Sunshine – An Element Needed Year Round

 The formal celebration of Sunshine Week is limited to seven days pivoting around the March 16 birthday of James Madison.   But as many wrote in their 2012 Sunshine Week commentaries, the dialogue on open government needs to continue throughout the year round, and the focus on greater transparency at all levels of government must never cease. 

The Sunshine Week website is designed to help find new ways to continue that conversation.  We’ve captured the best of the past to inspire you and your organization to continue the conversation during the year and to begin your planning to make Sunshine Week 2013 more successful than ever in moving the cause of open government forward.

You’ll find a report on our Local Heroes, citizen-activists who have made a difference in their communities by using public records or fighting to bring about greater openness.

Our Reading Room captures some of the best of the media and other reports and commentary from 2012,  along with examples of actions taken by public officials to acknowledge the week or raise transparency issues.

The Toolkit provides an Idea Bank, along with examples of commentary and editorial cartoons from 2012.

And the FOI Resources section offers a helpful list of websites that have useful information on a wide-range of open government topics.

Keep the sun shining.