New Council Member Orientation Package

City Clerk Patty White from LeRoy Minnesota has elections every two years. Before her next election comes around she wants to update her New Council Member Orientation Package with the best practices from other local governments.


There are two ways you can help Patty out - within your reply to her post include the link to your orientation package or attach the file itself.

I started having all the new board members watch the Wisconsin's League of Municipalites liability video. In each of my monthly clerk reports, I try to give a 'Robert's Rules of Order' tip of the month.

The state of Washington has a group called the Municipal Resources and Services Center (MRSC) and they provide packets for newly elected public officials. We give them this publication and I also have them come and sit with myself as the city clerk and the city manager and we go over the basics on what they need to know to start and answer any questions they have in the beginning. Here is a link to the document: http://mrsc.org/Home/Explore-Topics/Governance/Candidates-and-Newly-Elected-Officials/Newly-Elected-City-Officials-Information.aspx


Here at the Town of Gaston we don't have any New Council Orientation materials. We basically have them come to the meeting so they can observe how our meetings go, and with this being a small town, they can always ask a former council member.