Creating & Managing Municipal Websites

The Snelling Center for Government has created the e-Government Help Center for Vermont Towns for officials and citizens who want to build a Web presence for their town or make improvements to existing online information. It includes best practice recommendations such as strategic planning, managing content and understanding the concepts of handicapped accessibility and usability on the Web. Visit http://evermontbroadband.org/ to:

• Check out the Plans and Policies section for examples of strategic plans, website policies and Web manager job descriptions and written by municipal officers, along with a sample RFP for website work and questions to ask before hiring a vendor to do Web-related work.
• Search the Resource Library for links to topics related to website and online application management.
• Look through a town website template filled with examples of useful content that encourages transparency and openness in local government.
• Read the e-Gov Blog section for tips on optimizing search for town websites, municipal records retention on the Web and registering a town website for a .vt.gov domain name.