Difference between revisions of "Charter Worksheet 0009"

Revision as of 15:29, 10 February 2009

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Highland Park, St. Paul, Minnesota Charter Worksheet

• Charter Worksheets

Top Level Intro Paragraph for Group Home Page

Each group home page starts with:

Welcome to the Highland Park Neighborhood Issues Forum

Then you share the "Intro paragraph on web site" to say what your forum is about in order to attract members and set the tone. Here is some sample text to edit:

• This forum is a place to discuss neighborhood issues and exchange community announcements using real names with civility. The goal of this forum is to give everyone a greater voice in decisions that affect the community, increase civic participation, and help encourage more input into solutions for area problems. Join now and participate via e-mail or the web. This forum will open with the 100th participant. More ...

The word "More..." then links off to your full charter (that you are filling out below.)

When a forum is in the start-up phase you can also tell people who they should contact to get involved or to join your local steering committee. You may also display a photograph/image representing your community along side this text. The image should be taller than wider (up to 200 pixels wide) and used only with permission of the owner. Creative commons images from Flickr are a great source - replace "city" with your keywords.

Purpose of the Forum - Short

Complete the following statement: The purpose of the Highland Park Issues Forum is:

• to engage residents of the neighborhood in thoughtful discussion about local development, zoning, transportation, crime prevention, education, parks and recreation and other community issues affecting Highland Park.

Intro Paragraph to Charter - Longer Purpose/Welcome Statement

Repeat the purpose/scope text from your Intro Paragraph for your Group Home Page for your full official "charter." Your charter is meant to be relatively stable and is your governing document that is attached to E-Democracy.Org's universal rules.

• (Your answer here)

Goals

The Goals of {Your Community} Issues Forum are:

• Give Highland Park residents a greater voice in decisions that affect our community
• To exchange views with local elected officials and with government staff who serve the Highland Park neighborhood
• Exchange viewpoints and opinions and discover new or different perspectives
• Talk about what's going on in the Highland Park neighborhood as a whole
• To encourage partnerships, collaborative problem-solving and positive, citizen-driven change for our neighborhood

Typical Topics

Topics that you might find here to discuss include:

• New commerical and housing developments proposed for Highland
• Transportation issues
• Crime and law enforcement issues
• Parks, recreation and public spaces
• Community schools and education
• District council issues
• City planning
• Neighborhood business and commerce
• Or any other issues or concerns affecting Highland Park

Rules

The full text of rules governing E-Democracy.Org forums can be found here: http://e-democracy.org/rules/. However, your groups should pick out a few rules that you would like to highlight on your charter page.

Highlighted Rules:

• (Insert Highlighted Rule #1)
• (Insert Highlighted Rule #2)
• (Insert Highlighted Rule #3)
• (Add or subtract the number of Typical Topic as you see fit)

Who Runs This Forum

Please, use this section to insert a short description of your steering committee, including references to any organizations that are playing a leading role in organizing the forum.

• (Your description here)