WASHINGTON PLANNING BOARD

Master Plan Update Subcommittee – Working meeting Minutes

April 30, 2014

Committee members present: Lolly Gilbert, Carolyn Bullock, Jean Kluk, Bob Williams, Annie Bissonnette, Jim Crandall and Nan Schwartz.

Visitor: Dan Reidy

1.0 The meeting was called to order by Jean Kluk at 2:00 PM, in the Town Hall.

2.0 Kluk asked if there were any changes suggested for the minutes of April 15^th. Crandall had 2 requests for additions or corrections. Bob agreed to add that he indicated there were a number of important issues and we should take advantage to talk to people and get their thoughts… and agreed to ad that he commented that the Selectmen were exploring community services for the Police, Fire and Rescue and we should get public opinion on that.

Schwartz will make the changes and repost the minutes.

Reidy asked what are the Selectmen doing? Kluk said she would fill him in later. Bissonnette asked about outsourcing and should we be addressing that? Williams said that if comments come up we will capture them. Crandall commented that he had questions for the original survey on outsourcing and at the time Kluk said we could use them for the focus group.

3.0 Kluk recapped our progress since our last meeting. A “Save the Date” card has gone out to all Washington postal residents. Schwartz said she will post the “Save the Date” information on the website later today.

Recruitment for focus group student facilitators – Kluk said she has 5 students lined up but we need a few other names. It was decided that Kluk will send an email to the five and see if they have a few more names to suggest.

A meeting is set with Dan Reidy and the Select board for May 8^th at 7:30PM to answer questions about the workshop and format. Everyone should attend if they can.

4.0 We reviewed the draft Workshop Schedule – Kluk and Reidy worked together to lay out a schedule for the day. Reidy explained that each focus group will have a facilitator and a recorder and the group will choose one participant to present the findings of the group at the larger discussion period. They will each be given about 5 minutes to present then a larger discussion will happen. Reidy will work with the group to get rid of duplications from the focus groups and ask if there is anything that was missed, giving everyone a chance to add something. Feasibility and impact will be discussed in the focus groups. Reidy said that everyone will get five dots and will use them to vote for ideas. While Reidy counts the votes Kluk can give out the door prizes. Schwartz asked about discussion after the voting. There will be a discussion of the next steps and thank yous.

Reidy said that during the welcome period we can use the time to highlight demographics, explain why we are doing a Master Plan Update, explain what the Master Plan is, how the survey was used and the whole process. Reidy said that he will use some time to find out who is in the room and create a mosaic of the crowd by asking them questions and asking them to stand up. He said this helps to loosen up the crowd and find out if we have a good mix. He said we could also have a map of the town where people could put a pin where they live. Kluk asked that Crandall make some opening remarks as the chair of the Planning Board.

5.0 We then discussed Kluk’s schedule of communication plans. Mailing #1 to residents has been completed, Schwartz will send out a news blast #1 email and Nixle email tomorrow. Bullock asked if the image from the card could be used for the email and Schwartz will do this. Kluk had mocked up a poster to be hung around town by May 21^st, and will add the background image to it for consistency. She went over the timing of all the mailing pieces and how we would reach the seasonal residents. Crandall voiced concern about requiring pre-registration for the workshop. Reidy stated that this is usually not a problem and it helps to know numbers for food preparation. We decided to change required to requested and we will indicate on Blast #3 that walk-ins are welcome. Crandall asked about doing a second workshop in August but Reidy felt that this is too confusing. Williams said we discuss this thoroughly and chose this date.

Williams showed us a prototype online registration, it asks for Last name, First name, address, optional email and phone number. He said it is google based and goes straight to a spread sheet list. Crandall asked about registering by mail and Kluk showed him her registration return card that is being sent to all property owners. We will have to manually input the mailed registration cards as we did with the surveys. It was suggested that we could pull the topics for assigned numbers at the workshop in order to have total random assignment. Kluk asked if we want to ask for the address on the mail card and we decided to just ask for names so we will remove the address from the online registration too. We picked June 11^th for the non-resident registration card return date and we will send the card out by May 15^th. Resident cards will be sent by June 2^nd and we will ask to have them back by the 15^th.

Kluk will write something to give to Michael Pon for publishing in the Villager for the June 6^th edition (will need to be to him by the 2^nd. We decided to send a flyer home to Elementary School parents. We asked Reidy for suggestions for other ways to reach the public and he said we could reach out by phone. We decided to promote the workshop at up coming events in town; the Black Fly Ball, the Senior Lunch, the Book Club, Church, at the Memorial Day event and at the Farmers Market on June 7^th and 14^th.

6.0 Schwartz handed out copies of what the groups put together for the focus topics. Reidy said he would send a copy of Brookline’s sample focus topic points to Kluk who will send them to everyone. She feels this may help us in putting our topic points together. Reidy said that Brookline had ½ page of talking points per group but Peterborough had a full page. We asked if information belongs on the talking point page, Williams feels it is important. Reidy said that any maps that are important to the topic can be brought to the room. We feel we need to do a one-page sheet with info and talking points. Williams said we must boil down the key points and keep it simple. Reidy said to keep it generic as possible. Schwartz said we can use the coffee hour for informational posters and “Did You Know?” displays. Kluk suggested a one-page “Did You Know?” and a one-page of statements for discussion.

We will all review what the other groups have done so far on their focus topics.

We will begin to think about posters and maps that we will want to display at the workshop.

Kluk said that she will be away from May 15^th until June 1^st. Bullock said she will be gone during part of this period also. The committee will carry on in their absence.

Kluk will look into getting a “tiny url” to use for the link for registration and share what she finds with Williams and Schwartz.

Note: Our next meeting will be May 7^th, Wednesday at 2:30PM.

Meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz

Planning Board Secretary