I’ve been doing online citizen engagement as a citizen since the early 90′s in my work with . . . → Read More: A new blog reflects a shift in my business: Engage Citizens]]> I’ve created a new blog called Engage Citizens as I’m shifting more of my consulting work to helping local units of government (state, cities, counties, townships, school districts) use online tools and services to—you guessed it—engage citizens.

I’ve been doing online citizen engagement as a citizen since the early 90′s in my work with Northfield.org and continuing with Locally Grown Northfield since 2006 where I’m still active.

But it was my consulting contract with City Manager Scott Neal and the City of Edina back in April of 2011 when we created the Edina Citizen Engagement project that helped me see how other local units of government could benefit from something similar.

The Grandview District Development Framework project in particular was enlightening because of how the online tools complemented the face-to-face work of the steering committee, consultants, and city staff over the course of 9 months.

Last summer, I presented and facilitated a session for the League of MN Cities annual conference about my work with the City of Edina titled Government 2.0: New Strategies for Engaging the Public.

One of the people in the audience that day was Northfield City Administrator Tim Madigan who, a few months later, hired me to manage the online engagement for a Developing a parking management plan for downtown.

Shortly thereafter, when I heard that the Northfield Public Schools District had a big project in the works, I approached Superintendent Chris Richardson and HR/Technology Director Matt Hillman about adding an online citizen engagement component. I just finished up the Transformational Technology project for them and this week am starting another online engagement project with them titled A school calendar conversation with the Northfield community.

I’ll continue to post client updates here on my Wigley and Associates blog but most of my blogging energy will be devoted to the Engage Citizens blog. I’ve also changed my Twitter name to @EngageCitizens. I’ll tweet all my new blog posts but you can also subscribe to Engage Citizens via email or RSS.

Like their Transformational Technology project, it’s happening on a blog that’s part of the District’s WordPress Multiuser platform.

I’ve put up a project blogsite: A school calendar conversation with the Northfield community.  . . . → Read More: More online citizen engagement for the Northfield Public School District: A school calendar conversation with the community]]> I’ve been hired by Northfield Public Schools Superintendent Chris Richardson to manage the online portion of a community discussion about school calendars.

Like their Transformational Technology project, it’s happening on a blog that’s part of the District’s WordPress Multiuser platform.

I’ve put up a project blogsite: A school calendar conversation with the Northfield community.  The first community meeting is tonight.

It’s happening on a blog that’s part of . . . → Read More: An online citizen engagement project for the Northfield Public Schools]]> I’m working with Superintendent Chris Richardson and Matt Hillmann, Director of Human Resources and Technology at the Northfield Public Schools District. They’re using my online citizen engagement services to get additional public feedback on the Transformational Technology proposal that’s now being considered by the School Board.

It’s happening on a blog that’s part of the District’s WordPress Multiuser platform:

Transformational Technology for Northfield Public Schools, ISD #659

Matt has been blogging about the project for nearly a year on Blogger and so we’ve imported all those posts into this new blog.  He presented the final draft of the proposal to the School Board earlier this week and the Board will likely vote on it at one of their February meetings.

I did a half-day version of my Blogging and Social Media for Leaders presentation at the League of Minnesota Cities’ Leadership Conference for Experienced Officials at Brooklyn Center yesterday.

Here’s my Powerpoint, slightly revised from the previous one in Mankato and the one in Nisswa.

Blogging and social media for leaders . . . → Read More: Presentation on Blogging and Social Media for Local Government Leaders at the League of MN Cities Leadership Conference in Brooklyn Center]]>   

I did a half-day version of my Blogging and Social Media for Leaders presentation at the League of Minnesota Cities’ Leadership Conference for Experienced Officials at Brooklyn Center yesterday.

Here’s my Powerpoint, slightly revised from the previous one in Mankato and the one in Nisswa.

I did a half-day version of my Blogging and Social Media for Leaders presentation at the League of Minnesota Cities’ Leadership Conference for Experienced Officials at Mankato. Photo above left is LMC Executive Director Jim Miller at last night’s banquet.  Here’s my Powerpoint, slightly revised from the one I did two weeks . . . → Read More: Presentation on Blogging and Social Media for Local Government Leaders at the League of MN Cities Leadership Conference in Mankato]]>

I did a half-day version of my Blogging and Social Media for Leaders presentation at the League of Minnesota Cities’ Leadership Conference for Experienced Officials at Mankato. Photo above left is LMC Executive Director Jim Miller at last night’s banquet.  Here’s my Powerpoint, slightly revised from the one I did two weeks ago in Nisswa.

