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Home My WebLink About2024-01-10-TCC-min Town Celebrations Committee Minutes of Meeting January 10, 2024 By Zoom Teleconference Members Present Glen Bassett and Geetha Padaki, Co-Chairs; Linda Dixon, Yifang Gong, Dave Grabel, Cerise Jalelian, Sondra Lucente, Lorain Marquis, Sandy Podgorski, Ashley Rooney, Sue Stering, Pam Winters, Hong Xie Members not Present Sudha Balasuryan, Steve Cole, Kevin Collins, Dabby Harter, Mary Hutton, Bonnie Karshbaum, Gresh Lattimore, Julie Miller Guests: Sara Sheikh, MLK Day of Service Planning Committee Jonas Miller, Director of Communications Town of Lexington Business  Glen opened the meeting at 7:00 and declared that a quorum was present. He Introduced guest Sara Sheikh.  He shared a letter of resignation from committee member Gresh Lattimore, who has served as Secretary for the past several years. Health issues and heavy volunteer schedule have made this necessary. Glen leaves with regret and sends his best wishes for future success.  Yifang Gong volunteered to fill the position of Secretary and was elected by roll call vote.  The minutes of December 6, 2023 were approved by roll call vote. MLK Update Lorain introduced Sara Sheikh from the Martin Luther King Day of Service Planning Committee, who summarized the day’s program. The Unity Walk will bring participants directly to the Opening Ceremony. This will be followed by a Voting Rights program, which is expected to be well attended. The MLK Committee receives $1000 from the TCC budget. In response to a query from Dave Grabel about monitoring expenses to stay within this budget, Lorain explained that the MLK Committee submits its bills to Kim Katzenbach, Secretary to the Select Board. When the amount reaches $1000, Kim cuts off further funding from the TCC account. Sara noted that most of the MLK funds are spent on important speakers, and they pay the same honoraria as in prior years. One of their events is also a fundraiser. If a new program is added, they will cut something to afford it. The MLK Committee also works with the Human Rights Committee. Patriots Day Detailed Planning Glen reviewed the Chart of Responsibilities and either verified existing responsible members or accepted new volunteers as follows: Recruiting and Managing Parade Units Sondra Lucente and Dave Grabel Parade Ambassadors Yifang Gong and Linda Dixon Liaison with Select Board Lorain Marquis Sponsorship Lorain Marquis, Dave Grabel, Linda Dixon Ceremony, Grand Marshal, Script, Clergy Linda Dixon, Ashley Rooney Budget Lorain Marquis Publicity Ashley Rooney, Sandy Podgorski Youth Parade Bonnie Karshbaum Glen will send out the link to the updated task list; and lessons learned from 2023 discussion. Presentation from Director of Communications Jonas Miller, the Town’s new Director of Communications, joined the meeting at 7:30. Referring to a video he had sent previously, Jonas reviewed some statistics about the patriotsday.com website that showed its popularity and usage during the 2023 Patriots’ Day season. Achievements: th  During 2023, the Patriots’ Day site had 17,000 views, ranking 15 highest of any site.  12,000 users averaged 30 seconds on site, “a very long time”, indicating they got what they were looking for. th  Among events, Patriots’ Day was the 8 most viewed (35,000 views). th  Patriots Day had the 6 highest user engagement rate with 2,300 users and an average engagement time of 1 minute, 10 seconds, which is “huge”. Future Potential:  Town-managed Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) accounts need more material.  Last year, the TCC FB page had 404 followers and the Pats Day FB page had 1.7 thousand followers while the Town main page had 2.7 thousand. If TCC and the Town shared their promotional materials, we could triple our exposure.  Other promotional vehicles are the Link for Lexington and news flashes at the bottom of the Town website home page. Recommendations  Create a unifying logo to grow our brand and spread awareness.  Create a QR code that will direct users to a website always kept up to date.  Feature content more prominently on the Town main page. A discussion followed on ways to enhance our Town-run social media sites, in particular Facebook and X. Jonas encouraged TCC to send him PR stories and news items for posting on these sites. Ashley agreed to be his direct source. Jonas is in constant communication with, and will share our stories with, Lexington print and electronic media, as well as broadcast media Channels 5 and 6. Dave Grabel loved the focus on metrics and social media and asked about the Town’s use of Instagram and Tik Tok. According to Jonas, Tik Tok’s audience is adults and young children, and he doesn’t see this site as having a fit with local government. Instagram is a different story. The Town hasn’t used this media platform for some time and Jonas thinks it is time to rejuvenate it. Dave’s website research showed very few sites that mention Patriots’ Day. There is work to do if we want to attract a Patriots’ Day audience beyond Eastern Massachusetts. Lorain asked Jonas to explain a QR code. It is a visual URL, a computer-generated box that you create one time only. This unique image links to our website. We can add it to images, flyers, or web pages, and it will always take us back to our base website. A user may see a flyer with our QR code in January, and an advertisement with the code again in March; they always go to the same website, which is always updated with the latest status and information. Sandy arranged to have our committee QR code created last year, and it has worked well. Lorain will work with Sandy and Jonas to include our QR code on the Sponsorship letter, which is going out for Select Board approval on January 15. At Ashley’s suggestion, Jonas agreed to design several possible logos from which the committee will choose. Once the Select Board approves the TCC overall plan, we will populate our website. 2024 Parade Application: Geetha has reviewed all needed forms with Jonas. The Parade Application is a Survey Monkey form; all others are standard web forms completed online at the TCC website. Geetha, Lorain, Ashley, Dave, and Sondra will meet by Zoom. Parade forms for 2025: Ashley recommends we start thinking about the 2025 forms needed. Patriots Day will be on a Saturday. Cerise feels that applicants need to know about the new rotary at Bedford/Hancock Streets. She suggests encouraging applicants to conduct a site inspection to determine whether their marching group will need to adjust their marching plan. Stakeholder Meeting: The Committee proposed February 6 for the 2024 meeting date. Lex250 Working Group: Glen will assemble a Lex250 Working Group now. Parade Working Group Meetings: Dave suggests that the Parade Working Group meet on Wednesdays when TCC does not meet. Their first meeting will be on Wednesday, January 17, 7 pm. Lex250 Update: Cerise reported that a Kickoff Event will be held on Saturday, July 13, 2024, managed by Gillian Tung. They are asking TCC to manage the food trucks planned for the event. Glen declared that this does not fall in TCC’s purview. Lex 250 also plans to erect a wooden structure to serve as a countdown calendar one year in advance. Memorial Day Planning: Geetha will serve as Lead for this event. Ashley suggests we feature an LHS Band concert/singalong of patriotic songs from Civil War to present. Consensus: An outdoor ceremony at Emery Park, with active participation from LHS Band. Linda will contact Justin Aramati to determine feasibility . A farewell party for Gresh, tentative date Friday, May 10, 5:00 p.m., at Ashley Rooney’s. The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Next meeting: Wednesday, January 24, 2024 Respectfully submitted, Linda Dixon, Member