Outreach Committee Report – July 29 2014

Notes from July 28, 2014 meeting of the SHCC Outreach Committee

Attending: Christopher Thomas, Amy Barry, Brad Di Iorio (Sugar House Chamber)

1) Online

a) Website
-Contact list vs. blog posts with photos
-Stories (usually from e-newsletter stories)

Notes: Christopher will see if he can grab content out of the email e-newsletter that Amy sends to everyone out of Constant Contact and see if he can create a blog post on the SHCC WordPress website. That way, someone could help Amy lift content from the e-newsletter and put it on the website as well, and she doesn’t have to do everything.

Brad will send something from the Chamber with a photo to Amy by the Thursday of the third week of the month; she will format it and send it in the e-Newsletter (brad@sugarhousechamber.com)

Brad will highlight, for instance, a new business who just moved in. For this next e-newsletter, maybe Blue Planet Scooters (new owner). Or Grow Wild.

b) e-Newsletter
-How to get people to write more of their own stories for the newsletter;
-Style guide: still do this. 250 words. What why when where how. Not advocacy, but informing. Please include one photo for the slider / homepage grid

Notes: Christopher will create a draft style guide for website content and circulate it prior to the next meeting.

Christopher will also post to the SHCC calendar a repeating event to happen on the 3rd Thursday of every month — email story text and a photo to Amy Barry so she can schedule it for the next Tuesday or Thursday. Amybarry@xmission.com

c) Constant Contact
-Use Dropbox to share articles and photos?

Notes: Amy is doing the Constant Contact e-newsletter email every month using the template she created. Christopher will reach out to a couple people to attempt to gauge interest in someone else taking over this responsibility.

2) Social activities
-Organize a social event w/ low energy investment: bowling (everyone pays their own way but maybe gets a group discount?); restaurant (explore group discount?); etc.

Notes: The committee discussed this idea and decided that we would try to create a “Sugar House Talk” social event to take place every second Tuesday of the month at a different Sugar House location / business. Brad said he would be willing to help coordinate these events by reaching out to the business owner to try to schedule the date and time (in the evening).

Below is a list of brainstormed businesses and possible dates / months (though Christopher invited Brad to change up the list as he sees fit depending upon what’s going on and what makes sense for the business, etc.):

September (9/9) – Joffee’s Coffee

October – Magdelene’s religious goods and coffee

November – Trolley Wings (you can drink beer there)

January – Painting with a Twist (you can drink wine)

February – Campfire Lounge (bar)

March – Game Nights

April – Family Storehouse

May – Wasatch Brew Pub

Other ideas to possibly explore: Este Pizza, Melty Way, Beyond Glaze, Yoghurt Land, Habit Burger, Central Book Exchange, Best Friends

The idea will be to create a more informal atmosphere for Trustees and residents and businesses to mingle, socialize, and communicate.

3) Big upcoming topics that would benefit from door-to-door outreach??

Notes: The goal as to try to identify upcoming “hot button” issues where the SHCC would look to educate residents and businesses.

Streetcar zoning issue will come back up – the City Council will separate it out from the rest of the corridor zoning. SHCC could knock on doors to help tell people facts about the tennis court and corridor proposal. Looks like City Council will approve the corridor but has dealt to some degree with the issue of super tall buildings next to residential areas. The tennis court will be a separate re-zone issue. Christopher will email Ed Butterfield at the RDA and ask him if we can have a map. Christopher will also let Lisa know.

Then next year do the tennis court issue will come back up as separate from the corridor zoning.

Next year some City golf courses might be closed. (Rose Park on closure list; then maybe Forest Dale).

Fire station relocation. Probably the year after that. We will want to target the area and ask people to attend a public meeting for that. They are getting closer to identifying the parcel.

Also, there was discussion about appropriate information sharing during the door knocking and how it would be done. There seemed to be consensus that there should be pairs of SHCC Trustees knocking on doors for safety/security reasons and that the outreach should be informational rather than advocacy oriented. The primary goal is to let people know about a big decision, make sure they are informed of the facts, and invited to participate by attending a meeting or submitting comments, etc. Obviously, Trustees will take positions on issues and can move to adopt resolutions and positions on various issues in the meetings themselves. Christopher will work on a how-to document for door-knocking.