All or Nothing

I didn't want it all; I just wanted some. All I really wanted was the notices of meetings of one Commission of McHenry County. And not even all the notices of that commission - only the notices of Special Meetings.

Regular Meetings are set for the year and posted on a calendar found on the McHenry County website at http://co.mchenry.il.us On the homepage go to the bottom for County Board. Click on Board Calendars, and then click on the month you want (within the year that you want). For example, 2009 and January.

Up pops the calendar, which shows the Regular Meetings - those meetings that recur monthly. You will have to don your Sherlock Holmes cap to find out just where the meetings are held.

Now who really needs a Notice of these meetings. They occur like clockwork. Same day (ex., first Monday) and the same time. And they meet in the same place. Occasionally, a meeting might be canceled, such as the Law & Justice Committee meeting was for January 5. (Does this mean there will be no law or justice in McHenry County this month?)

In addition to Regular Meetings, a commission or committee might hold a Special Meeting. These are what I wanted to know about for a particular Commission on the calendar. The only way to know about these meetings (and to attend and then report to the public) is to become aware very soon before a meeting occurs. The Illinois Open Meetings Act requires that Notice be published only 48 hours ahead of time, and the media are to be informed (so they can report to the public that a Special Meeting is about to happen. In other words, the media doesn't have to call every day to find out if a Special Meeting is to be held; the commission/committee must inform the media, upon request.

When I called the County Board's office to learn the procedure for making my request to be so informed, I was told that there is one undivided distribution of meeting notices. If you are on the list, you get everything - whether you want it or not.

So, in order to get the Notices of the Special Meetings of the one commission of particular interest to me, here's what I would get and have to wade through:

Notices of all Regular Meetings of all Commissions and Committees of McHenry County;
Agendas for all of those Regular Meetings;
Notices of all Special Meetings of all Commissions and Committees of McHenry County;
Agendas for all of those Special Meetings.

This meant I would receive hundreds of pages of faxes in a year, instead of the 4-5 pages that I want.

While it's relatively easy for the County to send one fax blast to many fax machines, I suspect they give little thought to the paper waste generated at the receiving end of the faxes. Not only the waste of paper, but also the waste of toner (or ink) and, most importantly, the waste of time in distributing and sorting through the hundreds of pages of faxes.

There is an obvious, simple and low-cost solution.

Post the Notices online and in the physical locations required by the Open Meetings Act (which already occurs).

Send an email to those on the distribution list, informing them of the location of the Notices posted online. Allow the recipient to choose what he wants to receive. Sort of like when you go to a restaurant, you know? They bring you a menu; they don't just bring all the food to your table.

Saves everybody time and money. How long will it take McHenry County to come into the Space Age, eliminate the waste, and improve its service to residents and the media?