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What types of disasters keep you awake at night? An active shooter? A hurricane? A wildfire? A tornado? You can expect that your citizens share your fears, as do your employees. While no public safety office can fully predict a widescale, or hyperlocal disaster, every public safety officer should prepare for one. While preparations should include the creation and maintenance of a crisis communication plan, the development of a community emergency response team, and the implementation of an emergency mass notification system, dig deeper and think beyond community-wide safety and focus on the risks and safety measures that you need to take to protect your own office. What follows are tips for building an emergency preparedness kit for your office. After you successfully implement these tips, share them on your local government website and encourage business leaders in your community to make similar preparations.
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At CivicPlus®, we don’t simply sell software. When local governments choose us, they choose a long-term partner who will never implement a solution and walk away. We understand that local governments have limited staff and financial resources at their disposal to meet and exceed the expectations of their tax-paying citizens. To help our clients fully maximize their investments and leverage our unified applications to build impactful, relevant, and actionable moments of citizen engagement, we created The CivicPlus Help Center.
all-articles, all-news, parks and recreation
The role of local government is to improve the lives of its citizens and constituents. For parks and recreation departments, improving the lives of residents means access to local resources and programs that provide education, health and wellness services, socialization, and access to natural resources. Now brace yourself for a shocking statistic: 97 percent of Americans live an unhealthy lifestyle according to the 2016 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey.
97 percent.
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Omnichannel communications are the future of citizen engagement. Your citizens today are tethered to multiple devices and communicating with people and brands around them using more platforms and digital tools than ever before. Citizens today want to chat with a customer service representative on a tablet, receive a confirmation email of their purchase on their smartwatch, and post an image of the product they purchased to all their social media channels without duplicating the post creation in each system.
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Local governments have long been challenged by the need for transparency. However, over the past several years, the idea of open data has become a trending topic for discussion between communities and their leaders, leaving CIOs attempting to take greater strides toward transparency and information accessibility. Instead of hesitating toward a world with open access, realize that open data can help your local government better connect with citizens and businesses, and can lead to more engaged and informed voters. If you have not already embraced the call for more insightful, more available information, it is time to bring the era of open data to your community.
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That’s it. You’ve had it. You’ve officially decided that you are done standing at the copy machine, collating hundreds of pages of documents, chasing down board members for agenda items, and reminding staff members for the hundredth time where they can find minutes from the last meeting. You. Are. Done. Done with paper, done with printouts, and done with manual everything.
Congratulations.
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As part of our commitment to ensure our solutions offer the highest levels of both security and convenience, our local government technology experts want to ensure all members of our #CPfamily know that CP Pay supports Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) compliance. This latest enhancement means you can offer your citizens the convenience of in-person credit card payments that integrate into our CP Pay Merchant gateway for consistent reporting and data processing. It also means the ability to offer more secure payment transactions so both you and your citizens can feel confident that your data and all personal information is secure. Here’s what you should know before you begin processing EMV payments across your administration.
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Your community leadership has pledged to serve its voters and provide a safe, livable home for all its residents. To accomplish this vital task, local governments must provide equitable access to resources, tools, programs, facilities, and—yes—even digital content. The Section 508 Refresh of the Americans with Disability Act offers valuable guidelines for local governments to ensure all their digital communications, and especially their local government website, can be consumable by users with a variety of visual, auditory, and physical disabilities and that require the use of assistive technology in order to engage with digital content.
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Who said the public sector can’t maintain a fun, approachable digital presence? Employee recruitment is a serious and critical component of your talent management strategy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use modern tools and dynamic approaches to identify and engage top talent. Instagram is a valuable social media platform for more than sharing post-workout meals and vacation photos of flip-flop clad feet in front of oceans of blue waves (trust us). It is a tool that should be used by all private and public sector recruiters to engage the next generation of local government employees (read: Millennials). Follow our tips to get started and make Instagram a key component of your recruitment strategy.
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This September, the Southeast is bracing for hurricanes, while the Great Plains keep a watchful eye for tornadoes, and the West Coast is still trying to recover from a devastating wildfire season. In addition, there is always the fear of a local terrorist attack or act of violence. September is National Preparedness month. This year, don’t just let your citizens fear the possibility of a disaster. Help them to take the steps necessary to proactively prepare their families and their homes for the types of disasters that could threaten your community.
