The group that brought you the campaign of Holland, Lanphier & Rintz for Village Trustee wants you to “Get smart, stay smart and make good decisions” about all things Village Hall. They hope to help you do just that with their latest initiative, Spot Checks.
According to their website, YourWinnetka.org, Spot Checks are “non-biased 15-second reads about the key issues facing the Village.” Purposefully patterned after the popular Skimm and Huff Post newsletters, Spot Checks are “factual, informative, and we hope, fun to read,” says Jan Bawden, editor-in-chief, and a founder of YourWinnetka.
The genesis of Spot Checks lies in the campaign for Village Trustee itself. “It was a natural transition from candidates to issues,” says Vicki Apatoff, managing editor. “The campaign taught us that residents want to know what’s going on. They want the backstory, and where to go for more information, but they certainly don’t want to be told what to think.”
Apatoff believes the formula is working. “We’ve had incredibly positive feedback, and get new subscribers with every Spot Check. Our in-box is filled with ‘keep up the good work’ ‘thanks for paying attention,’ and ‘I love these!’” she adds.
The editors claim this makes them “obsessional” when it comes to putting out a good product. “Between research, review and distilling it down to a readable length, a single Spot Check can take 40 hours or more to put together,” says Bawden.
To keep things legitimate and unbiased, Spot Checks uses only published sources like the Village website, Village documents and “.gov” websites, as well as personal interviews. They’ve recently added an editorial review board to help ensure against “bias creep.”
“We have no agenda other than to elevate the dialog. There’s no need for us to take a position. If you give people access to the information, they’re smart enough to draw their own conclusions. Especially in this town,” says YourWinnetka’s Social Media Director, Kim Handler.
Right now, the group is covering Winnetka’s hottest topics: Stormwater, One Winnetka and the Downtown Master Plan. Eventually, they plan to take the lid off “just about anything else residents tell us they want to know,” says Apatoff. “Our mantra is, ‘If it’s interesting to you, it’s interesting to us.’”
Bawden sums up the group’s mission: “If we can make it easy for our friends and our neighbors to get what they need in the short time they have, it’s been a good day.”
YourWinnetka can be reached at YourWinnetka.org, and welcomes your insights, comments, concerns and ideas for Spot Checks.
YourWinnetka is an information-services organization based in Winnetka, Illinois, dedicated to the belief that informed residents make for better government.
