OUTREACH & COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

1. Call to Order

2. Public Comments and Announcements

3. L.A. River Cleanup- Budget and duty assignments.

4. Street Fair – Ideas and implementation for Booth Theme.

5. Newsletter – Timeline application. Committee Chairs – supply stories.

6. Mayor’s Day cleanup- ideas for projects.  Discussion and planning.

7. Outreach ideas for future projects.

8. Adjourn.

In attendance: Mosqueda, Carroll, Johnson, Thompson and later Hunnewell

1. We were called to order around the scheduling opening time.

2. We dispensed with approval of the minutes as no minutes were taken of the previous meeting. Johnson agreed to take notes of this meeting.

3. There was no Public and no public comments.

4. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ELECTIONS
The results of the election are posted on the ggpnc website.  There was no challenge to the results.

5. MAYOR’S BUDGET MEETING
Only four of the NCs were able to meet the Mayor’s requirements for the surveys.  Nora turned in our survey which had 110 returns.  Soter turned in 10 and the balance were turned in by Johnson, Mosqueda, DeMont, Spicer and Kerr.

Mosqueda was elected the regional representative from Area C at the Mayor’s Budget Meeting (you go girl!). As such she emphasized our neighborhood priority was parking.  We suggested to Nora that the Mayor’s Office be informed that we wish to have input into the survey, which was not an acceptable or meaningful way for us to collect information we needed, that we be allowed to have local-specific questions, that the questionnaires be distributed earlier, and that the Mayor commit to doing something in response to the surveys.

Bruce attended the Neighborhood Congress sponsored by USC.  They debated whether the Neighborhood Congress, which meets twice a year, should be a decision-making body, though it has only an advisory role to start with.  Many of us felt lucky we did not have to spend our time debating this issue.  USC is studying the procedural problems of such a proposal.

Nora suggested that the GGPNC consider taking on the role of providing a backup for neighborhood emergencies.

6. OUTREACH-APPOINTED MEMBERS
    We discussed the following persons for appointed members:
George Grace: qualified and eager, and member of the PROS committee
Mark Stang-long-time community activist
    Ketti Kupper-ran in District E
    Nora Mosqueda
    Rosemary DeMonte  
    Rose Marin from Immaculate Heart
    Nyla Arslanian
    Amy Schulenburg
    Dennis Chew
    Bill Beach
    Richard Spicer   
    Merlin Hernandez
    Harley Haas,
    Kurt Raedemakers
    Jonathan Kaplan

 We agreed that an ad hoc committee should be appointed at the next meeting to contact the candidates and determine their level of interest and commitment and to vet other possible interest.  Last year’s candidates were also reviewed.

 Carroll said he would contact Grace, Kupper, Marin and Chew.  Hunnewell will contact Bill Beach and any others willing to take on the treasurer position.

   We elect appointed directors at a meeting on November 8, 2004.   Bruce will send out an email asking for others interested.

7. ADJOURNMENT
     We adjourned at 8:30.

In Attendance: Spicer, De Monte, Hunnewell, Mosqueda, Kathryn Louyse, Johnson and Rodriquez

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:14 pm.
2., Approval of the previous minutes: Hunnewell moved and Johnson seconded and the committee unanimously approved the previous minutes.

3. Election Procedures: Rodriquez and Spicer provided a draft for the election procedures for the upcoming election.  This is the plan for the Outreach to accompany the procedures of the Election Committee.  There was a discussion of whether moving board meetings to different locations would increase attendance. There was no consensus on this issue.  We have numerous lists that were created as a result of past outreach.  Our contract with I-Five includes completion of the database; Hunnewell will provide the information to the company.  DONE after approval of the procedures, will pay for the duplication and walking distribution of the flyers and reminders, duplication of ballots and tally sheets.  DONE translates the brochure (the voter guide).  Rules and Election Committee will give the names of candidates to Kathryn who did this for the last election.  Johnson moves to approve the procedures and Mosqueda seconded; the motion was approved with one abstention. The Outreach Committee feels strongly and unanimously agreed that the email lists of the GGPNC should be exempt from requests for production from the Public Records Act. Hunnewell reported that the City Attorney will issue an opinion on this in the next week.

