Difference between revisions of "Charter Worksheet 0013"

Revision as of 22:06, 28 February 2009

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"Your Community" Charter Worksheet

• Charter Worksheets

Top Level Intro Paragraph for Group Home Page

Each group home page starts with:

Welcome to the Westborough, Massachusetts 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:

• Here you will find thoughts and voices from fellow residents of "The Hundredeth Town." We invite you to browse and participate; to earn and contribute. Just like you might do when you encounter friends at the local salon or barber shop, or when waiting in line to sign-in for town meeting, this forum is a place to discuss local public issues and exchange community announcements and information using our real names, with civility and respect. 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 local area problems. Please join now and participate via e-mail or the web. This forum will open as soon as we have registered 100 participants. 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 {Your Community} Issues Forum is:

• (Your answer here)

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:

• (Insert Goal #1)
• (Insert Goal #2)
• (Insert Goal #3)
• (Add or subtract the number of goals as you see fit)

Typical Topics

Topics that you might find here to discuss include:

• (Insert Typical Topic #1)
• (Insert Typical Topic #2)
• (Insert Typical Topic #3)
• (Insert Typical Topic #4)
• (Add or subtract the number of Typical Topic as you see fit)

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)
• Michael Hyde, as possible Forum Manager