This is a very short (only 4 questions) survey that asks these questions:
- How do town officials present themselves in public meetings?
- Do town officials support citizen involvement?
- How well does each official perform the task of keeping the public informed?
- How well does each official appear to understand the town related issues that are important to you?
The goal of the survey is to see how well the officials deal with the public. This is a crucial piece of the “open government” pie and tends to give some idea as to how important “open government” is to these officials. Please take a few minutes and fill out this survey.
To participate, click here!
If you have not seen elected officials in action, or are not a citizen, you are free to participate anyway. Simply go to the recorded videos of Town Council meetings at MyVAResources.com, watch a few and form an opinion. IMPRESSIONS are what this is all about. What are the perceptions that people have based upon their observations and interactions with Town officials.
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Yes, I am busy with other projects and have little time to write so I am using this for filler. I hope it will also give me information to use in future blog articles. Other than trying to repair all of the damage to the Depot due to the recent ‘urban flooding’ [no creek water involved], I am trying to put the finishing touches to the report for the National League of Women Voters on the Citizen Initiative for Transparency Grant we were awarded a few months ago.
This is a fairly detailed report of activities over the course of the last couple of years concerning FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] in Christiansburg, VA. The Montgomery County League of Women Voters was 1 of 11 such groups in the nation to be awarded the grants. Although still being modified a bit, the web site that was designed as part of that study is available for use. You may find it has some useful information, and, yep, there is a survey tool there as well as resources for using FOIA. The site is the Citizen Initiative for Transparency and contains information concering the Virginia FOIA and some interesting additional resources. To check it out, go to Citizen Initiative for Transparency. Everyone is invited to participate in the extended study. You will be hearing a great deal more about this study in the near future!
And, some exciting new studies are just around the corner. For information on how to join the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County and work with others in projects such as this, check out the Montgomery County League of Women Voters website.
Staying with my typical style, you can learn more about the League of Women Voters at Wikipedia 
The League of Women Voters was founded by women, but opened its doors to men in 1973. Since that time, both men and women have worked together in many League endeavors. If the engagement, education, and empowerment of citizens is important to you, this is a good group with which to be involved.
