Most of rural Clarion

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1 county associations AN ONLINE PRESENCE Websites Help County Associations Update Members Quickly and Easily The few county associations of township officials that have websites say they re a great way to get information to their members in a timely and cost-effective manner. In rural areas, they also provide an online presence for townships that do not have the resources to host their own websites. BY BRENDA WILT / ASSOCIATE EDITOR Most of rural Clarion County s townships do not have a website. In fact, they would not have an online presence at all if it weren t for the Clarion County Association of Township Officials. The association has worked hard over the last year or so to create a website that serves as a resource for both townships and residents. We really want to make it beneficial for our citizens and our officials, Steve Allison, the association s secretarytreasurer, says. We think of it as a onestop shop for all the townships in the county. We also hope to make it easier for people to get involved in local government. In an area like Clarion County, where townships still rely on snail mail to communicate with their residents, a central website can be a useful tool. News media can turn to the county association s site to find meeting dates for each township and, if Allison has his way, eventually ordinances, resolutions, and meeting minutes. In counties where all or most of the townships have their own websites, however, county associations can still benefit from a website to provide resources and inform their members about association events and legislative priorities in a timely and cost-effective manner. Benefiting townships and citizens The Bucks County Association of Township Officials has had a website since The professionally designed site is maintained through an agreement with a sponsor that advertises on the site, so it doesn t cost the association anything, Executive Director Rich Manfredi says. While the site has the usual list of officers and member townships, Manfredi would like to start driving traffic to it for legislative resources. I want to have a link to the PSATS Grassroots Lobbying Network, he says, and add to the public policy page to make it more active. The Chester County Association has similar plans for its website, which 32 PA TownshipNews JULY 2013

2 Several county associations of township officials have created an online presence through websites and, in one case, a Facebook page. The associations say that it is a more efficient and cost-effective way to communicate with their members, rather than relying on snail mail. We think of it as a one-stop shop for all the townships in the county. We also hope to make it easier for people to get involved in local government. has been online for about 15 years, association secretary Pat Morrison says. Initially, we did not have regular maintenance of the site, but now the vice president of the county association is maintaining it, she says. His goal is to make it a source for updating members on legislation. At the moment, the site has links to such information as meeting dates and minutes, officers, training offered by the county association, state and federal legislative districts, school districts, and presentations from its county conventions. The association would also like to enable members to register for county conventions and training online but is struggling to find a program that all of its townships can use, Morrison says. Many of its townships do not have up-to-date computer software, which makes it difficult to build a site that is accessible to everyone. The Montgomery County Association of Township Officials also has a website, with similar features to Chester County s. It includes a gallery of photos from past county conventions and information about the county association s hospitality suite at the PSATS Annual Educational Conference. The Clarion County Association ensures that its website has the latest news on pending legislation and other items of interest to its township members by streaming the scrolling news feed from the PSATS website, www. psats.org. PSATS encourages all county associations and townships to consider this feature, which simply involves ing a request to the State Association to obtain the coding. (See the box on Page 34 for more information.) Because its website is geared to both township officials and residents, the Clarion County Association site also has a link to PSATS Township Video News and Townships Today newsletter. We really appreciate PSATS working with us to have the news feed and TVN link, Allison says. We want to make it beneficial for our citizens, as well as our officials. Operating on a shoestring County associations that cannot afford to build a website can follow the lead of the Adams County Association and explore piggybacking on the county government s website. County Association President Coleen Reamer says that until she became president last JULY 2013 PA TownshipNews 33

3 county associations year, the association never discussed having a website. It s hard to get people to chair committees, much less maintain a website, she says, so I said, I don t understand why we re not at least on the county website. Reamer says that because township officials are always changing, she thought it was important to have a place for townships to go to find out who the county association officers are and how to get in touch with them. The association contacted the county and discovered that it could have its own page on the county s website. All they had to do was submit the information they wanted on it, such as the officers, committee chairs, and member townships, and the county formatted Stream PSATS news feed on your website Here s how If your county association or township would like to stream the PSATS news feed on its website, send an to Jennifer Florer at jflorer@psats. org. You will receive the computer code that needs to be copied and pasted into the site s code. A web designer or the person who maintains the site should be able to do this. the information and created the page. There are also links to the minutes from executive committee meetings and the county conventions. Adams County Association s bimonthly newsletter, which is ed to member townships and individuals who request it, also has a link on the web page. For the time being, the county association plans to stick with this venue, Reamer says. If I were a techy person, I would look into a separate website, she says, but this serves our purpose. A lot of Adams County municipalities use the county website because they don t have anyone who knows how to manage a website. Reamer s own township, Hamiltonban, has a website only because a resident volunteered to create and maintain it, she says. County associations that don t have the resources to develop a website should talk to their county to see 34 PA TownshipNews JULY 2013

