Seongdong-gu 17 Neighborhood Leaders Hold 'Online Residents Meeting'

Operated as an online video 'Ontact Account Meeting' on the 25th of every month... Easy access via app installation, serving as a channel for Lunar New Year promotion and collecting residents' opinions, expanded to other community meetings

On the 25th, the 'Ontact Community Leader Meeting' was held as an online video conference in Seongsu 2-ga 3-dong.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) operates an online video resident meeting called ‘Ontact Tongjang Meeting’ for 451 tongjangs (neighborhood leaders) from 17 neighborhoods in the district on the 25th of every month.

The ‘Resident Meeting,’ which collects residents’ opinions and promotes district policies, is an essential element of district administration activities. However, due to the prolonged spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), resident meetings have been replaced by written communications or small-scale meetings.

Seongdong-gu introduced the ‘Ontact (Online Contact) video meeting’ system to the tongjang meetings to facilitate smooth communication with residents and actively promote projects.

‘Ontact’ is a newly coined term combining ‘Untact’ (meaning non-face-to-face and non-contact) with ‘On,’ indicating connection through online means, referring to a method of communication via online platforms.

The Ontact Tongjang Meeting is conducted by each neighborhood head opening an online meeting room via video conferencing and sending invitation messages to the tongjangs’ mobile phones. The tongjangs then participate non-face-to-face through an app on their respective mobile operating systems. Once the app is installed in advance, participants can join the meeting room directly via the invitation message link without needing to sign up. This system allows tongjangs who are not familiar with mobile phone use to easily participate in the meetings.

Moon In-sook, a tongjang from Seongsu 2-ga 3-dong, said, “Although it was unfamiliar as it was the first time trying this method, being able to see each other’s faces and share news about our district and residents’ opinions was very helpful for my tongjang activities.”

A district official stated, “Since March, the District Office’s Autonomous Administration Division and 17 neighborhood community centers have been conducting meetings via video conferencing at least once a week,” adding, “We plan to expand the use of Ontact video meetings to various resident meetings, including the upcoming tongjang meetings.”

Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “Due to COVID-19, face-to-face exchanges with residents have inevitably decreased sharply, and online non-face-to-face exchanges have become the current alternative. We will strive to utilize various online exchanges to review diverse resident-centered policies that can prepare us for the post-COVID-19 era.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.