SWNI Communication Committee Meeting
May 19, 2008
Present: Present: Wes McMullen, Marcia Leslie, Susan Egnor, Ruthann Bedenkop
Agenda was approved.
We reviewed action items from last meeting.
§ Wes will ask the board to check their contacts.-DONE
§ The letter to neighborhood leaders will go out via constant contact! -DONE
§ Ruthann will contact our libraries to see if we (SWNI) could have a couple table tents or some announcement that directs people to our site.-DONE
The libraries said they didn’t have room on the computer tables for table tents or stand up information. A suggestion was made for scratch pads for the libraries with our information on them. Ruthann will look into cost and if the library would consider it.
§ Ruthann will develop template for communication constant contact-DONE
§ Ruthann will create landing pages within the SWNI site for each neighborhood with basic information.
Ruthann wants an OK from neighborhoods before doing this. The committee decided that a standard of minimum information be put on each page, including at least 1 contact, and that SWNI would be the default (Ruthann will check with the office on this.)
Wes will write a letter to the board via constant contact about the landing pages and what our vision is for that.
§ Wes will talk to Sylvia about ONI helping our committee with resources.
§ Wes will look into speaker suggestions for the toolkit
Out of our review of past agenda items came a suggestion to have some sort of header where we display our newspapers.
We brainstormed additional swag, mouse pads, stickers, etc.
The newspaper was discussed again. Deadlines and word counts were discussed as areas of difficulty for layout. Layout becomes difficult when we are waiting for articles; we are not sure what is coming in, then the layout gets rushed and mistakes are made. The committee will bring to the SWNI Board this issue with some suggestions and ask how they want to proceed. With word caps? We will also continue to reminder writers to send photos and keep articles snappy and present. Ruthann stressed that SWNI understands that the paper is the neighbor’s vehicle and respects the volunteer time and commitment to writing articles, but in order to push our newspaper forward and making it even better we all need to see the vision.
We reviewed top priorities again.
§ Website
§ Newsletter
§ Toolbox
We discussed at length the website. Wes said someone in Sullivans Gulch might know Drupal.
We discussed the possibility of hiring a consultant to review what we currently have and offer suggestions about what we might need. Susan pointed out that what we really needs to happen is we need to decide what WE need then hire a consultant to advise us how to get there.
Ruthann is not sure what the upgrade to Drupal 6 is going to offer us. Michael has said it allows for themes through organic groups but is unclear how those changes get implemented and also how different they are.
It was also reported that the webserver committee does not meet regularly, but there is an occasional email notice, the most recent one being an alert that inline will no longer work for image display with the upgrade, we will have to code via html. Michael has written a tiny program to do a find and replace that will hopefully handle 90% of the coding for the switch.
It was strongly suggested that if the website is fine the way it is for now, that we allow Michael to continue on with his changes and upgrades to Drupal 6. Once we get there, we can take a look at the site and decide what we want, how it will look, how our users will interface with the website and then get a consultant in to help us determine the steps necessary to reach our goals.
Feedback on the constant contact template. Needs darker color for the text. Ruthann will adjust.
Action Items:
Scratch pads for libraries. Ruthann
Landing pages for n’hoods-Wes will check with neighborhood leaders. Ruthann will check with office to make sure we are ok with being a default contact.
Talk to Sylvia about ONI helping our committee with resources. Wes
Speaker suggestions for the toolkit. Wes
Change text on Communication template constant contact. Ruthann