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As financial reporting requirements become increasingly complex, many local governments are using popular reporting formats to present their financial and performance data in a manner that will be accessible and valuable to key stakeholders. Disseminating this kind of readily available and easily understood information helps residents participate in civic activities and make informed decisions.
To engage its citizens in the vision of district officials and to present key elements of the district's financial position and performance, the District of North Vancouver created a flash-animated interactive Web presentation. This Web site potentially reaches an audience district officials would not otherwise make contact with and ensures that citizens can easily obtain financial information that is presented in a straightforward manner. The site also offers opportunities for immediate feedback and interaction, encouraging public involvement in the political process and awareness of the district's financial position.
WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT HELPS
A popular report is different from a comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). Mandated requirements increasingly dictate the form and substance of CAFRs, and the data in those documents are usually presented at a high level of detail. This level of complexity can be confusing to a general audience that isn't familiar with accounting and financial reporting. There is a difference between data and information, and to be useful--to rise to the level of information--raw data need to be organized, processed, and interpreted into a meaningful format that enhances understanding.
Popular reports can be used to synthesize the ever-increasing amount of data available to the public and present it to citizens who need or desire a summarized overview of a government's financial activities. Easily accessible information that is interesting and useful can help the public connect with the process of local governance. Ideally, these reports will also help create interest in local government and its operations and motivate them to learn more.
The information in a popular report should be concise and straightforward, and presented in an attractive, easy-to-follow format that gains and holds the reader's interest. The report can be made available in a variety of formats, depending on the intended readership. It can be posted on the government's Web site, or printed and provided to libraries and professional offices, although the spread of high-speed Internet connections has caused online reporting to gain in popularity over traditional print formats. Whatever format is chosen, graphics are especially useful in adding visual interest and enhancing the transfer of knowledge.
Providing accessible, user-friendly information creates a feedback cycle (see Exhibit 1). Reporting performance in a manner that makes it valuable to the target audience is a keystone in a government's efforts to engender support from the community, including citizens, industry;, and other levels of government. This support then manifests itself in both public satisfaction (always favorable from a political perspective),which strengthens community support for the district's projects, and additional executive and council approval, which can lead to more resources for accomplishing key strategic priorities.
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KEY ISSUES
The District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, is the largest municipality on the north shore of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, with a population of 87,000.The district has an annual operating and capital budget of more than $100 million and covers a broad service area that includes oceanfront industries and ports, ecologically sensitive alpine areas, and a mix of commercial and residential neighborhoods in between.
The three main issues the District of North Vancouver needed to address through popular reporting were the diversity of its target audience, limited citizen engagement into the financial affairs of the district, and concern about environmental sustainability.
The diversity of the population (see Exhibit 2) has implications for residents' awareness of civic operations and knowledge of financial and operational reporting. The district's ethnic and linguistic make-up raised the potential of communication barriers--and imposed an added responsibility for the district to make itself understood by residents. However, a highly educated and mobile population in conjunction with a high degree of Internet connectivity provided opportunities for alternative communication methods such as Web-based media.
District officials also wanted to create opportunities to reverse the trend of disengagement among citizens (as evidenced by declining voter turnout).The popular report needed to not only highlight and explain information of particular interest but also to act as an engagement tool. To avoid the perception of marketing, efforts in design and creativity needed to be balanced with unwavering credibility. This was maintained by ensuring the information was presented in a balanced and objective manner.
Because environmental issues are a major concern for the District of North Vancouver--which has adopted sustainability as its key strategic objective--officials chose to post the district's popular report online. In conjunction with adopting the Natural Step framework for sustainability, 1 the district looks for opportunities to reduce its ecological footprint, and in the case of popular reporting, this included reducing waste and minimizing the use of materials such as paper, plastics, and inks. In addition, conserving resources by producing the reports online also had the ancillary benefit of saving the district money
PLANNING AND PRODUCTION
When the district started working on its annual report early in 2006, it had one overarching goal: to increase readership. To this end, district officials decided to try a popular report approach with a dual emphasis on both content and design. The first step was to create a team that was led by financial services and included communications, planning, and information technology (IT). Starting with a blank slate, the team developed a few basic tenets: the report was to be interactive, accessible, and fun for its intended audience.
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With accountants acting as marketers and planners thinking as creative designers, the team came up with two ideas for demonstrating the scope of the district's operations and its performance. The first was a Flash-driven, Web-based, interactive report on performance, known as "Popular Report 2005" (see Exhibit 3). Emphasizing the capabilities of the animation software, the district identified some broad categories as a framework for development--Vision, Who We Are (council and management), Financial Results, Performance (including benchmarking to other municipalities),Year in Review (key events and local news headlines), and Frequently Asked Questions. These turned into the major sections of the online report, and users could click on each area of interest for more information. The second component was an interactive cartoon map of the district's operations (see Exhibit 4), which was packaged together with the annual report and popular report to highlight some of the district's amenities and services. Key to this out-of-the-box thinking was the explicit support from the district executive and council.
Once the basic framework was developed and agreed upon, the challenge become turning ideas into a tangible product. (See Exhibit 5 for the steps involved in the development process of this project.) An important part of escaping traditional limitations in how the district reported information was recognizing the limitations of what internal staff could do. The animation and creative design work expertise needed to make the presentation "marketable" required specialized skills, so they were outsourced to a local firm.
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However, as with any outsourcing assignment, district staff had to provide sufficient guidance to ensure a high-quality product that would be delivered on time. To this end, the district developed a detailed framework that included specific content information, the result of a significant investment in planning upfront. With the district's team providing oversight and continual feedback, the process was complete when the district's IT department was ready to upload the report onto the Web site (http://www.dnv.org).
RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED
The online popular report created a number of positive results for the district, including increased public readership, teamwork, sustainability, and both internal and external support. The release of the popular report and the interactive map generated significant interest within the community, resulting in a marked increase in readership and homepage visits. In addition, the collaborative efforts of the team that developed the report fostered a stronger internal working relationship across departments that has had a lasting impact. And with the increased online accessibility of information, the district was able to significantly reduce the number of annual reports that had to be printed, a positive ecological step as well as a net cost decrease to local taxpayers, as the resulting cost savings more than offset the creative design costs. The district has also begun to see increased internal support from the executive and council as a result of the project, as well as early indications of support from community stakeholders. Increased professional credibility translates into improved opportunities to move other projects forward.
The district based its popular report on the GFOA's recommended practices guide (see Exhibit 6), and it learned some key lessons along the way. These included:
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