The Haddam Civic League is an organization in town whose conceptual roots go back several generations into the 1960’s to the original Haddam Civic Association. Haddam citizens from differing political backgrounds began meeting in January 2014 to explore the idea of creating a group whose goal would be to present a balanced source of information to the citizens of Haddam. One way to achieve this go
al would be to publish an online newspaper with up-to-date information on items of interest as information becomes available. A second activity would be to conduct public meetings on topics of current interest to the town. These ideas are nothing new for Haddam as the original Haddam Civic Association stated in the Preamble to its by-laws that their “object is to foster, encourage and promote a non-partisan interest in and study of the business and fiscal activities of local government”. It further states that “no member holding an elective salaried office in the Town of Haddam shall be an officer of the association” or “be on the Board of Directors.”
The reasons for forming a new civic group are several and quite compelling. First, the Haddam Bulletin was originally published by the Haddam Civic Association as a source of non-partisan information for Haddam citizens but over the past several years it has veered sharply from that goal. A new publication which presents multiple points of view on issues is clearly needed. Second, the Haddam Bulletin is a monthly publication and as such its information is frequently out of date by the time it reaches our mailboxes. In addition, many residents do not choose to receive daily newspapers anymore. In order to remedy the situation above, twenty five citizens (Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters) over a period of four months came together to form the Haddam Civic League. While specifics of our publication policies are subject to change as experience in publishing our online publication [HaddamNow.com] grows, the general approach is described below.
- In order to achieve fairness and balance, at least two of the editorial board (of different political parties when appropriate) will review and approve each article with any potentially controversial content before it is published.
- News updates will be published as often as information is available (daily, if necessary)
- H-KNow.com will not allow anonymous postings. All letters must be submitted to the editors for approval and names of writers will be required. Advertising revenue will be sought because insurance, firewall protection, hosting, etc. represent on-going expenses.
- All civic groups in Haddam and Killingworth are encouraged to submit information about their activities and we will provide hot links to their webpages for additional information.
- School programs, sports, plays, concerts, etc. will be promoted for Elementary, Middle and High School events.
- Birth, death and marriage announcements will be accepted.
- Generally, H-KNow.com aims to be a complete source of balanced non-partisan information for our towns. In addition, the Haddam Civic League will conduct informal public meetings to discuss issues of interest to the town from time to time. The purpose is to help townspeople understand the issues facing Haddam and Killingworth and to ask their questions of town officials who may be willing to participate. Members of our town are encouraged to suggest ideas for such meetings. The editors, Board of Managers and members of the Haddam Civic League encourage our readers to visit this site daily to learn what’s happening in Haddam and Killingworth, submit articles and information about local groups, volunteer as a writer, support our advertisers and tell us what you think.
