Spread a Little Sunshine and Bring "Sunshine Week" to Albany

Albany Patch is participating in Sunshine Week this week to promote and celebrate open government and freedom of information.

This effort seeks to empower people to play an active role in government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.

At Patch, we aim to engage community members in conversation about the importance of the public’s right to know; to educate them about freedom of information and "sunshine laws," as well as the public records that are available, and how to get, use and decipher them; and to explain how and why journalists use these laws to further our mission of covering and informing our communities well. 

Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. It's a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.  

Sunshine Week, March 13-19, is funded primarily by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami, along with the ASNE Foundation. There are games, proclamations and more all brought to you by the Sunshine Week team, which we share with you below.  

Join us at Albany Patch and spread a little sunshine around town. The following is from SunshineWeek.org:

Start with a Sunshine Week Open Government Proclamation 

In recognizing earlier Sunshine Weeks, many public officials around the country issued proclamations extolling openness in government. A few introduced significant open government legislation or signed executive orders. It’s time the pronouncements become actions, and the few become the many. 

This Sunshine Week, we urge citizens to press their public officials to do more, seeking not just broad statements of support for greater transparency but specific pledges and plans of action to enhance the public’s right to know.

Sunshine Week 2011 can be a time when you as a citizen or civic organization make a difference by identifying local or state open government shortcomings and then asking your public officials to pledge and initiate specific improvements in local or state law and practice.

To assist your efforts, the Sunshine Week team presents a sample Open Government Proclamation that you, or your group, can take to your public officials to seek a commitment on open government with specific action that will lead to increased sunshine.

Like all proclamations, it begins with a general statement of the benefits of open government at every level.

That is followed by a sampling of open government provisions that brought greater transparency to local and state governments around the country. We offer these as examples of the kind of specific action that may be needed in and appropriate for your community or state. We also hope these examples will inspire ideas for other openness measures that may be needed in your community or state.

We hope you and/or your organization will find these useful in considering what sunshine commitments are needed in your government and in crafting a specific proclamation and action pledge to present to your public officials.

Let us know if you are successful by writing dmk@asne.org and including "Sunshine Week Proclamation" in the subject line. If your government’s action was reported by the media, send along the link(s). We plan to post an "Honor Roll" on this website of government entities that adopt Sunshine Week open government pledges and/or take specific actions. 

Here is the Sunshine Week Open Government Proclamation in full.

Play the "You’re A Ray of Sunshine" Game

The Sunshine Week team designed this game to challenge you, help you have some fun and learn about why open government and freedom of information in the U.S. is to be cherished and held to high standards. Play it here.

Get Smart about the Public’s Right to Know

• Read up. There are resources for teachers, including lesson plans so young people can participate.
• There’s  also a host of resources on open government assembled by the Sunshine Week team.

Read more about Sunshine Week at www.sunshineweek.org.