Documenters Week celebrates community members, college students’ invaluable collaboration

It’s San Diego Documenters Week, and that means a giant shoutout to all the community members and college students who are working with us to create a new public record.

When we launched the Documenters almost a year ago, we hoped – but secretly knew – this program would catch on and ride a wave of enthusiasm across San Diego County neighborhoods.

We have trained more than 158 community members since February, and they have recorded the actions at more than 76 meetings of city councils, school boards, commissions, and community councils. And their work has made a difference. They have found violations of the state meeting law, and given people a heads-up on upcoming actions that could impact their lives.

What we didn’t anticipate was that college students would be so stoked about attending local government meetings and being paid for it. That’s not particularly surprising, though, since we’ve made the Documenters’ program part of their classroom curricula.

Getting paid to do class work? What could be better?

During the week of Sept. 9, we will be in four classes at San Diego State and City College, teaching students about the importance of public meetings, giving them pointers on taking notes at the meetings, and paying them to take part in local democracy. Each professor is giving us class time to train students, sign them up for meetings, and work with them to produce notes and short stories out of that work.

In honor of this first-of-a-kind work in San Diego County, we are celebrating this week as San Diego Documenters Week.

Stay tuned for a barrage of news that no one else is covering in the months to come, as our student Documenters attend as many as 80 public meetings in San Diego and the cities of the South Bay: Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, and National City.

They will all walk out of class with an orange and yellow Documenters badge to wear at meetings that tells everyone they are on special assignment with inewsource to observe and record the public proceedings. They not only get paid but they get class credit and are credited on the Documenters website by name.

The best part from our point of view? We are building a new generation of involved, engaged residents who know their way around City Hall, are participating in civic activities, and are inspiring action from their communities. Not only this, the tools we provide will help them in whatever path they choose. Whether they want to become an advocate or start a career in journalism, the skills they learn will help further their futures. 

This Documenters Week, we embrace every community member who has become a Documenter while giving special recognition to the students who are strengthening the foundation of the program. If you haven’t been trained by us yet, join the celebration and attend a training at a local library near you today!

– Lorie Hearn

Chief Executive Officer & Editor

P.S. To find out more about the San Diego Documenters Program, go to our main page. If you’d like to comment on the program or have more questions, please contact our Documenters Program Manager at joshuapiedra@inewsource.org.