Engagement Committee Minutes, 7/21/21

CSHCA Engagement Committee Minutes from 7/21/21

Chair: Cacilda Teixeira Minutes: Doreen Miller

In attendance: 6 total

Update on Website progress (Taufiq)

1. All committees now have their own webpages that are easy to access, more intuitive to use.
2. The Calendar is up and running for posting all events related to
   1. CSHCA, and
   2. Future events and activities of the broader community

Review of the Discussion points that Heidi emailed the group (Doreen)

• Summer Safety: Partner with the Safety Committee and do a summer fire safety awareness campaign (i.e. grills on porches)
• Outreach: General flyering to spread awareness about the CSHCA (we did this last year – delivering to houses and posting around on neighborhood utility poles. Could be an end of summer campaign to get people interested in the CSHCA and attending the September meeting – get meeting in the Dorchester Reporter, etc)
  • Mike has about 500 flyers left over from last year that we can use.
  • Cacilda will create and send out a spreadsheet of the streets to flyer with sign-up slots.
• Committee Budget: Create an annual budget for the Engagement Committee to present to the CSHCA general membership for a vote (printing costs, advertising costs, etc.).
  • Decide on what events will need advertising and create an itemized spreadsheet with estimated costs.
  • There is funding available (Amazon’s $10,000 for instance) that we can use for the association’s needs (Mike).
  • When creating a budget, consider goals and follow-up analyses, i.e., what did we spend on advertising and how much interest or how many new memberships were created as a result? Was it worth it? (Taufiq)
• Swag: CSHCA branded items (t-shirts?) to sell (need up front cost & local vendor)
  • Mike mentioned contacting Tony King’s company (a former resident of Savin Hill) for merchandise and pricing.
• Merchant Members: Get Merchant Members to update their membership with CSHCA (who will reach out?)
• Sponsorship: Get local sponsors for various campaigns or events where it makes sense.
• Summer Events: Advertise local summer/fall events (i.e., Savin Hill Porchfest, October 2)
• Coordinating with other Committees
  • Beautification Committee: are they having a plant sale this summer? If not, what is their next event?
  • Connect with other committees as well to see how we can support them and their activities via publicity/advertising, etc.

Ways to reach out to the Community

• Doorhangers and flyers – about 500 flyers are left from last year that we can use.
• A Banner (Patty)
  • Have a banner with a link to the website made that can be hung outside local T stops.
• Digitally
  • Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Nextdoor Neighbor
    • The Nextdoor group is not easy to maneuver, is less meaningful and less impactful.
    • Twitter –
      • Mike has posted things in the past and has about 60 followers.
      • Sarah is willing to join the Twitter group to promote better visibility of the association.
      • People on Twitter should tweet out events in our area as well as things happening in the greater community of Dorchester and even Boston.
      • More interest is generated by retweeting the messages of others in the CSHCA area.
    • Instagram has 92 followers.
    • Social media concerns and solutions
      • People become argumentative and combative, leading to discord.
      • Posts can get too topical.
      • Good moderation is needed to weed out inappropriate posts (attacks on others, name calling, etc.). The Facebook site moderators already do a good job with this.
      • People agree that discussion is good for the community.
        • Discussion following the Fb post on the physical assault at the Savin Hill T stop resulted in 10 new members.
    • What types of things should be posted?
      • Pictures
      • Events in the neighborhood and greater community
      • Activities
      • Walk Boston is doing a walk-through of problematic intersections in Fields Corner. It should be documented and tweeted/shared with the invitation to get others to think about reaching out to Walk Boston about similar situations in their own areas.
    • Ideas for promotion and CSHCA visibility
      • Organize/sponsor a neighborhood tour with the Dorchester Historical Society.
      • Make people more aware of the 3 community gardens in the area (on Jones Hill)
      • Find ways to engage and entertain
        • Wiffle ball get together
        • Historical trivia posted on social media sites
      • Establish contact persons for the various social media sites
        • Heidi Moesinger and/or the two other moderators for Fb (?)
        • Sarah for Twitter: sarahatcamp@gmail.com
        • Other site contacts?

Action Items

• Cacilda will create and send out the spreadsheet for August flyering with sign-up slots.
• Cacilda will send out a google form to ascertain a better day and time for monthly meetings.
• Cacilda will put together some ideas for the Instagram page.

Next Meeting: September 2021, day and time TBA