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03/10/2003 - City Council Communications CommitteeCommunications Committee Meeting Minutes 3/10/03 Present: Councilmember Carlson, Councilmember Maguire, Communications Director Garrison The committee met to review and comment on the 2003 communications plan, how to increase understanding and reduce jargon in notification letters the City sends out, and other short range and long range communication opportunities and challenges. In reviewing the communications plan, committee commented favorably overall that these were the right objectives and goals. Councilmember Maguire suggested greater detail in the plan, however, Councilmember Carlson commented that when the previous Council had asked for the plan, they wanted a general outline and more emphasis put on actually accomplishing the objectives rather than detailing everything in a thick plan. There was general agreement that the plan serves as a useful guideline for communication goals in 2003. The plan listed five primary objectives for 2003:  Successfully marketing and promoting the new Eagan Community Center  Expanding and improving city communications via the Web  Developing an overall branding strategy and professional graphic standards for use of the Eagan logo and applying standards to City publications  Improving communications efforts, particularly to new Eagan residents  Building relationships with local media The Committee raised three specific concerns: 1. That significant publications not go out without the Communications Department having first reviewed; 2. That a focus be not just on the general flow of information out of City Hall, but on encouraging citizen feedback coming back in to City Hall; 3. While the City does legal notifications well, there was a concern or perception that City staff could do a better job with common courtesy notifications and invitations; and a related concern that notifications we do send may contain difficult to understand terms or jargon and may be lacking an understandable map of affected areas. It was agreed that for items two and three the City’s new Web site technology (to debut later this Spring) will aid in two-way interactions and information delivery. Maps and definitions of terms should be posted on the Web too. The committee recommended that the initial priority for e-mail subscription lists should be: a) Council agendas and minutes b) Community Center programming c) Perhaps Cedar Grove updates The committee recommended a glossary of terms be included in standard letters. Director Garrison will review the most common standard letters and meet with staff to develop easy-to-understand definitions in April. (This task was added to the Council’s Management by Objectives list.) Regarding reviewing copy of publications that go out, it was agreed that the proper role for Communications was to review contents page and covers; not every single page of every publication put out by other departments. Director Garrison is also available to meet with individual departments or directors regarding their publication plans, and he should look for ways to unify the look of these City publications. Councilmember Carlson felt there may be need for some formal policies requiring prior review of publications by Communications before they are published by other departments. (Note: the city newsletter and business newsletter are Communications Department projects and are already reviewed. Discover Us, the water quality report, etc., are examples of other department publications not generated by Communications.) Councilmember Maguire indicated his strong desire for periodic public forums for residents to be able to raise their concerns.