CITY OF DANBURY
Public Relations, Marketing and Education Committee
Danbury Housing Partnership
155 Deer Hill Avenue
Danbury, Connecticut 06810
Minutes of the March 26, 2009 Meeting
Present: Deschenes, Schierloh, Shepperd
Absent: Lima
Also Present: Nolan
A meeting of the Public Relations, Marketing and Education Committee of the Danbury Housing Partnership was conducted in Danbury City Hall on March 26, 2009. The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chair Wayne Shepperd at 9:40 am.
A motion to approve the minutes of the February 26, 2009 meeting was made by Paul Schierloh, seconded by David Deschenes and passed unanimously.
Mr. Shepperd reported that he had discussed the process of appointment of new members and that he would be sending Doreen Filgate an appointment letter shortly. He also reported that he had not received confirmation as to whether Emanuela Lima wished to continue as a member of the Partnership.
Mr. Shepperd initiated discussion on the Partnership’s website and marketing efforts. Mr. Schierloh noted that he asked Melissa Adams to provide training to Sue Zaborowski so that we would have an additional person to add content to the website. The committee reviewed potential story ideas with Mr. Deschenes offering to submit some stories regarding the Housing Development Fund’s success in working with people dealing with foreclosure. The committee also agreed that we should do a series of profiles highlighting our community partners and other community agencies. Mr. Schierloh noted that he and Milena Sangut had agreed to work this month on creating a webpage for the Continuum of Care. Mr. Nolan indicated that he was still interested in doing an op-ed piece for the News-Times.
Work on the Annual Report and Ten-Year Plan revisions precluded substantive progress this month on developing our mass email capability. The committee agreed to make this a priority this month with members to send email/address lists to Mr. Schierloh to be compiled into a master outreach list to be forwarded to IT. Staff will also follow up with IT regarding adding email sign up links to the website.
Mr. Nolan suggested that the next step in the re-messaging homelessness initiative should be the creation of a power point presentation that he could use as part of an aggressive outreach and fund-raising campaign. This will be discussed further at the next meeting.
At Chairman Nolan’s request, the committee discussed procedures for reviewing and responding to correspondence received by the Partnership. Members agreed by consensus that correspondence received by the Partnership be forwarded to the committee for review. The committee will advise the chairman as to what response would be appropriate and assist in drafting any response. At Mr. Nolan’s request, the committee reviewed a letter received from Bri’On’X Partners on February 26, 2009 with no return address or phone number. Upon review, the committee acknowledged receipt of the correspondence but determined that no response was required.
Mr. Shepperd invited discussion on publicity for two events in April. Mr. Nolan will be a featured presenter at Westconn’s Annual Beatrice K. Nemzer Social Work Symposium on April 15 that will be devoted to the issues of homelessness and affordable housing. The event is open to the public and will take place at 2:30 pm at Warner Hall on the Midtown Campus. This event is the first arising from a partnership with Westconn’s Department of Social Work initiated by Mr. Nolan. Further events are being considered, including a possible regional forum on housing. The City and the Housing Partnership are also sponsoring a Fair Housing Forum on April 28 in connection with Fair Housing Month activities. Staff will assist in distributing flyers and email notices regarding the event. The event will take place from 6:00 – 8:00 pm in the Farioly Room at the Danbury Public Library.
The committee reviewed the Annual Progress Report completed for submission to the Common Council at the April 7, 2009 meeting. The committee also reviewed the proposed revisions to the Ten-Year Plan which will also be submitted for the April Common Council meeting. Mr. Nolan asked for guidance from the committee on his suggestion that he address the Council during the public speaking portion of the meeting to highlight the progress made during the past year. The committee agreed that this would be a good way to create awareness of the Partnership’s efforts not only on the part of the Council but the public as well. Mr. Nolan will also be prepared to answer any questions from the Council on the Partnership agenda items when they come up for consideration.
Mr. Nolan also asked the Committee to consider how to address the revisions to the plan once they are approved by the Council. Possibilities discussed included producing an entire revised version of the plan or producing an addendum to the plan referencing just those items that had been changed. Mr. Schierloh was asked to inquire of Judge Yamin whether the City had a word format version of the original plan that we could use to incorporate revisions.
A motion to adjourn was made by Mr. Schierloh, seconded by Mr. Deschenes and passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 10:25 am.