Enrichment · Passion Projects

Two minutes at the microphone,
ready before you sign up.

Plan what you will say to a school board, a council, a planning commission or a federal agency: the rules, your point, your evidence and your ask. Write the remarks out and see how long they will take to say against the time limit.

Plan a commentWhat you get

Hearings and comments

The worked examples are made up: a student speaking on a school bell schedule, and a cafeteria worker’s written comment to a federal agency. Pages save on this device only.

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What you get

Enrichment · Passion ProjectsFree

What you finish with
A page per hearing or comment period: who decides, the item or docket, the date and whether you speak, write or both; sign-up, time limit and written deadline; four rule checks; your position, who you are, main point, evidence with sources and ask; your remarks with a word count and spoken-time estimate; five submission checks and the confirmation; flags for remarks over the limit and close or missed deadlines.
Who it is for
High school and college students, families and community members speaking at a local meeting or commenting on a proposed rule, and teachers running a civics project.
Format
Browser checklist with a saved page per hearing or comment. Prints the page with your remarks to bring, all pages or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Passion Projects space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Pick who decides, the item or docket and the date, and whether you will speak, write or both.
  2. Find the rules on the agenda or docket page: sign-up, time limit and written deadline.
  3. Write your position, who you are, your main point, evidence with sources and what you are asking for.
  4. Write the remarks as you will say them; cut until the time fits the limit.
  5. Sign up or send it, keep the confirmation number, and note what happened.

Plan a comment

Getting a view into the record

How one view reaches the recordReadagenda orproposed ruleSign upor notethe deadlineSpeakwithin thetime limitHand ina writtencopyOn the recordposted, read,countedHow one view reaches the recordReadagenda or proposed ruleSign upor note the deadlineSpeakwithin the time limitHand ina written copyOn the recordposted, read, counted
A written copy handed to the clerk or filed online often carries further than the two minutes at the microphone, because it is what staff and members read later.

Local meetings

School boards, councils and commissions usually set aside time for public comment and limit each speaker to two or three minutes. How you sign up and whether you can comment online differ from place to place; the posted agenda or the clerk’s office will say.

Federal rules

When a federal agency proposes a rule, it publishes the proposal in the Federal Register and takes public comments for a set period, usually through Regulations.gov. Comments are generally posted publicly, and the agency must consider the significant ones before it issues a final rule. Specific, sourced comments carry the most weight; the number of identical comments carries little.

Sources

  1. Regulations.gov. Tips for Submitting Effective Comments (regulations.gov).
  2. Office of the Federal Register. A Guide to the Rulemaking Process (federalregister.gov).
  3. Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553: notice of proposed rulemaking and opportunity to comment.
  4. American Academy of Pediatrics. (2014). School Start Times for Adolescents. Pediatrics, 134(3), 642–649 (used in the worked example).

The worked examples are made up, and the docket in the second is not a real one. Rules for public meetings differ by place; check the agenda or the clerk’s office. Your pages stay on this device until you print or export them. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.