open-meeting-toolkit-sunshine-request

This repo contains educational materials to help communities improve access to local government meetings in North Carolina.

Table of contents

1. Problem
2. Solution
3. How to Contribute
4. Acknowledgments

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Problem

Residents face barriers to attending and participating in local government meetings, even when they have the legal right to do so.

Solution

This Toolkit helps community members learn about the local government meetings in their community through a web research and mapping activity, provides a Google Form and instructions for conducting an environmental scan (STEEPLE Analysis) to learn about their community in preparation to working together, provides a Google Form that they can use to evaluate access to public meetings, and offers some tools for analysis of results and making recommendations.

How to Contribute

• Form a local community team motivated to improve access to public meetings in your community. Check out THE OPEN MEETING TOOLKIT WEBSITE to learn more.
• Carry out internet research to add meetings in your community to the map on the website. See THE OPEN MEETING TOOLKIT WEBSITE for instructions.
• Adapt the Toolkit for use in your state by replacing North Carolina-specific resources with resources for your state.

Acknowledgments

• DemocracyLab
• Code for America
  • Code for the Carolinas
  • Code for Asheville
  • Sunshine Request