Overview:

The Sonoma County ACLU Chapter seeks to promote and protect civil liberties in Sonoma County through advocacy, public discussion and publicity of civil liberties issues. The Chapter was founded over 40 years ago, and today has over 2,000 members. Their Board meets monthly, and includes various committees focusing on specific areas of concern including: First Amendment and Privacy Protection, Police Misconduct and Jail Conditions, Civil Liberties in the Education System, and Economic Justice / Poverty issues They conduct community meetings on issues of concern such as discrimination against persons of middle eastern ethnic origin, police shootings, and privacy issues, and do workshops in schools on civil liberties and students' rights. They appear before city councils and school boards to testify on matters involving civil liberties. They also operate a 'hotline' for persons to contact us about civil liberties concerns, and publish a quarterly newsletter for their members.

Website Goals:

An active web site would help raise awareness of civil liberties issues in the County, and would encourage better communication within the Chapter. There is little communication between the Board and the membership except for the newsletters and annual dinner. Civil liberties issues pop up randomly. They would like to quickly publicize issues to the members; get their feedback as to whether it's an issue we should be addressing; and if so, put together a small group to take action. they would also like to have a venue to discuss civil liberties issues - listserv
They need to use a website to post information about current "alerts;" post sample letters for our members to send to the city council; post updates on city council meetings; and perhaps some links to controversies in other cities or litigation. – Alerts links from main page and a link to civil liberty issues.
They sponsor an essay contest each year for high school students. This year's topic is whether the federal government should be allowed to violate civil liberties in its efforts to combat terrorism. They would like information about the contest, including links to information about civil liberties violations, links to court cases, and links to proposed federal legislation for students to investigate in writing their essays. – Link to essay contest and to a resource page.
They also want to post their newsletter online. – Link to PDFs of all newsletters and to Northern California ACLUs newsletters.
Also forms for membership signup, make a donation, order dinner tickets, and possibly offer to volunteer. The board has discussed the option of using paypal as a secure site for payment.

Target Market Examples:

1. ACLU members

2. Potential members

3. Students entering essay contest

4. General public looking for information about the ACLU

The target audience will be all citizens concerned with personal rights.
They are various ages and from various income levels.
This site should be visually appealing to attract the general public.

Benchmarks for Success

1. Create a site that is easy to navigate and visually appealing-with a flag but not a red, white and blue site.

2. Increase membership in the Sonoma County ACLU and create an easy way for citizens to donate time and/or money.

3. Increase member involvement using a listserv to facilitate quick responses.

4. Bring attention to current issues using alert links from the main page.