Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

November 24, 2003

Re: Now, a Way to Distribute Your Neighborhood Council Agendas Through the Early Notification System.

Good news! Neighborhood Councils that have been certified can have their agendas sent around the world to those who subscribe through the city’s Early Notification System. Subscribers will be sent your agendas automatically.

This is the same innovative system that allows people to be sent the agendas of the City Council, its committees, and city commissions.

In order to take advantage of this offer:

1) Assign two people, such as the Board Secretary and an alternate, who will be responsible for providing DONE with a copy of the agenda, and inform your Project Coordinator in writing. This can include agendas for board and committee meetings.

2) Send us your agenda at least two (2) working days before you want it to be made available to the public, which will provide a buffer in the event of problems with our computer or the city’s computer. We will make every effort to post your special notices on time.

3) The agenda should include name of Neighborhood Council (duh!); date, time, and address of meeting; list of items to be discussed; and contact person’s name and phone number in the event that people have questions. If your meetings are subject to the Brown Act, this will be the same agenda style you’ve always used.

Please contact your Project Coordinator if you need help putting together your agenda.

DONE will tell the two contact people where to send the agendas.

Our first choice is to receive the agendas in PDF form because that’s the form in which they must be when we send them to the city’s main computer. Second choice is in MS Word, or equivalent form, and we’ll convert it to PDF. Third choice is fax. We’ll scan it into PDF, but you know the quality of faxes.

If your Neighborhood Council translates agendas into a language other than English, we will also upload the translated agendas into the ENS system.

For security reasons, the city’s computer system is “firewalled” so that people from the outside cannot get into it. That’s why Neighborhood Councils cannot upload the agendas to the city’s computer themselves. We’re happy to provide this service as a way of helping to increase interest in your meetings, allowing people to share in your successes, and providing people with a reliable way to get your agendas.

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Greg Nelson

866 / LA HELPS
213 / 485-1360
213 / 485-4608 fax
done@mailbox.lacity.org email
www.lacityneighborhoods.com website