Minutes of the Barrington Hills Village Communications Committee Meeting September 14, 2009 5:30 p.m. Training Room VILLAGE HALL 112 Algonquin Road FINAL 1. Organizational 1.1 Call to Order Chairman Linda Fox called the meeting to order on September 14, 2009 at 5:38 p.m. in the Barrington Hills Village Hall. 1.2 Roll Call Communications Committee Present Linda Fox, Chairman Barbara Kemp, Vice Chairman Pamela Cools, Recording Secretary Laura Ekstrom (arrived 5:41 p.m.) Victoria Kelly (departed 7:34 p.m.) Debbie Stone (departed 8:48 p.m.) Mike Zachar Village Representatives Robert Kosin, Village Administrator Lt. Joe Colditz, Police Department Absent Fritz Gohl, Trustee 1.3 Approval of Minutes Approved August minutes as amended. Motion by Barbara Kemp, and seconded by Victoria Kelly. Approved 7-0-0. 2. Reports from the Village 2.1 Robert Kosin * Barrington Hills, along with the Barrington Area Library, will hold a Galilean Nights star party on October 24th 6-8p.m. in the library’s rear parking lot. * Local IDA members met with village representatives and went on a bus tour in the village last week to observe our dark sky. They deemed Barrington Hills worthy as a quality night sky. Their observations, along with our exterior lighting ordinance, will be part of our application for Dark Sky designation. * In light of repeated closures due to flooding, the village engineer is considering permanent closure of Chapel Road. An informational open house is tentatively planned for October 13 from 2:00-5:00p.m. & 7:00-9:00p.m. * The ZBA will hold a special meeting to receive further resident comment on the proposed agricultural amendment – scheduled tentatively for September 23. * DAS update – currently negotiations are ongoing with AT&T to assume occupancy of the hub. 2.2 Lt. Colditz * The Police Open House will be held on Sunday, September 20, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 3. Twitter Update – Pamela Cools * Barrington Hills became active on Twitter after review by the village board at their August meeting. * To date, we have issued 13 tweets, follow 17 organizations and have 17 followers. Two followers have been blocked due to pornographic content. * Pamela met with Sarah Kenney last week to familiarize her with use of the site in case her assistance is needed. * We have switched from using tr.im for shortening URLs to bit.ly due to recent tr.im site problems. 4. Census * Vicki created a Census brochure which was distributed at the Kalaway Cup over the weekend. * Vicki and Linda expressed their concerns to administration about content and design changes that occurred to the brochure design which they had submitted for printing. * Members offered suggestions and input for a restructured brochure which will be distributed at the Police Open House. Linda and Mike Zachar will assist Vicki if needed. 5. Newsletter – Pamela Cools * Dundee Press has merged with Allegra Image and Print and is now based out of Elgin. * All articles have been submitted and nearly all have been edited. Pamela asked for Debbie’s help in shortening President Abboud’s article to fit the new abbreviated format. Newsletter production is on time to meet the projected delivery date of October 1. Proof copies of the newsletter should go out for approval by the board at the end of the week. 6. New Resident Marketing Brochure – Debbie Stone/Laura Ekstrom * The brochure is in the works. The design and content will be consistent with the website. 7. Website Integration – Barbara Kemp/Mike Zachar * Linda Fox clarified that the integration project is a Communications Committee project, under Barbara as the lead. The goal of the portal page is to fuse all three sites so they all rank highly in a Google search hierarchy. A site search on the portal will go across all three sites. * Laura stressed that the survey information will be critical and that any further changes to the websites should address content before design is determined. We need to be aware of what residents are accessing and what information do they really need. Village staff is transferring survey responses to spreadsheets and once complete (probably in late September), Mike will begin analysis of the data. 160 surveys were returned. * Linda wants to establish a better website posting process and to create a group which is in charge of reviewing website content. Barbara reminded the committee that there is a posting and review process in place, but Linda felt more detailed guidelines for website topics need to be established, similar to what was done when creating our Twitter content policy. A new review process should help streamline and reduce the website workload so that posting sessions would only need to take place once or twice per week. * Linda sought clarification from Bob Kosin on the legality and restrictions, if any, of the combination of .gov and .info. * Committee members discussed and compared several proposed layouts for the portal page, and were in general agreement on using the designs created by Laura with collaboration of Linda and Debbie. * Mike Zachar motioned to approve the village web portal design as displayed, with seasonally appropriate pictures, and adding 1)Illinois, 2) a prominently displayed unified search function, and 3) a clean copy of the village logo, in order to complete Phase One of the Website Integration Project. Debbie Stone seconded the motion. Approved 6-0-0. * The portal page design will be presented to the Police Department for their review and approval and then to the village board for final approval. * Mike Zachar motioned for committee and village representatives to meet with the village attorney to discuss any legal ramifications of site mapping and integration. Pamela Cools seconded the motion. Approved 6-0-0. * Barbara will schedule a review meeting to diagnose the recent website problem which brought the site down, and will report at our next meeting. WIP meetings will continue. 8. E-mail * Linda reminded members to be careful with back-and-forth messages between multiple parties in order to avoid open meetings violations. Members should also try to keep emails brief and to a minimum. If the entire committee is mailed a message, the clerk should be cc’d as well. 9. Adjournment Given there was no new business, Linda Fox entertained a motion for dismissal at 8:59 p.m. The next meeting is on Monday, October 19, 2009. Motion to adjourn made by Mike Zachar and seconded by Laura Ekstrom. Approved 5-0-0. Meeting Adjourned Respectfully submitted, Pamela A. Cools Recording Secretary ___________________________________________________________ 1