Minutes of the Barrington Hills Village Communications Committee Meeting December 7, 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 December 7, 2009 at 5:36 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 Victoria Kelly Mike Zachar Laura Ekstrom Debbie Stone Village Representatives Fritz Gohl, Trustee Robert Kosin, Village Administrator Sarah Kenney, Planning & Zoning Coordinator 1.3 Approval of Minutes Approved November minutes as amended. Motion by Barbara Kemp, and seconded by Debbie Stone. Approved 7-0-0. 2. Reports from the Village -- none 3. Old Business 3.1 Committee E-mail Accounts – Sarah Kenney * Sarah has set up Gmail accounts for all village committee members for their use when doing official government business @barringtonhills-il.com This e-mail address should be used exclusively for committee related business after December 31, 2009. Barbara suggested that a general mail account be set up for the committee. * Each member should set up a signature attached to each outgoing message which includes a standard disclaimer not to reply to all. Sarah will send all members a copy of the suggested disclaimer. * Two FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) officers will be nominated for the village and must be approved by the Village Board – Sarah Kenney and Joanne Gumprecht (from the Barrington Hills Police Department). The FOIA officers will have five days to respond to any requests. FOIA officers should be government employed individuals who do not author official documents. * Our committee e-mail messages are subject to FOIA requests. * Mr. Kosin announced that starting January 1st, 2010, the Village can maintain a repository of resident e-mail addresses for communications purposes. The new FOIA/OMA law extends special privileges to e-mail addresses, and the village will not be required to reveal any addresses in response to FOIA requests. The committee will need to establish a resident e-mail solicitation strategy, define uses for the addresses, and will work with administration to assemble a database. * Bob Kosin also mentioned that beginning January 1st, banks will have to notify jurisdictions of foreclosed homes within their boundaries so that proper policing and property protection measures can be instituted. 3.2 Twitter Review – Pamela Cools * Our Twitter following continues to grow, and almost 100 tweets have been issued. Twitpic has been used more to link to PDFs for time-sensitive announcements. * In light of the portal page now being functional, linking to all three sites, Pamela suggested that the web addresses listed on our Twitter page be reduced to just the .gov address. Barbara will e-mail to verify before the text is changed to remove the .info address. 3.3 Census – Victoria Kelly * Vicki reported that the Quintessential Barrington article has stalled because QB will not agree to run a story until it gets Bob Abboud’s prior approval. So far, they have not received a reply from him, and the deadline for the next issue has passed. * Pamela offered to issue any Census tweets that Vicki puts together. * Bob Kosin stated that the U.S. Census Department has been in contact with the village and they have exchanged address information. 1658 addresses have been identified, and there are only 15 addresses in dispute between the village count and the census count. Helm Road addresses seem to be the most problematic due to the number and letter combinations. 3.4 Newsletter – Pamela Cools * Pamela presented the price quotes from Allegra for newsletter printing and mailing costs. There will be a price increase if the village opts to continue with using adhesive mailing labels instead of directly ink jetting the addresses onto the newsletters. Mr. Kosin wants to continue with the adhesive labels. There is also a cost savings on postage if the newsletters are folded to 5.5" x 8.5" before mailing. Chairman Fox indicated we should continue that practice. * Articles have been requested from the village board, BACOG, BACTrust and CFC, with a January 1st deadline. Debbie Stone has completed an article about Peggy Richards, and Fritz will review it prior to passing it on to Pamela for editing. Debbie’s article will be the first in a new section to be called “Back Roads”. A census article by Vicki will be included to help create a buzz within the village. Mr. Kosin also suggested that an article be written about the village ordinance requiring each residence to have a telephone landline for proper 911 location by emergency personnel. Barbara will also post an article on the website. 3.5 New Resident Marketing Brochure * Debbie presented preliminary wording for several sections of the brochure. Extended discussion among the members ensued on the text, and progressed to a more general dialogue and debate on the contents and direction the brochure was taking. There was concern expressed about the brochure containing too much marketing content aimed toward potential residents, and not enough practical information for new residents. Members also exchanged their views of the topic areas to be included or excluded. Chairman Fox urged all committee members to e-mail Debbie their ideas for content and wording prior to our next meeting, and asked Laura to continue to contribute her opinions and comments. 3.6 Website Integration Update * Barbara and Mike Zachar updated the committee on the latest website developments. The next website meeting will be on December 16th. Team members sat down with the village president last month and Bob Abboud stated his preference to use the Google search on the website. * Laura will continue to work with the team on design elements. Bob Kosin stated that the government will create a filing system for content to be allocated between .gov and .info sites. The new FOIA law has a predetermined architecture for organization categories. The .info team will organize according to that system. Tim Evans and Peter, the village webmaster, will both have access and will be able to work together to implement changes. Sarah Kenney will act as liaison between the committee and Tim and Peter. 3.7 Survey * Pamela reported that she finished entering data for 100 surveys into the spreadsheet, and we are only waiting for Sarah to complete the last 15 before Mike begins analysis. * Pamela mentioned that some residents had entered in comments that seemed to request some action by the village, but that are out of the scope of the Communications Committee. She asked Fritz for direction. Fritz recommended a review of those comments and a list to be made, routing comments to the proper personnel. Pamela said that she would make a list for him and administration to review and take action upon. 4. New Business The Committee reviewed the Village’s annual meeting calendar for 2010 and did not see any problems with proposed committee meeting dates. 5. Adjournment Given there was no new business, Linda Fox entertained a motion for dismissal at 8:43 p.m. The next meeting is on Monday, January 11, 2010. Motion to adjourn made by Barbara Kemp and seconded by Vicki Kelly. Approved 7-0-0. Meeting Adjourned Respectfully submitted, Pamela A. Cools Recording Secretary 4