WALLA WALLA, WASH.–The second session of the day and the last of this swing through Idaho and Washington. Thanks to the William O. Douglas Chapter of SPJ, especially Jillian and Paula, and the staff and management of the Walla Walla Union Bulletin, which provided the venue. The conference room was filled with FOI believers who were quite appreciative that SPJ would come to southeastern Washington. A great group of people who willingly spent a late Friday afternoon talking FOI. I made sure I was done by 5:00 so the weekend could begin–for everyone.

One interesting note–this afternoon’s Union Bulletin had no less than four front page stories with an FOI hook, either from records or meetings.

So far: Four states, 2,339 miles, 14 sessions, 261 people

Kennewick, Wash. — Sometimes our best resources for learning about access are public officials.

Today I traveled through Eastern Washington (my birthplace and roots), visiting the William O. Douglas SPJ chapter, the Cheney Free Press, and the Inland NW Press Club.

At the Inland NW Press Club, a former Spokane Valley council member attended. She provided great insights into how officials think about access. She mentioned her frustration with people getting public records and then twisting the information for their own purposes. The city’s solution? Put all the records online so people can see for themselves what they say. That is good thinking and why we have freedom of information laws.

Tip No. 8: Encourage your local governments to post documents and data online for citizens to search and view themselves. Find good examples of agencies doing this in your state and provide the URLs to your government. Highlight the benefits: saves time of employees in retrieving documents, sends the message that the agency is on the ball, and builds trust with the community. Make sure the interface is user-friendly and easily searchable. Here’s one caveat: Sometimes when you ask for records the clerks will say it’s all online, but maybe the records aren’t all online. They might post summary data but not the actual reports or pdfs. (e.g., restaurant inspection data might be posted online with ratings, but the inspector’s handwritten reports with all the details might be in the files at the office).

Thanks to Paula Horton for organizing the William O. Douglas chapter session. It was a great gathering at the Tri-City Herald of about 25 journalists from throughout the Columbia Basin, including print and broadcast. Also, thanks to John Dill for working to generate enthusiasm in Spokane for a journalism organization, perhaps leading the way toward rebuilding the SPJ pro chapter there. Chapter involvement can ebb and flow, because it’s so difficult to maintain energy sometimes, but it is so important that we all stick together and support one another. Journalism is a calling, and be proud to be a part of it!

Thursday: A session for The Spokesman-Review at lunch and then the Montana pro chapter in Missoula 7-9 p.m.

So far: Four states, 2,005 miles, 10 sessions, 228 people

Tacoma, Wash. – Today I talked with a group of 50, about half citizens, at the The (Tacoma) News Tribune. Great stuff!

I enjoyed catching up with people I knew when I worked at Washington papers as a reporter and city editor, including awesome staffers from The Herald in Everett, and Frank Garred, the former publisher of a weekly I interned at in Port Townsend. Throughout the room FOI pros chimed in with insights and tips. Kudos to David Seago for coordinating the event for the Washington Coalition for Open Government and the Western Washington SPJ pro chapter.

We also had a bunch of citizens there who wanted to find out how to use public records to find problems in their community, such as groundwater pollution and corruption. Some of these folks are prolific requesters and sue for records often. They asked great questions.

Tip No. 7: This got me thinking about a previous session where a citizen journalist asked whether it would be OK to submit a public records request under a fake name so the agency doesn’t figure out who the requester is. I don’t think that would be a good idea. It just seems a little ironic to demand openness and transparency, and then hide one’s identity through lying. Also, we are in the truth business, so lying is incompatible with what we do. The agency might find out anyway. Now, in general, public record laws don’t require you to identify yourself or why you want the record (some exceptions). But from a practical perspective, it speeds things along if you leave a name and contact information so they can let you know when the records are ready. If it’s really important to mask the identity of a requester, then perhaps a proxy might be appropriate. Businesses do this a lot with FOIA requests so they don’t tip off the competition on what records they are requesting (I’m told by former SPJ President Christine Tatum that you can make money as a records request proxy for companies). If I were a journalist, however, I still probably wouldn’t do that. I think it’s better to be up front with agencies. Honesty is the best policy.

I got a shot of Mount Shasta while heading from California to Oregon. The North Cascades are spectacular, all the way from Mount Shasta to Canada.

Following the lunch session in Tacoma (just south of Seattle), I drove east across the North Cascades mountain to stay in Yakima, Wash. The snow was heavy across Snoqualmie Pass, but again I skirted the wrecks and avoided having to chain up. One thing I love about the Pacific Northwest is those great snowy peaks!

Coming Wednesday: A visit to the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash., (where I was an assistant city editor in a past life) for the William O. Douglas SPJ chapter, then up to Spokane to talk to journalists at the Cheney paper and in the Spokane Valley.