Muni News
VOLUME 90, ISSUE 5  - SUMMER 2000

"Taking the Pulse"
Trial Runs Coming Soon
By Gary McLean, Trustee

As many of you already know, the Municipal League is launching a new project this year called “Taking the Pulse”. We hope to use the Pulse Project to identify significant “hidden” or overlooked government issues facing King County municipalities and residents; to initiate a dialogue regarding such issues by using various outreach tools, including op/ed pieces prepared for our media partner, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; to identify ways to "reconnect" citizens with their local governments; and to promote the League’s role as an avenue for residents to get involved and/or learn more about important issues facing our community. As of this date, the League is continuing its efforts to secure funding sponsors to cover administrative costs associated with this ambitious project.

Members of the project's steering committee have been busy bringing the questionnaires and outreach efforts into focus. Among our current ideas are: an abbreviated set of targeted questions to appear in our mailer containing this year’s candidate ratings; an op/ed piece on a September P-I page, to prompt interest in our project and to direct people to a questionnaire on our web-page; visiting several small groups of people at work / organizations in the early Fall to conduct a "trial-run" of our questions and approaches; and to work with our partner, the Evans School, to identify issues worthy of a larger forum-discussion on campus at the University of Washington.

Pulse Committee members deserve a hearty thank you for their creativity and commitment to getting this project off to a great start!