Skylar Crawford

My Recent Work

Clerks, COVID, and the 2020 Elections

There's one government position that’s closer to public records and their management than anyone else---the municipal clerk. And these days they have a lot on their plates than just public records.

Municipal clerks can be responsible for everything from notary, transcription, and licensing to records and (most relevant to this blog post) election management. “Elections used to be about one-tenth of our job. It’s now about one-fifth or one-fourth of our jobs,” said Barbara Van Clake, who has ser

Breaking Down the CARES Act with NextRequest

It's been over six months since the CARES Act- or the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act - was signed into law. Many know some basics about Act, like that it brought over $2 trillion in financial aid to American citizens and businesses. Or perhaps you knew about the CARES Act because of the $1,200 checks that landed in your mailbox. However, there’s still a lot of information about the CARES Act the average citizen might not know, so we wanted to give folks a quick summary the di

U.S. Government Transparency During A Time Of Pandemic

Let’s be honest, no one was truly prepared for a global pandemic. Sure, organizations had disaster plans and emergency preparedness strategies in place, but in many ways they were incomplete. The government was no exception. COVID-19’s forced closure of city halls and state departments led to employees working remotely, which caused significant disruptions to government functions as many require on-site presence.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has also created an incredible demand for accessible and accur

The Top Public Records Laws Changes of 2020

As 2020 *finally* comes to a close, NextRequest is taking some time to look back on a few highlights of the year. This year has seen several updates to public records laws that have changed the FOIA landscape. Below are our top picks on passed laws that will have the most impact on the future of public records as a whole.


Tennessee’s 2019-2020 SB2313 became effective on July 2nd as an amendment to the existing TN SB2313. It does two things: prohibits destruction of records subject to any pend

A Spotlight on Police Records Reform

The conversation surrounding the relationship between the police and the public has never been louder. Calls for defunding, reform, and even total abolition of law enforcement have been rampant. Petitions, protests, and social media postings have demonstrated the growing public interest in increasing police officer accountability and transparency. To address these concerns, states have been working to pass legislation to enact change like never before.

The question is, what changes can be made

CARES Act Part 2: A State by State Breakdown

In our previous CARES Act blog post, we broke down the stimulus bill that brought over $2 trillion to citizens and businesses (if you haven’t seen that post yet, you can read it HERE). Now we’re going to focus on the $150 billion chunk that was dedicated directly to state, territorial, and tribal governments, including the specific areas that money has been funneled into after making it all the way down to the local level.

CARES Act allotments to state and local governments have not been immedi

Ways to Stay Connected While Apart

Our recent blog posts have covered everything from how local government employees have switched to working from home and to the organizations, websites, and tools someone can utilize to help with that transition. But one of the less covered topics might just be how hard the social change has been for many newly remote workers.

While this might be one of the more overlooked subtopics under the work from home umbrella, that doesn’t make it any less legitimate of a concern. So the question is, how

Why GovTech Software That’s Just “Good Enough” Isn’t Good Enough

In the private sector, consistently updated technology is a crucial component to beating competitors and driving profits. This is why businesses prioritize IT spending in their budgets. When looking at the public sector (aka the government) you find that consistently updated technology is much more infrequent. One of the leading factors keeping public entities from updating their tech stack can be largely due to the incremental, year-to-year budgeting processes that can make large investments in

The Local Government Organizations You Need to Follow

During this time of isolation it feels more important to make connections than ever before. If you work in local government, there might be more resources within reach than you realize!


1. Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) - Engaging Local Government Leaders is an organization that focuses specifically on workers in all levels of local government. It began in Portland, Oregon and currently has over 4,800 members, including people from all 50 states as well as Canada, the UK, Israel, an

Why It's Time to Ditch Your Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are kind of like being stuck in a bad relationship that you’ve been putting off leaving. You know you need to initiate that confrontation, break up, and move on, but you just can’t seem to make the first step. Or maybe you haven’t realized that there is a step that needs to be taken yet.

The motivation to make a change comes from the availability of other options, so we wanted to put together a laundry-list of reasons that might just nudge you into breaking up with spreadsheets.

T

Happy 54th Birthday FOIA! A Brief History Of The Act & Why It’s So Important

Every year the celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence overshadows a lesser known but equally important document that was also signed into law on the 4th of July, but in 1966. That document was the Freedom of Information Act, also known as FOIA.

For the first time ever, the Freedom of Information Act provided citizens with unprecedented access to information about almost everything their tax dollars touched. But why was FOIA passed to begin with, and what were things like

7 Useful Websites and Apps For Local Government

While many local government employees have made the switch to remote work during the pandemic, many or all of these internet tools should be able to find use at times of work from home or the usual office grind as businesses begin to reopen.

This list features resources that alternate between technical and physical website and app tools. Oh, and one more very important detail---every single one of them is FREE!


For converting documents to or from PDF, it really doesn’t get simpler than www.f

New to Remote Work? Top 5 Ways to Avoid Procrastination

It’s almost always something you know has to be done no matter what, yet you can’t get yourself to start it, stay focused, and finish. Almost no one is immune to putting some of their work off, however if you’ve recently moved to remote employment because of COVID-19 you might find your displacement from the regular office setting pushing you to say “I’ll do that later!” to more and more of your responsibilities. So what’s the deal with procrastination, and more importantly, what can we do about

Transitioning From In-Person to Digital with Virtual Services

A leading reason local and state governments have been hit so hard by office closures forced by COVID-19 is because government work tends to have a lot of manual processes. Governments that have gone “more digital” have been better prepared for this pandemic and for future catastrophic events.

Following up on our most recent blog post that covers tips and tools for employees to learn when making the switch to remote work, here the focus shifts to ways local governments can move more of their pr

Top 5 Remote Work Tips for Government

As uncertain times fall on the world in the wake of COVID-19, many workers are making the switch from cubicles and offices to the comfort (or confines) of working from home. Governments will probably always have a need for some in-person work and therefore in-person employees, but adopting remote options and alternatives has many advantages, including:
• The flexibility of being able to work anytime and anywhere with an internet connection
• The ability to work jointly with associates, regardles
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Current Issues Affecting Public Records Request Management

As a public records management software company, we get to talk to folks from all types of agencies managing public records every day. We hear all kinds of use cases, from Police Departments and sheriff departments to small rural town clerks and large state departments. We also hear all types of public records difficulties as well.

From the ever-growing overall number of requests to the increasing complexity of request fulfillment, we wanted to break down some of the most common public records
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Why Governments Charge Fees for Public Records

Fees for public records might come as a surprise for those who don’t work with public records on a regular basis, but not only are fees an incredibly common part of the public records experience, but sometimes they reach levels of unbelievable magnitude (a records request in 2013 was quoted at just over $300,000 in fees.).

Why do Public Records Cost Money to Access?

A good deal of the confusion as to why public records cost money stems from the fact that public records are often referred to in
CivicPlus •

What is a Public Record?

This upcoming 4th of July marks the 54th anniversary of the signing of the Freedom of Information Act. If you’re reading this, chances are you already know what a public record is.

Whether you consider yourself a public records veteran or someone who wouldn’t even be able to put together a simple definition of them, there’s something in this post for anyone interested in learning about one of the cornerstones of government transparency.

So, let’s begin with the question: What is a public recor