Minutes of the Barrington Hills Village Communications Committee Meeting May 4, 2009 5:30 Training Room VILLAGE HALL 112 Algonquin Road Final 1. Call to Order Chairman Nikki Panos called the meeting to order May 4, 2009 at 5:37 p.m. in the Barrington Hills Village Hall. Roll Call Present Nikki Panos, Chairperson Barbara Kemp, Vice Chair Pamela Cools, Recording Secretary Maureen Prettyman Laura Ekstrom (arrived at 5:41pm) Beth Mallen, Trustee Robert Kosin, Village Administrator Lt. Joe Colditz, Police Department Absent Linda Fox 2. Reports from the Village Robert Kosin * Mr. Kosin gave a presentation on the importance of the Census in 2010. A census is federally mandated by the Constitution once every ten years, and is the only official count of the U.S. population. * The Census is used to determine such things as the borders of congressional districts and county districts, and the demographic data collected is used to determine social services eligibility (i.e. the number of children or senior citizens counted are used by entitlement programs or by jurisdictions such as parks and schools). * Per capita distributions of the Motor Fuel Tax or wireless 911 surcharges are based on the Census. * 10% of Barrington Hills’ overall budget comes from these types of per capita allotments. Spending of per capita monies is limited to the specific purpose for which it was collected. If there were a deficit in per capita collections, the village would have to go into the general fund to make up the difference. * According to the 1990 Census, the BH population was 4200; in 2000, only 3600 people were counted. The Village contends that there was not a drop in population, and the lower total was due to a significant undercount. * The short form of the Census will be predominantly distributed by mail beginning in March 2010, and will consist of 10 questions. * For census purposes, if your mail is being forwarded to a temporary vacation address, you should report your BH address on the form. College students will be recorded at the address they are assigned to on April 1st, and NOT at their home residences. * Individual data collected by the Census will be kept completely private and confidential for a period of 72 years, and will NOT be shared with any other government agency. * Promotion of census participation is a key goal for our committee in the next year. The census website www.census.gov contains many ideas and strategies to ensure full participation. We may wish to consider enlisting the support of the Barrington Area Library, and to investigate the possibility of setting up a Census Kiosk there. * Census representatives are currently going to door-to-door in the village collecting addresses, and will approach the village in September to verify the address information. * Only the Census can distribute the form, and if a resident does not receive a form by mail, they must request it directly from the Census Bureau. * Chairman Panos suggested the possibility of using CTY in March 2010 for issuing a reminder to residents to fill out and mail back the form, and also raised the idea of using temporary signs at intersections (similar to the vehicle sticker reminder signs currently being displayed in the village). * Mr. Kosin recommended the designation of census spotters within each of the five zip codes within the village to report in when the census forms first begin appearing in village mailboxes. We also need to remind residents that all occupants of the residence (for 6 months + day of the calendar year) should be counted. The employment or citizenship status of the resident does not matter. * APRIL 1st is the deadline to return Census forms. * The absolute minimum goal is a 70% return rate. The national average is 3.25-3.27 persons per household, and there are 1500-1600 households within the village. Lt. Colditz * The sale of vehicle stickers is progressing – so far 2363 stickers have been purchased out of the estimated 3400 village vehicles. On-line sales via the new e-Pay system have been slow. * The recent Beautification Committee clean-up day saw good weather and a good turnout. Over 30 people participated. * Enforcement of the new bicycle ordinances has not yet begun. The department is still waiting for J.U.L.I.E. to finish marking utilities before the new signposts can be installed. Sarah Kenney * Three press releases for the committee were previously mailed to members, in addition to an announcement of the USPS new recycling program. Beth Mallen * The Village Board meeting in April was uneventful. * There will be a special board meeting held on Monday May 11th for the swearing in of the officials elected on April 7th. * It is very possible that there will be changes in the trustees assigned to the various village committees. 