5. In terms of budget, Hunnewell reported Done has once again changed the rules on budgets with only two weeks of notice and had to encumber the funds. It generally takes 6 to 8 weeks to get reimbursement. However due to the recent change, DONE will have to deal with budget requests from 80 different neighborhood councils. Johnson moved and Spicer seconded that the Committee unanimously agreed to hire I-Five to undertake the outreach activities that will entail expenditures for the elections.

I-Five requirements - Banners, voter guides, lawn signs, design for candidate application (in three languages-English, Spanish, and Armenian), ballots, flyers, and associated materials. Modify previously printed materials.  Also,  DONE requires a binder with copies of NC By-laws, map of boundaries and districts, election procedures, LA City Charter, Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils, Conflict of Interest Statement and any additional information pertinent to the election process.

6. The Committee would like to recommend that Kathryn Louyse (who previously created ALL election material) work with I-Five.

7. Newsletter – Rosemary DeMonte 
a. Articles - Accomplishments (Education/Outreach/Elections Committee, Board, etc.), strategic plan, five budget priorities, and  top survey results on issues.
b.  Date to publish newsletter  - early September (Elections 9/30 & 10/2)
c. Stories – see website
d. Publication – 52k copies (20k to be mailed out & 30k to CityBeat).
e. Rosemary to contact I-Five, Kurt Rademaker (Park2Park), Kerry, and Nora to coordinate newsletter.

8. Mary suggested that we add a COUNT DOWN for elections (like a pop-up banner).

9. Election location – September 30 @ Mother of Good Counsel & October 2 @John Marshall High School (FREE to GGPNC).

10. Ideas for outreach – Monthly/Quarterly activities calendar, place in the Post Office, Library, Schools, etc.

11. District “E” – They need representation – many pending issues, Mary suggests door-to-door (GGPNC/JMHS students/neighbors, etc).

Meeting Adjourned – 9:45pm

The meeting was chaired by Cheryl Johnson and called to order at 7:20 pm.  In attendance were Carroll, Hunnewell, Westall, Mosqueda and Bryant.  De Monte arrived after the start.

2. Approval of the minutes.
There were no minutes of the previous meeting as Johnson, who took notes, lost them before she got them typed up.

3. Implementation of outreach goals from the strategic planning session.
   There was much debate about the utility of and ability to enact specific deadlines for the four outreach goals defined at the strategic planning session. Hunnewell reminded the committee that we had committed at the strategic planning session to assign deadlines and responsibilities and define deliverables for each of the four outreach goals.  Mosqueda expressed concern that  the four goals did not align with her vision of and priorities for outreach.  After some discussion, it was the consensus that we should assign specific objective targets for each of the four goals, as well as to assign persons responsible for achieving that target. 

Specifically we decided:

 a. Getting more people at general meetings:
  Mosqueda will head the effort, with an assist by Westall.  The target is to have 40 persons at the general meetings by December 2004.   It was also recognized that the format and content of the meetings needed to be more focused and interesting, least those attending be discouraged from ever participating.

b. Identify 12 organizations operating within the GGPNC boundaries and establish liaisons with those groups.
Yvette Bryant is to head the effort with a target date of March 2004.

c. Finding five vehicles to educate and communicate with the constituency.
   Westall will take the lead on this goal, with help from Kerry and Rosemary.   Their target date will be July 2004.

d. Finding five vehicles to facilitate participation in local government. 
Andrew Westall will take the lead, assisted by Rosemary De Monte and Kerry Hunnewell.  The target date for this goal  is November 2004.   

6. Candle Lighting Ceremony
   Because Rabbi Korf, at Jonathan Kaplan’s invitation, joined us, we took  item no. 6 on the agenda out of order.  Rabbi Korf  works for the Chabad on Vermont (his website is www.chabadlosfeliz.com  and lights the menorah that the LFIA puts on the Vermont median during the holiday season.  He explained that the celebration of lights is one that reaches out to all the religions as they all have ceremonies in which light is central.  They want to have a celebration on Sunday, December 21,2004, as on that day, the Chabad mall parking area is available.  Jonathan Kaplan has agreed to organize the lighting celebration.   Westall will get a banner that says GGPNC, with the font to be at Westall’s discretion.    All agreed to Jonathan’s resolution concerning the lighting celebration (which was printed out and is an exhibit to the minutes).  It was suggested that the lighting ceremony march up Vermont and hook up with other religious institutions, but detail and routing were left to Kaplan’s discretion.

