HomeMy Public PortalAbout2020-09-28 Newsletter and Actions on 2019 ReportWatertown Town Council
Committee on Media and Public Outreach
Councilor Palomba-Chair, Councilor Feltner -Vice Chair, Councilor Bays -Secretary
Committee Report — September 28, 2020, 7:00 PM
Remote Access Via Zoom
Attendees included Councilor Tony Palomba, Chair, Councilor Lisa Feltner, Vice -chair,
Councilor Caroline Bays, Secretary; Marilyn Pronovost, Town Council Clerk, David
Stokes, School Committee, Diana Najarian
Councilor Palomba called the meeting to order at 7:05
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss creating a town council newsletter and look at what
recommendations from the October 23rd Kitchen Table Conversation and discuss what is
needed to achieve the top priorities.
Marilyn Pronovost said she felt that putting out a quarterly town council newsletter was
achievable. Everyone brainstormed what might be included in the newsletter. Ideas included:
• Using minutes from town council meeting for small informational blurbs
• A Meet the Councilor section
• Budget information
• Explaining a recent important topic
• Forecast of upcoming business
• Covering topics about issues that might be coming up in the next quarter
• A calendar
• A Town Council President message
• Education/focus on civics/government
• Include contact information for Town Councilors
• Include how to access meetings that someone is unable to attend
Councilor Palomba said that we should ensure that whatever it covers, the content should focus
on Town Council matters. Diana Najarian expressed her frustration at her inability to easily
access any information about the town government or what is going on in town. The group
agreed this was an ongoing issue that we are trying to address.
We also discussed technical matters and distribution which included the following:
• create a predictable template that would make it easy for Ms. Pronovost to put the
newsletter together
• It should be short and concise
• Distribute the newsletter in multiple formats both physical and digital including everything
from having copies at the library, to mailers, to posting on the town website, distributing it
through the local news, such as Charlie Breitrose's Watertown News, and distribute
through Town Councilor's email lists.
• Talk to the new Chief Information Officer and discuss strategies for distribution
• Putting up You Tube videos
• Ask WCATV to advertise it and maybe do a corresponding bit on WCATV - i.e. interview
the Town Councilor of the quarter.
• Announce that the newsletter has been released
• Use a tool like Canva to make it easy to create the newsletter
• Limit it to two pages with seven or eight topics
Marilyn Pronovost, Diana Najarian, and Councilor Bays agreed to work on constructing a format
for the newsletter.
Next we discussed other recommendations from the October 23rd Kitchen Table Conversation
meeting. We decided that we would all look at the recommendations that came out of that
meeting and determine what steps we need to take to ensure that the recommendations can be
acted upon and that we should continue the discussion of a possible Town Council newsletter.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm
Minutes prepared by Councilor Bays