How public should elected officials’ social media posts — during business meetings — be?

While also applicable to the most-powerful governing bodies in the land, it’s a Minnesota school board that’s putting the subject on its agenda. Veronica Walter raised the issue during a discussion by the Farmington School Board, reports Nathan Hansen in “School board ponders social media blackout” in the Farmington Independent.

“I just want to be careful as board members that we aren’t overstepping our bounds,” said Walter. “We dance very dangerously on the edge of being inappropriate with comments. That things can be misread.”

Most of the board members apparently agreed with Walter, but member Tim Burke called using social media “the price of doing business” in the modern world. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he said. Burke is probably the board’s most active social networker. His Twitter account, on which he mixes personal and professional messages with comments about school district issues, has 2,829 followers.

The SSN take: It will be interesting is to see what information makes its way out of governing body and/or business meetings via social media.

John Sniffen, March 26, 2010

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