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5 county associations whether they can piggyback on the county site, she advises. You can at least have basic information, and if you do have your own website, you can link to it from your page on the county site, she says. When county associations are thinking about a website, they must do a risk-return analysis, says Roy Wells, president of Harrisburg-based Triad Strategies. You need to ask what the county association needs to communicate to the township officials, he says. If the townships don t have their own websites, is there a reason to have a county association website? Wells says that while it makes sense for the county associations in larger, more urbanized areas to have websites, the more rural counties should not dismiss the idea, particularly with all the changes that have occurred in the past few years. In the Marcellus Shale region, especially, county associations can be an important forum for townships to get together to discuss emerging issues, he says. The changing nature of the economy in these areas, plus new water and land use issues and demands for services, increase the need for county associations to consider an online presence. County associations on the Web Following are the addresses for the county association websites and Facebook page mentioned in this article: Adams County Bucks County Chester County Clarion County Montgomery County Washington County County-Association-of-Township-Officials/ You can also find links to these websites and Facebook page on the county association page of PSATS website at (choose the Links tab and click on County Associations of Township Officials ). If your county association creates a website or social media page, please the link to Jennifer Florer at jflorer@psats.org so PSATS can link to the site. What about social media? Given that few townships have dipped their toes into the ocean of social media, it s no surprise that only one county association has taken the plunge. The Washington County Association has had a Facebook page since 2011, but it s been a slow process to gain followers, president Rachel Blosser says. We gain a few more fans every year, she says. We would like to do a website, as well, but that takes money and expertise. Facebook is a little easier to manage, and we can do it on our own. The social media experiment was part of a larger plan to use technology to make the county association s processes more timely and cost-effective, she says. When I became president, everything we sent to our members went out by snail mail, she says. There were costs for paper, printing, and postage, and the association had no money. I wanted to find a less expensive way to distribute information. The county association created an database so that everything could be sent to townships electronically. Although the Facebook page isn t used by member townships as much as she would like, Blosser is hopeful that as time passes, it will become more popular. I do feel that it will increase over time, she says. The changing nature of the economy in [Marcellus Shale] areas, plus new water and land use issues and demands for services, increases the need for county associations to consider an online presence. Roy Wells, Triad Strategies 36 PA TownshipNews JULY 2013

6 Remaining relevent A county association, township, or any other entity that has a website should remember the cardinal rule of having a site: Keep it up to date. If you can t maintain it, don t have it, Chester County s Pat Morrison says. It has to have value. If the information is old, people won t come back. Stephen Allison of Clarion County tries to update the association s site at least every two weeks. I try to keep the information fresh, especially on the home page, he says. He gets some help from Debra Torres, who designed the site initially. The Bucks County Association recently switched the responsibility for updating its site from the designer to a volunteer from United Computer, one of the association s regular sponsors. The designer was becoming less and less responsive to updates, Rich Manfredi says. We made the change so that the site will be less static. Deciding what to include on a county association website or social media site depends on your audience. All of the county associations with sites include the basics of association officers, meeting dates, township members, and links to other resources. Most try to include updates on pertinent legislation. Some also include information about countywide events, state and federal legislative offices, and other items of interest to their members. Regardless of the content, even those county associations that don t have an online presence now will probably find themselves with one in the future because that s the way society is going. Technology catches up to us eventually, whether we want it to or not, Washington County s Rachel Blosser says. You can either go with it willingly or you can go kicking and screaming, but you will go. F Find links to township and county association websites and more at JULY 2013 PA TownshipNews 37