Meetings

Journalism Professor Rich Cameron has created a terrific online city council newswriting exercise. It can be found at http://www.rcameron.com/journalism/citycouncil/index.html

-Many cities and towns publish the minutes or transcripts from their government meetings online. These can be used as the basis for a news story. See if you can find the website for your city or town and see if such transcripts are online. Or you can find minutes from city councils around the country by checking State and Local Government on the Net, which has links to cities and towns nationwide. The url is: http://www.statelocalgov.net

You can also do a Google search for “City Council meeting minutes,” or check specific cities and towns. Here are some examples: City of Cedar Rapids: http://www.cedar-rapids.org/council/meetings.asp   City of Austin: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/   City of Boston: http://www.cityofboston.gov/cityclerk/hearing/see.asp?type=mn   City of Eugene: http://www.ci.eugene.or.us/Council/minutes.htm   City of Arlington: http://www.ci.arlington.tx.us/citycouncil/minutes.html

-Many cities and towns also publish their annual budgets online. These too can be used as the basis for newswriting exercises. Again, do a Google search for city budgets. Here are just a few examples:   Town of Orange, Virginia budget: http://www.townoforangeva.org/government/budget.htm   Town of West Hartford budget: http://www.west-hartford.com/Government/Budget/welcomepage.htm Town of Harvard, Massachusetts budget: http://www.harvard.ma.us/townbudget.htm   City of Indianapolis budget: http://www.indygov.org/controller/