4. Defining and Delegating Leadership Roles
   Johnson notes that the overlapping descriptions and obligations of the Outreach committee, the Secretary and the VP in charge of Outreach often results in confusion as to responsibility for various functions.  Likewise there is insufficient clarity as to when an event, that seeks to secure participation of the community or to reach out to the community, falls within the umbrella of the Outreach committee and when it might fall within that of other committees, such as Parks and Beautification Committee. 
 We then decided rather than attempt to redefine or clarify the responsibilities of each of the jobs, that we might assign responsibilities for various specific tasks thought to be part of the outreach mandate, which we did as follows:
a. Database input and updates- Westall (Bryant however will have the data input from the surveys input into the database prepared by Johnson)
b. Privacy policy enactment (to protect members from unwanted messages and to protect identities where appropriate)- Stanley Thompson
c. Newsletter and direct mailer- Rosemary De Monte will be the editor-in-Chief.   We discussed that the costs of a direct mailing of any sizeable publication is  probably beyond our reach. The logistics of getting out the Newsletter were assigned to Westall.  Possible contents of the newsletter included upcoming elections, upcoming events.
d. Website communications-Carroll
Bruce Carroll gamingly volunteered to continue maintenance of the physical website.  Carroll and Westall are to get together and parcel out respective responsibilities for the content of the website.  Carroll’s extraordinary contributions in setting up and maintaining the website were again lauded by all.
f. Uniform look and branding of the GGPNC name.  Hunnewell will assume responsibility for the look of any GGPNC brochure or materials.
g. Public Relations.  Bryant and Mosqueda are to take charge of public relations, which is to include using the free media to increase the GGPNC’s public exposure, keeping a list of contacts and press targets, and the writing and publishing of press releases.  Bruce Carroll, our gifted writer, volunteered to help with the writing.
h. Chair of Outreach Committee. Nora will chair the Committee and Westall will be the vice-chair.

5. Outreach Budget
    Hunnewell noted the budget for the next year will start on April 1, 2004 and that we should consider the financial needs of the outreach committee to be one of the GGPNC’s priorities.  While we could not formulate a budget for the Outreach Committee at this time, and it need not be submitted to Hunnewell before  January, the committee noted the budget should provide for the following short term outreach needs:
a) newsletter
b)database (to this point, Johnson’s firm, Squire Sanders and Dempsey LLP has graciously undertaken the compilation and preparation of our existing database; some token recognition for its contribution was suggested)
c)brochures
d)banner
e)stationary/branding/cards
f)mailing costs
g) t-shirts
h)easel
i) corkboard with logo to put in local stores and post agendas etc.

Finally the committee discussed a big community party. The two party girls on the committee, Johnson and De Monte volunteered to plan a big one.

Future meetings are to be on the second Tuesday of each month.  The next meeting is on December 9, 2003.




At the August meeting, attended by Johnson, Carroll, Hunnewell, Kerr, De Monte, and Bryant and possibly others, we debated the direction of outreach efforts.  Many felt that until the GGPNC had more direction, events and goals, it would be difficult to increase participation and influence.  Hunnewell felt that the strategic planning session would help us in that regard.

a. Mayor’s Budget Deadline
We discussed compliance with the outreach required by the Mayor’s Budget deadlines.  Bryant, Johnson and Mims attended the all day convention on this subject and described the process. Bryant, with the help of Johnson and De Monte  agreed to write up the survey and take charge of its distribution.  We agreed to use the City Services Committee draft as the starting point. We also decided to use this budget survey effort to help define and refine what should be the priorities of the GGPNC.

b. Database
  Rosemary De Mont had many different sheets and lists of persons in our neighborhood council area from all the previous outreach efforts.  Johnson agreed to take the sheets and have them put in a single database that would enable us to determine, inter alia, the talents, interests and willingness to help of the various constituents. 

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