The Office of Open Records webinars scheduled to take place this week will be rescheduled.
Sunshine Week
March 20 in Pittsburgh: Sunshine Week Conference
On Friday, March 20, I’ll be speaking about the Right-to-Know Law as part of the Access, Transparency and Your Right to Know daylong conference taking place at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco in Pittsburgh.
My discussion (and there will be plenty of opportunity for Q&A) will take place during the luncheon, but the entire event kicks off at 9:30 a.m.
Here’s how the organizers describe the event:
A coalition of nonprofit media organizations is holding a one-day conference to explore Pennsylvania’s open government and right-to-know laws. Timed to fall within Sunshine Week 2020, the gathering will feature sessions aimed at professional journalists, students, and individuals who have an interest in accessing government meetings and information.
Sessions will look at the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act, the Clean Slate law, the Sunshine Act and other access and transparency issues and the event will feature a keynote presentation from Erik Arneson, executive director of the Office of Open Records. Additional speakers to include representation from the ACLU, UVA Law School’s First Amendment Clinic, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, PA Post, PublicSource, Spotlight PA, StateImpactPA, The Caucus and more.
Schedule and session program forthcoming.
More information is available here.
I hope you can join us!
OOR Webinar Schedule for Sunshine Week 2020
Continuing a tradition that began last year, the Office of Open Records is once again planning a series of webinars for Sunshine Week 2020 with topics related to Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act.
The OOR’s Sunshine Week 2020 webinar series currently looks like this:
March 16 (Monday)
RTKL Basics for Agency Open Records Officers
with OOR Director of Training & Outreach George Spiess
March 17 (Tuesday)
Records Retention
with Archivist Tyler Stump of the Pennsylvania State Archives
March 18 (Wednesday)
Writing an Effective RTKL Request
with OOR Executive Director Erik Arneson
March 19 (Thursday)
Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act
with OOR Director of Training & Outreach George Spiess
March 20 (Friday)
Changes to the OOR Docketing System
with OOR General Counsel Delene Lantz-Johnson
All of the webinars will begin at 10 a.m. and will include plenty of time for questions. Mark your calendar to join us!
For more details, check the OOR’s training calendar a little closer to Sunshine Week.
OOR Website Resources – Presentation
This afternoon, the Office of Open Records is hosting a webinar about resources available on our website.
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation our Chief of Training & Outreach, George Spiess, prepared for this session:
OOR Website Resources – March 15, 2019 – PDF
OOR Website Resources – March 15, 2019 – PPTX
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is our final webinar for Sunshine Week 2019. Thank you to everyone who joined us! The best way to be notified of upcoming webinars is to sign up for our email newsletter.
2018 OOR Annual Report
This morning, the Office of Open Records is hosting a webinar to release our 2018 Annual Report.
Here’s the 2018 Annual Report:
And here’s the PowerPoint presentation I prepared for the webinar:
2018 OOR Annual Report Webinar Presentation – March 14, 2019 – PDF
2018 OOR Annual Report Webinar Presentation – March 14, 2019 – PPTX
Previous annual reports are available here.
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is Sunshine Week 2019, and we’re hosting one more webinar after this one. I hope you can join us!
Preparing Affidavits for RTKL Appeals
This afternoon, the Office of Open Records is hosting a webinar designed to help Agency Open Records Officers and agency attorneys better understand how to prepare affidavits when an appeal has been filed under the Right-to-Know Law.
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation that our Deputy Director, Nathan Byerly, prepared for this session:
Preparing Affidavits for RTKL Appeals – March 14, 2019 – PDF
Preparing Affidavits for RTKL Appeals – March 14, 2019 – PPTX
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is Sunshine Week 2019, and we’re hosting a series of webinars. I hope you can join us for some or all of them!
Recent Court and OOR Decisions of Note
This morning, the Office of Open Records is hosting a webinar focusing on recent court and OOR decisions under the Right-to-Know Law and the Sunshine Act.
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation that our Chief Counsel, Charles Brown, prepared for this session:
Recent Court and OOR Decisions of Note – March 14, 2019 – PDF
Recent Court and OOR Decisions of Note – March 14, 2019 – PPTX
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is Sunshine Week 2019, and we’re hosting a series of webinars. I hope you can join us for some or all of them!
Mediation at the OOR – Presentation
This afternoon, the Office of Open Records hosted a webinar all about our Right-to-Know Law mediation program.
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation that our General Counsel, Delene Lantz, used for this session:
OOR Mediation Webinar – March 13, 2019 – PDF
OOR Mediation Webinar – March 13, 2019 – PPTX
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is Sunshine Week 2019, and we’re hosting a series of webinars. I hope you can join us for some or all of them!
Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act – Presentation
This morning, the Office of Open Records hosted a webinar all about Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act, also known as the open meetings law.
Topics covered include providing public notice of meetings, the rules about allowing public comment, executive sessions, and more.
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation that our Chief of Training & Outreach, George Spiess, used for this session:
Sunshine Act Webinar – March 13, 2019 – PDF
Sunshine Act Webinar – March 13, 2019 – PPTX
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is Sunshine Week 2019, and we’re hosting a series of webinars. I hope you can join us for some or all of them!
2019 AORO Survey Data & Presentation
Earlier this afternoon, the Office of Open Records hosted a webinar about the 2019 Survey of Agency Open Records Officers (AOROs).
This is the third statewide survey of AOROs, the people directly responsible for responding to Right-to-Know Law requests.
Some highlights:
- We received 1,054 survey responses from a wide variety of agency types.
- Responses were received from agencies in all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties.
- More than 90% of agencies reported spending less than 5 hours per week responding to RTKL requests. (That includes 61.5% of agencies which spent less than 1 hour per week.)
- The median number of requests received was 13.5; the average was 43.2.
- 509 agencies reported receiving 12 or fewer requests.
- 101 agencies reported receiving 100 or more requests.
- The majority (51.2%) of requests were “general requests.” The next largest category was commercial requests (30.2%). News media requests were just 3.8% of the total.
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation I used for this session, which includes more data from the survey and related information:
AORO Survey Results Webinar – March 12, 2019 – PDF
AORO Survey Results Webinar – March 12, 2019 – PPTX
And here’s the underlying data, exported into Excel files in the three ways Survey Monkey allows (all three are ZIP files):
2019_AORO_All_Summary_Data
2019_AORO_All_Responses_Data
2019_AORO_All_Individual_Responses
The OOR regularly provides training on Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act. Our training calendar is available here, and we always welcome requests to provide training.
This is Sunshine Week 2019, and we’re hosting a series of webinars. I hope you can join us for some or all of them!
Open Records in Pennsylvania 