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When asked about the areas of focus most imperative to their departmental administrative strategy, 97 percent of counties stated that cybersecurity will be their biggest staffing need over the next several years. While it should come as no surprise that cybersecurity remains of preeminent concern for county governments, this statistic, as reported by the 2018 GovTech Digital Counties Survey, also reveals a possible misguided area of focus for already budget-strapped counties.
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No citizen wants to live with the knowledge that they could have helped to prevent a local act of violence had they simply spoken up to report something suspicious. At the same time, citizens may doubt their interpretation of someone’s behavior, or worry their concern will seem unfounded. To help mitigate the risk of silence and give civic public safety leaders every possible chance to intervene in the event of a possible threat, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a national “If You See Something, Say Something®” campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to raise public awareness regarding suspicious activities, behaviors, or situations that may suggest acts of terrorism or terrorism-related crimes and encourage citizens to report suspicious behavior proactively.
all-articles, all-news, parks and recreation
Your parks and recreation team has spent months planning your inaugural Summer Fun Festival. You have dozens of events planned from a pie eating content to an egg toss, to face painting to live bands, not to mention the balloon animals. You’re expecting thousands of families to come out to spend the day enjoying one another, and the best your community has to offer during the final days of summer. The Mayor will be there, local business leaders, and you’re even expecting a visit from your County Executive.
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“That will never happen here.”
“There are always emergency responders nearby.”
“If a disaster happens, no preparation will help anyway.”
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It’s another typical day at the office. Or at least it should be. You stand at the watercooler with coworkers you’ve known for years, warm cups of coffee in your hands, sharing stories from your weekends about your families, your hobbies, and your children. Then the unthinkable happens. Deafening, rapid fire popping noises, like nothing you will be able to describe later to emergency responders, incapacitates your hearing. You see coworkers running through the halls and have a sense that someone around you is screaming. Until you realize that you’re the one screaming.
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Transparency of government operations has always been an expectation—and a significant responsibility—of municipal clerks. Now more than ever, however, thanks to the proliferation of digital everything and a culture of “I want an answer right now, so I’m going to Google it,” today’s citizens want on-demand, self-serviceable access to everything from permits, to applications, to meeting agendas and minutes. Municipal clerks can spend hours collating documents, answering questions, making copies, and printing files—unless they follow these seven time-saving tips for ensuring document transparency.
all-articles, all-news, Communication, Emergency Notifications
Social media has proven to be one of the most impactful methods for local governments to engage citizens and distribute vital time-sensitive information. The nature of social media platforms lends themselves to the sharing of trusted information and instructions to a broad audience, which is a critical component of a multi-channel safety communication strategy. Like all reliable tools, however, your social media accounts need restrictions, especially when it comes to distributing potentially life-saving information when time every second counts.
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If you were asked to summarize your primary responsibilities in your role as a municipal clerk, it would likely be difficult to give a succinct answer. City and county clerks are responsible for everything from document management, to agenda and meeting minute management, to answering citizen inquiries, and managing elections. One of the most commonly overlooked—yet most vital—responsibilities of municipal clerks is the role they play as the official keeper of the community’s records. It is a task that encompasses both modern-day meeting minute documentation, as well as historical record archiving and preservation. In an era when citizens want unprecedented on-demand access to documents, records, forms, minutes, and agendas, the clerk’s role of document manager and preservation specialist has never been more vital.
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How to Incorporate Diversity into Your Hiring and Retention Strategies
In Part I of this blog series, we discussed the importance of your local government’s human resources department establishing a diversity and inclusion (D&I) program. Not only do such programs foster a culture of inclusion and acceptance among employees, they build administrations that are reflective of the communities they serve. In Part II of this blog series, we provided step-by-step instructions for how to define the goals of your D&I program, implement a successful initiative, and measure its success. Part III of this series focuses on ensuring you continually maintain a diverse and accepting workforce through strategic hiring initiatives.
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How to Implement a D&I Program in Your Local Government.
If you are reading this, you have hopefully read Part I in this blog series on the importance of establishing a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) program in your community. The creation of any wide-spread administrative initiative will take planning, commitment, and collaboration to be successful. When it comes to topics as crucial as diversity and inclusion, you must be thorough in your planning and implementation process to best serve the needs of your community and your employees. Follow these best practices when implementing your D&I program.
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Why the Need for Diversity and Inclusion in Local Government?
Your municipality needs to be representative of the population it serves. That means you need to hire and retain a diverse pool of talent that brings with them unique experiences, opinions, and thoughts on critical local issues to help enhance your administration’s ability to serve the needs of its entire population. Implementing a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) program in your local government can help to ensure you not only hire a diverse workforce, but are cultivating an environment of acceptance and appreciation for individuals of all backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences.
