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Home My WebLink About2022-02-25-VISION2025-min1 Town of Lexington Vision for Lexington Committee Meeting February 25, 2022 Remote Meeting 7:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Members Present: Margaret Coppe, Joe Pato, Bhumip Khasnabish, Samita Mandelia, Kathleen Lenihan, Rina Kodendera, Robert Peters, Daniel Joyner, Dan Krupka, Shannon Murtagh, and Weidong Wang Members Absent: Mark Manasas, Andrew Dixon, Meg Van Nostrand, and Vishwanathan Krishnamoorthy Guests: Jyotsna Kakullavarapu Staff Present: Katharine Labrecque, Management Analyst and Sean Dugan, Public Information Officer The meeting was called to order: 7:49am The Remote Meeting Script was read by the Chair, Margaret Coppe. Minutes:  The minutes from the January 28, 2022 meetings were approved with minor edits. Handouts/Documents Shared on Zoom Screen: Action Items Summary:  Weidong will send the presentation on Lexington’s Asian population participation in local government. Meeting Highlights: Contact Information List for Local Community Groups Weidong sent out a link to the draft site to the group. Weidong said that Shannon sent him a technical question asking if it was possible to make particular fields bigger. Margaret asked how we are going to manage organizations who use a general email and don’t have someone regularly checking it or the contact person has changed. Weidong responded that this is a general problem, and we need to educate organizations on making sure they update the contact info. Samita asked if we added a contact field. Weidong responded that we do ask for as an optional field for a personal email which is kept for our purposes only. Joe added that one thing we discussed was an annual ping to the organization to validate the address was actually working. Margaret asked if the committee had any preference on having this working group continue as such for time being. There was consensus to keep it as a working group for now. Weidong said the next steps would be looking for a hosting site and getting an actual budget before we go live. Town-wide Survey Preparations Mark was unable to join the meeting so Margaret provided an update. We have officially passed the 2017 response rate for the survey. Margaret asked if anyone has received the Town’s census mailing with the 2 survey insert. Katharine said that it should be hitting mailboxes in the next couple of weeks. There are still members who didn’t receive the CEL postcard. Margaret said 57 people signed up for focus groups, which will be about roughly 6 groups of 8. We need volunteers to sign up as a facilitator or scribe. Shannon and Marian will be helping to train the volunteers. Subcommittee on Voter participation in Lexington The subcommittee met and came up with a list of 24 towns that they got from the League of Women Voters. The group developed a list of questions, some of them relatively easy. Margaret commented that it was hard to find the total number of registered voters because each Town Clerk has their own way of doing things. They are in the process of reaching out to other Town Clerks. A lot of the information we won’t be able to get unless we talk to them because information is not readily available on their websites. Margaret also ran through some draft questions. One thing the group still needs to do is get information on how individuals vote. The subcommittee plans to meet again in a few weeks before they reach out to the 24 towns. Dan suggested that we review the results from the town-wide survey voting questions and make sure we understand where we stand before reaching out to other communities. Enhancing Communications in Lexington (ECiL) Recommendations Follow up Sean Dugan joined the meeting to update the committee on the status of the communication plan. Margaret asked Sean about a specific complaint she saw online about construction trash, and who the individual could contact to address the issue. Margaret asked if there was any update to the ECiL recommendation #6 (two-way communication). Sean responded that the Town is currently working on a new website and there may be an option to add a module called See Click Fix, which is a public facing work order system. Right now, we are exploring whether this integrates with the department’s current work order system. Margaret commented that some folks argue that calling in these comments or complaints is an outdated option. Sean responded that we use a blended approach using both digital and non-digital forms of communication. Bob asked Sean what happens when residents call, say the Town Manager’s Office, about a pothole. Does the call end there or do they have to call DPW? Sean said that the Town Manager’s Office in Lexington is trained in customer service. What generally happens is staff takes the call and then reaches out to DPW about the issue. Bob also asked that we consider how to manage calls about state roads. It would be helpful if the Town could report issues versus residents who rarely can get in touch with anyone. Dan Krupka asked for the status on the Town’s Communication Plan. Sean responded that it is about 60% done because of pandemic communication delayed progress. Sean added that there is no other community in the state that has a communication plan that he is aware of. Dan asked at a high level, what kind of things would go into it. Sean responded that it basically lays out what we are already doing; It lays out what audiences and communication channels we are trying to target, what goals we are trying to achieve, and the tools we are already using. Sean continued that this plan needs to be updated every couple of years. Dan commented that it is very hard to find anything about Town government. Would this be something the communication plan will include? Sean said that we do have information on the website about our type of government, as well as election and candidate information. Dan Joyner commented that he has brought up in the past the importance of measuring outbound communication and whether the communication plan will include that. Sean ideally yes, but we will need to develop metrics. Sean added that he is working with a colleague from another community to develop some Key point indicators (KPI) to determine what success looks like in terms of outreach. Margaret asked if there is an opportunity for people to review the communication plan before it goes to the Select Board and Town Manager. Sean said he will think about it because it becomes a 3 slippery slope; everyone has a different way to approach this. Margaret also asked if there has been any thought about a new method for Town committees to more easily be notified of attempts to contact them. Sean responded that this sounds like more of an IT issue, because they are the ones that keep track of email addresses. Sean mentioned that as part of the website design, he can check with CivicPlus to see if they have any modules to address this. Asian Representation Weidong shared that he has been continuing Dan’s work by collecting data regarding Lexington’s Asian population, which includes providing an update on Asian participation in Town government and schools. Weidong presented the data on the slides below. The data was provided by the Town Clerk’s Office. 4 5 Next Meeting Date  March 25, 2022 @ 7:45am Meeting ended at 9:06 a.m. Minutes submitted by Management Analyst, Katharine Labrecque