Enhancing Local Government Project

What is ELG?
The "Enhancing Local Government" Project (ELG) is four pilot project that will develop a series of educational modules that deliver training and information of a host of issues facing elected officials right to their computers. During the four years, we will test market techniques, and we will conduct surveys to evaluate which elected officials use what media, how effectively they use these media, and how much they value having these "distance learning" resources.

The Vision Behind ELG
The vision of the Michigan Municipal League is that every elected municipal official will receive the clear, accurate, up-to-date education and information they need, in a way that is immediately accessible to them, delivered in a variety of media they will use, and at a price they can afford.

Why ELG is Needed
Every four years, municipalities across the state of Michigan elect some 5000 officials to local office. Of these, approximately 3600 are new to the experience of holding office. These elected officials can have a critical impact on business and, indeed, on all the citizens of a municipality, through the decisions they make.

Often these elected officials come into office without government experience of any kind. Some may be one-issue candidates. Others have agreed to serve the community simply out of the goodness of their hearts. Most are unprepared for the complexity of the issues that face a modern-day municipality.

The key to helping local officials make well-informed decisions is education and information. What we have found over the years is that traditional methods of education and information sharing, such as seminars, workshops and training tracks at conferences and conventions reach only about 20% of elected officials. Those that can afford the time to travel, or the expense of attending the event. Those who are strongly motivated to seek out and attend training events. That leaves a large proportion of the states municipal officials uncovered.

The ELG project's strength is that it takes the training, and all the information we have on current issues, and delivers it to the offices and homes of elected official, right to their computers.

What ELG Will Do
ELG will take some already existing workshops, those produced by the Elected Officials Academy, and re-cast them in distance learning formats. ELG will also develop a considerable array of new educational programs in the distance learning formats. The details of these are described in ELG Modules.