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 and be adopted by the community.

1. THE SNELLING CENTER FOR GOVERNMENTADVANCING MUNICIPAL COMMUNICATIONS
Vermont Connected Summit
9/23/2014

2. 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.

3. 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

4. SNELLING CENTER FOR GOVERNMENT & MUNICIPAL WEBSITES
SCG implemented 40+ municipal websites in the last 4 years
eVermontProject
Vermont Digital Economy Project

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.Planning
4.Training

9. 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.

10. 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 Information
Who: Jane Doe
When: In and emergency!
Task: Keep News and Announcements Current and Update Announcements Box
Who: John Smith
When: News and Announcements will be updated weekly, on Tuesdays.

11. 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.
“Acontent management systemis software that keeps track of every piece ofcontenton your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them.Contentcan 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

12. CHOOSE A COMMONLY USED CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

13. 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

14. 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 asintimidating 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

15. 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 expectationsof government being available and useful online.
We need more cultural competency around this in Vermont

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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)

20. 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

21. 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.

22. 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

23. COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
Mendon’s Community Discussion
http://www.mendonvt.org/live-mendon/ http://www.mendonvt.org/visit-mendon/

24. 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

25. MUNICIPAL WEBSITE TRAFFIC & OPPORTUNITIES
Halifax, VT Population: 790
Sutton, VT
Population: 1,000
Town of St. Albans
Population: 7,000

26. 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%)

27. HALIFAX CONTINUED
New vs. Returning --52.8% / 47.2%
Sessions: 2,160 Users: 1,240
Site Content
1.SelectboardMeeting Minutes
2.SelectboardAgendas
3.Planning Commission
4.Selectboard(Main Page)
5.Calendar

28. 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%)

29. 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

30. 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 SelectboardMinutes

31. 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%)

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. CONTACT INFORMATION
Tess Gauthier
tess@snellingcenter.org