVICE MODELS

Self Service Integration provide value and usefulness to residents . This becoming the wide spread expectation.

Application / Permits available in fillable PDF’s

1. This leaves data entry up to the user

2. Frees clerk from processing paper forms to digital database

3. Increases site traffic and gets users on to site who may not otherwise visit town office or go to a public meeting.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION & CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT Example: SCG conducted Community Discussion in many of the towns we served. Through this process we invited residents to come participate in a facilitated discussion about their community. Celebratory based and asked what folks thought would be useful on the sites. This was important for a couple of reasons:

1. Municipal websites should exist to inform and serve citizens. If sites do not have relevant or useful information to visitors, they won’t be adopted by the community. Adoption matters, especially in emergency settings.

2. Conversation can derive information that can be used in the development of the websites. Residents shared information that can’t be gained from talking with on person in town. Prevents development work from being done in silo. Sites can reflect communities

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

Mendon’s Community Discussion

http://www.mendonvt.org/live-mendon/

http://www.mendonvt.org/visit-mendon/

COMMUNITY ACCESS TELEVISION

Town in VT partner with Community Access station to video meetings.

Expands opportunities for citizens to participate in government

Promotes transparency

Example: Town of St. Albans: Selectboard Meeting Videos

MUNICIPAL WEBSITE TRAFFIC & OPPORTUNITIES

Halifax, VT Population: 790

Sutton, VT

Population: 1,000

Town of St. Albans

Population: 7,000

HALIFAX

Traffic coming from:

1. Halifax (7.5%)

2. Burlington

3. Brattelboro

4. Montpelier

5. Manchester

6. Amhearst

7. New York (1.7%)

Device Category

1. Desktop: (82.13%)

2. Mobile (10.42%)

3. Tablet (7.45%)

HALIFAX CONTINUED

New vs. Returning -- 52.8% / 47.2%

Sessions: 2,160 Users: 1,240

Site Content

1. Selectboard Meeting Minutes

2. Selectboard Agendas

3. Planning Commission

4. Selectboard (Main Page)

5. Calendar

ST. ALBANS

Traffic coming from:

1. St. Albans (17.85%)

2. Burlington

3. Colchester

4. Raynham

5. New York (3.81)

Device Category

1. Desktop: (58.91%)

2. Mobile (31.87%)

3. Tablet (614 (9.22%)

ST. ALBANS CONTINUED

New vs. Returning: 67.39%, 32.61%

Sessions: 6,661 Users: 4,769

Site Content

1. Bay Day

2. Departments

3. Town Directory

4. Calendar

5. Town Clerk’s Page

SUTTON

New vs. Returning: 75.5% / 24.5%

Sessions: 429, Users: 335

Site Content

1. Government Contact

2. Committees/Minutes

3. Documents

4. Departments

5. 2014 Selectboard Minutes

SUTTON

Traffic coming from:

1. St. Johnsbury (9.09%)

2. Burlington

3. Bradfrod

4. Barre

5. Sao Paulo

6. Montpelier

7. San Jose (2.10%)

Device Category

1. Desktop: (85.78%)

2. Mobile (7.69%)

3. Tablet (6.53%)

MUNICIPAL WEBSITES & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

While residents do access sites information, the majority of site traffic is coming from other geographic locations.

There is an enormous opportunity to improve visitor engagement on sites without becoming a tourism site. Ex: information about what it’s like to live in a town, links to area Chambers, photos of the area, links to events, etc.

IN CONCLUSION

Websites critical in engaging citizens.

We need more cultural competency built around embracing websites as infrastructure and valuing them through town budgets, and staff time.

Great models throughout Vermont. Some of the work has already been done

When resourced and integrated into a town’s operations, government website can serve as a critical platform to, promote participation in government and advance public opportunities to participate in government and drive economic development.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Tess Gauthier

tess@snellingcenter.org