Minutes 02-10-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Board then brainstormed the new or enhanced tools and resources they would like for Orange County to have in place to help residents understand what the County does and how to access County resources. The Commissioners' brainstormed list was as follows (in alphabetical order): • Better publicity for advisory board meetings and agendas (online email distribution list sign-ups) • Better publicity for live, online Board meeting streaming • Better use of multiple newspapers covering Orange County • Board agenda structure (items in categories, items that will take longer earlier in the meeting, or perhaps more creatively grouping items?) • Meeting summary released by the following morning • Creation of a public information officer (PIO) position and office to create staff capacity to do these things • Dispensing with delayed Board tape recordings on Channel 180 (since people can't get involved after meetings have happened), o(Meetings at the Southern Human Services Center are live- streamed; meetings in Hillsborough require more staff to tape and are delayed.) • Facebook postings about what is planned for Board meetings (careful attention to how messages here are phrased) • Improved engagement at Board meetings (perhaps audio or visually?) • Improved search function for website • Incentive for attending Board meetings (rocking chair privilege), • More self-apparent website design (including communicating priority messages and services on home page) • Other proactive measures (staff getting word out quickly about successes or controversial matters) • Posting items of interest on a bulletin board outside meeting room • Pre-Board meeting release of agenda and highlights (not just links to agenda but short statements about the most important things and links to where to go to learn more) o(This idea includes facfual (not advocacyJ statements about what controversial issues might be discussed at a meeting, when Commissioners deem appropriate.) o(This is similar to how the Town of Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill- Carrboro School Board share agenda items, not jusf links.) • Printing of agendas in newspapers (but is more expensive and wouldn't be able to change agenda after publishing) or information about where residents without Internet access can go to learn about County issues • Simplicity and ease of navigation for website (including linking Visitors' Bureau/economic development sites prominently) o(Could this idea perhaps warrant a policy for linking to non-County sites?) While on break, the facilitators combined and re-organized the brainstormed list above into the following priority ideas (in alphabetical order): • Create a policy on linking to non-County websites • Create Board meeting summaries for public consumption by the following morning • Decide whether to use social media tools; if yes, develop a policy • Determine if there is value in tape-delayed meetings • Develop incentives for the public to attend meetings