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The safety and protection of your citizens is a top priority for your public safety department. At a time when it feels like a growing list of outside threats are continually placing your citizens in harm’s way, it is vital to ensure your community has procedures in place to guard against a threatening and unpredictable risk: that of wandering by elderly citizens or adults suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other cognitive disabilities. Your citizen mass notification system should serve as a critical tool in your emergency communication strategy to notify your community and expand your search efforts if a wandering citizen goes missing. With the proper, timely notification of a Silver Alert, you can leverage the collective awareness and care of your citizens to help reunite wandering residents with their loved ones.
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Experiencing a sense of teamwork and accomplishment and learning to embrace and enjoy routine fitness and physical activity are some of the most critical developmental lessons all young people deserve to enjoy. For the more than 3.5 million Americans living with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), for whom social and physical interactions can pose a challenge, such experiences are even more necessary and valuable. Autism is recognized as the fastest-growing developmental disability, which is why for a parks and recreation department that is committed to ensuring equitable access to activities, facilities, and resources, it is essential that your offering include autism-friendly activities.
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An essential component of your parks and recreation management software is the ability to accommodate payments for registrations, classes, activities, and events. When it comes to digital payment transaction functionality, you may have heard two terms used interchangeably: payment gateway and merchant account. They do not mean the same thing, however. Instead, they are two components of a secure, digital transaction completion and approval process. To ensure your parks and rec software integrates the transaction system you need to manage citizen payments, learn the difference between these two terms, and how they work together to enable online transactions for your community.
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The Silver Tsunami is coming. Experts predict that as many as 40 percent of baby boomers are set to retire from public sector service in the next few years, and they threaten to take their knowledge, experience, and commitment with them. Do you have a strategy in place to recruit and onboard the next generation of municipal employees?
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The International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) has designated the 49th Annual Municipal Clerks Week to take place May 6 through May 12, 2018. At CivicClerk®, we fully support a week’s worth of events, education, and appreciation for the role that municipal clerks play in helping our local governments run efficiently and with the transparency and inclusion needed for success. This year, we want to give something back to all clerks across the country. Something they never seem to have enough of; time. Read on to learn why we’re celebrating Municipal Clerks Week, and how we’re giving you the gift of time.
Robert's Rules of Order is a long-standing, proven-efficient system for managing meetings relative to deliberation and debate. Roberts Rules of Order helps to ensure that the entire membership of an organization, board, or committee is informed and able to successfully collaborate. As a clerk, it is your job to ensure meetings are conducted following proper procedures and in a way that enables structured, efficient, and productive dialogue. If you are new to your position or are about to begin utilizing Roberts Rules of Order in your meetings, here are seven essential facts you need to know.
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April 22 may have officially been Earth Day, and for those of us in municipal parks and recreation management, we see the value in being green all year long. Still, Earth Day is one day out of 365 that gives every citizen a reason to pause and consider the impact their personal carbon footprint has on their community, and the world. If your parks and recreation department is like many across the country, you offer citizens and businesses educational information and local resources throughout the year to leverage sustainable solutions and minimize waste. Yet, even those of us closest to the need for environmental awareness can do more to protect our natural resources and make more significant strides toward sustainable operations.
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It’s officially spring, which means summer is fast approaching. Soon, the kids will be out of school, the days will belong, the sun will be out, and everyone in your community will be looking to get active and enjoy the natural resources of their hometown. Whether your community is known for its challenging hiking trails, family-friendly parks, crystal clear lakes, or desert rock climbing, you need a marketing plan to promote your local indoor and outdoor parks and rec facilities, and all the classes, leagues, and activities your community has to offer. To help you plan for a successful summer, we have your complete guide to promoting your summer events, no matter the size of your community, or your parks and rec staff.
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The role of the city clerk is nearly as established and long-standing as local government itself. For decades, city clerks have served as an essential link between local government leaders and the people they serve. Over time, this role has evolved from handing out permit applications to walk-in residents to meeting digital transparency requirements through cloud-based agenda and meeting management solutions. As citizens become increasingly dependent upon digital technology, and the role of the city clerk remains steadfastly ingrained in our municipal operations, service-minded clerks must learn to adapt their workflows and approach their citizen engagements from a digital-first mindset. Here are four ways to be successful.