  My colleague, Ted Davis (Davis Communications) did his presentation titled,  Avoiding the Crisis Management Circus Through Communications Planning . . . → Read More: Presentation on Blogging and Social Media for Local Government Leaders at the League of MN Cities Leadership Conference in Nisswa]]>    
I did a half-day version of my Blogging and Social Media for Leaders presentation at the League of Minnesota Cities’ Leadership Conference for Experienced Officials at Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, MN this weekend.

 
My colleague, Ted Davis (Davis Communications) did his presentation titled,  Avoiding the Crisis Management Circus Through Communications Planning presentation on Friday afternoon. I did mine, titled Taming the New Media Beast: Networking and Communicating with Social Media on Saturday morning.

 
It appeared to be a tough crowd.  Left photo: Was Ted Davis (@TedDavis) really sending Bemidji Mayor Rita Albrecht (@BemidjiRita) to the corner for misbehavior?  Right photo: Were these guys really that unhappy with my tweeting this photo of them?

Ted and I will doing our presentations again at the upcoming LMC leadership conferences in Mankato and Brooklyn Center.

For those who attended my session, here’s my Powerpoint:

Later this winter (Feb/March) I’ll be offering an online course, Blogging and Social Media for Leaders: Leveraging Your Influence in a Hyper-Connected World.

If you’d like to be alerted when course registration opens, subscribe to my free Social Media for Leaders email . . . → Read More: Blogging and Social Media for Leaders: an online course]]>

Later this winter (Feb/March) I’ll be offering an online course, Blogging and Social Media for Leaders: Leveraging Your Influence in a Hyper-Connected World.

If you’d like to be alerted when course registration opens, subscribe to my free Social Media for Leaders email list.

I’ve got a contract with the City of Northfield to create and manage the online platform for a City project: Developing a parking management plan for downtown.

We’ll be using a variety of online interactive services, including social media sites, to provide ways for the stakeholders and residents to participate online.

I’ll . . . → Read More: A citizen engagement project for the City of Northfield, MN: developing a parking management plan for downtown]]>

I’ve got a contract with the City of Northfield to create and manage the online platform for a City project: Developing a parking management plan for downtown.

We’ll be using a variety of online interactive services, including social media sites, to provide ways for the stakeholders and residents to participate online.

I’ll be teaming up with Ross Currier, Executive Director of the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC).

I’ve gotten to know RHM’s founder and CEO Aaron Hautala in the past year, as we have . . . → Read More: Staff training at Red House Media: a Basecamp shock turns out to be a good thing]]> I spent a day last week at Red House Media (RHM) in Brainerd, MN, conducting a staff training session on how to use Basecamp, the web-based collaboration/project management service by 37signals which I’ve used since 2004.

I’ve gotten to know RHM’s founder and CEO Aaron Hautala in the past year, as we have a mutual love of mountain biking. He’s president of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew, the club which helps manage my favorite MTB park, the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Trail System in Crosby/Ironton, MN. When I offered to help with the club’s blog site and mentioned that it would be best if we used Basecamp for our communications, he told me that his company had been using it for a while but wasn’t quite getting full use of it.  He wondered if I was interested in helping.

The night before my training session, I discovered that 37signals had announced a new Basecamp last spring, and that the one I was using was now called Basecamp Classic. Oy. Evidently I’d unsubscribed to the Basecamp enewsletter years ago and thus, never got the memo on the new version.

Once I took a look at the features of the new Basecamp, it became clear that this was the version I needed to present to the RHM staff. So I crammed into the wee hours, moving a couple of my own Basecamp Classic projects over (easy) to the new Basecamp for experimentation.  I was wowed.

I showed up the next morning, prepared but still sweating it. I told my tale of woe to RHM staffers Heidi Lake (media director), Keith Larson (art director), and Anna Johnson (newly hired production manager). They were more than understanding and whenever my lack of knowledge became apparent, they gamely joined me in a hunt for answers.  By day’s end, they were off and running. I was tired but pleased and excited about getting my own Basecamp Classic projects moved over to the new Basecamp. If you use Basecamp, you should, too.