To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Kristin Read, Assistant Town Manager
Title
Discussion/Direction: Virtual Council Open Houses
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Discussion
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff had worked with Council to schedule a few Council district open houses between March and May. Given the uncertainties of when it will be possible to hold
in-person open houses again, staff is recommending scheduling some virtual open houses in the coming months to continue Council’s community engagement efforts.
Councilman Townsend’s District 2 open house had been slated first on the schedule, on March 31, and staff has worked to reschedule that event first, to the first practical date of May 13. Electronic promotions of that opportunity have already begun and will continue through to the event.
Staff recommends next offering a Townwide update opportunity, hosted by Mayor Gray. Staff offers that the evening of May 21 would be a preferred time to host that event, to avoid schedule conflicts. Following those two events, staff would then work with Councilwoman Johnson and Councilman Loban to identify dates for their district open houses, which had already been scheduled for April 30 and May 14, respectively, and then with remaining Councilmembers who may wish to host virtual open houses over the summer.
If it becomes practical to host in-person events after May, staff is prepared to shift events to that mode, noting that preparation for such generally takes a month’s notice to secure a location, mail a notification, prepare meeting materials and more.
Staff envisions the virtual open houses functioning a bit differently than our in-person events. First, we can schedule them with less lead time, since all required preparations would be completed electronically. Second, we recommend a later start time of 7 p.m., thinking people would be more likely to virtually attend after dinner and other early evening matters are attended to, rather than setting an earlier time like with our in-person events, to which many people stop into on their way home from work.
We also recommend a shorter duration of 45 minutes to an hour for the virtual events, rather than the more extended 1.5 hours set for the in-person open houses. The reason being the virtual open houses will be more programmed than the in-person open houses, which truly are designed for open, one-on-one conversations. This means we’ll be aiming to keep our audience more “captive” and thus want to be as respectful of their time as possible, since they cannot simply stop in and ask a question that matters to them and then move on with their evening.
Upon observing other similar virtual events, we suggest the following format for the virtual open houses:
• Two weeks prior to event: send news release and post event notices on social media; begin to solicit questions people wish to have addressed as part of the event
• Host live event with the following general outline:
o 7-7:05 p.m. - Welcome from the hosting Town Council member
o 7:05-7:15 p.m. - Three-minute updates from the three departments with the most relevant information to share per the area of focus, presented by the department head or designee; these assignments will be determined by the Thursday prior to the event being held and would be varied per open house to the appropriate degree
o 7:15-7:20 p.m. - Additional remarks by the hosting Councilmember and/or Town Manager, including explanation by host of how to virtually “raise hand” to ask questions
o 7:20-7:40 p.m. - Q&A, consisting of a mix of live questions - either delivered verbally or chatted in and relayed by the moderator - and pre-submitted questions
o 7:40-7:45 p.m. - Concluding comments by the host, including noting that questions submitted and not answered during the event will be answered in an online posting to be published within a week after the event
Note: This approach reflects a 45-minute timeline; with this, even if sections get off schedule, the overall event should be able to be managed to remain under an hour.
• By one week following the event: post remaining Q&A items to CRgov.com, with a follow-up email to anyone submitting electronically and a social media post indicating this availability; the open house itself will also be recorded and posted for viewing by those who did not attend live
Staff welcomes Council’s feedback on this suggested approach and encourages all Councilmembers to attend the initial open house on May 13 to observe and offer feedback on how the process could be improved as events continue forward.