The New League Web Site

This is first major overhaul of the League's website since 2000. While there were valid reasons why this overhaul was so long in coming, League staff are committed to making substantive changes to the site on a more frequent basis going forward.

With this in mind, we greatly encourage member city elected officials, city staff, and other visitors to our site to let us know how this site can be improved to better meet your needs. Each year we will identify short-term development tasks as well as longer-term items to be launched with our next overhaul.

What's different about this site

There's more to this overhaul than may first meet the eye:

  • The graphic design of the site has been reworked to better reflect our member cities and the new League branding.
  • The navigational structure of the site has been dramatically changed to be more member-focused, as opposed to reflecting the League's organizational structure.
  • Site-wide search functionality has been improved to be more user-friendly and relevancy-driven.
  • Search within documents is now more easily refined with the utilization of categories ("resource types").
  • Text has been reworked to be more easy to scan for the information you're looking for.
  • Text and documents throughout the site have been brought up-to-date.
  • Content is designed to balance current needs with developing issues and trends.
  • Related information is showcased throughout the site.
  • League staff members you can contact for more information are easily found on virtually every page.

How you can interact with and add value to this site

  • Participate in the Member Forums -- both the continuing listservs that now have additional forum functionality, and the new forums added with this launch.
  • Send us your ideas for what you'd like to see in the "Cities of Minnesota" section, the section we would like to showcase cities and provide information to the general public.
  • Send us examples of work your city is doing that you think other cities could learn from -- these examples are great starting points for web site and magazine content, and help us develop models for other cities to work from.
  • Let us know what's missing from the site that would help you in your city governance and management roles and responsibilities.

What's around the corner

There are a number of additional enhancements to content and functionality League staff will be working on in 2008-09:

  • Expanded E-Learning offerings in the areas of human resources and land use.
  • Content development related to Minnesota cities that is designed for the general public, students, teachers, and prospective city employees and elected officials.
  • Integration with our association management software, allowing for more member-League data exchange (such as online entry of changes to city contact information).