3. Census Promotion * The majority of this item was covered by Mr. Kosin earlier. Maureen Prettyman was assigned as manager of this task, and agreed to review the available census materials on-line and begin to create a schedule of promotion activities. * It is important that we stress the community impact of the census count, and to try to minimize privacy concerns or other legal questions. * As the census draws nearer, there should be a front page article in the newsletter, and a reminder to visit a special section on the website. 4. Approval of Minutes Approved April minutes as amended. Motion by Maureen Prettyman, and seconded by Barbara Kemp. Approved 5-0-0. 5. Website Management * Members discussed continuing difficulties with community awareness of the .info website and problems with marketing. Laura Ekstrom suggested adopting an entirely new web address (name and domain) which would be more easily remembered by residents, such as NewsInTheHills.com. This would keep the “branding” more consistent with the new resident packet “New To The Hills” being developed. The existing VBHComm.info website could remain, with the new site linking to it seamlessly. Trustee Mallen cautioned that, for legal reasons, any new website name must include “Village of Barrington Hills/VBH” in some form. * Further discussion ensued about the conflicting responsibilities and overlapping content of the .gov and .info websites. Members urged Mr. Kosin to add new language to the .gov homepage to prioritize linking to www.VBHComm.info. Members also expressed dissatisfaction with the overall appearance and lack of user-friendliness of the .gov homepage, especially the prominence of the meeting calendar. Mr. Kosin stated that .gov is based on a State of Illinois template for web designs. * Marketing and promotion of .info were discussed. Design of business cards was revisited, and production will proceed soon. No approval vote by membership was necessary, as this item has already been budgeted for. * Nikki proposed the used of “yard signs” (as are currently being used at intersections to remind residents to purchase vehicle stickers) to promote .info. Mr. Kosin objected, saying that use for this purpose would violate the village code regarding signage. Members asked for clarification as to the difference in the legality of using signs for these two similar purposes. * Nikki and Pamela expressed frustration about the lack of assistance with publicity for .info. Eventually, administration agreed to make sure that information regarding the .info website would be available for distribution to residents at each village committee meeting next to the sign-in and agenda sheets. * Laura presented the latest mock-up of the New To The Hills information packet to the committee who were very pleased with the photographs and overall look. Linda Fox will be in charge of adding text. * The committee reviewed the appearance and order of the left-side buttons on the website, and it was decided that the New To The Hills button should be the first button listed. In addition, the photograph of the mounted rider used on the cover of the packet should also be used as the picture link to the new brochure page on the site. * The new order of the buttons will be 1) Search, 2) New To The Hills, 3) Events, 4) Links & Resources, 5) Police Info and 6) Maps & Stats. Motion to approve made by Pamela Cools and seconded by Laura Ekstrom. Approved 5-0-0. 6. Newsletter * Pamela Cools reported that reminders have been sent out to Village Board members, police representatives and community organizations regarding submissions for the next newsletter issue. The deadline for submissions is May 15th, with a target date of May 29th for mailbox delivery. * Pamela asked if Barbara would write a short article for the newsletter advertising for an unpaid college intern to assist with website data input. The intern’s work would be supervised on an “in-house” computer. Barbara agreed, but said she would ask members of the Harper College Business Club first. * In light of continuing difficulties with website awareness and usage statistics, Pamela suggested that a written survey of residents be included in a future newsletter. The survey would help determine familiarity with the two village websites and residents’ primary sources of village and community news, as well as topic areas of greatest interest to our residents. Pamela volunteered to structure the questiontionnaire and Laura will assist. * Pamela also suggested that our committee should initiate cross-communication with other village committees to aid in information exchange. We might choose to request periodic submissions of informal reports/committee updates, or invite committee chairpersons to our monthly meetings on a rotating basis. 8. Adjournment Given there was no new business, Nikki Panos entertained a motion for dismissal at 7:53 p.m. The next meeting is on Monday, June 15th, 2009. Motion to adjourn made by Maureen Prettyman and seconded by Barbara Kemp. Approved 5-0-0. Meeting Adjourned Respectfully submitted, Pamela A. Cools Recording Secretary 1