Projects and Promotions Report 101115

My report is as follows;

Funding

The funding application that I made for council could not be submitted because council did not get a report for the last approved funding.

I called council and put in a request for service (RFS 3717433) to have all of the other funding applications and information sent to me so that I could figure out what the direction of the spend had been in previous applications and to see if there were any outstanding funds or projects to be reconciled etc.

I did get a reply from council on the 13th of this month, 2 days before the fund was due to close.

Unfortunately I was unable to get the information required to complete both the application and put the report in for the last funding so we missed out this time.

Since that time I have received an email from Mike and Joe Noll confirming that a GST net grant of $4443.00 was received for the parade and Shine festival. Joe also sent financial information there are a couple of questions that you may be able to help with.

1. Give a brief description of highlights of your project including numbers participating.

2. Describe main findings in your evaluation of the project as soon as I have an answer to these I can have the report finished and refresh the funding application for the next round.

Trying to complete the forms did bring up some questions about the status of the business association in terms of funding applications and the exact nature of the entity in terms of charitable status and tax obligations.

There are many other national funding bodies that we can apply to and I recommend that we make this a priority.

Thanks to Mike and the link that he provided for the KBA web ring I have been able to access the reports and minutes and I am working through them.

Parade

I have met with Linda regarding the Christmas parade and at that stage she was still working through issues around insurance and road closure. I see from another email Mike has sent through that these have now been rectified and the date has been set for the parade. I will meet with Linda on Wednesday afternoon.

Website Update

I did ring and speak to John about updating the website and we have discussed the need for training for me to get up to speed with this as well as the community network. I have not heard back from John at this regarding his availability to meet, we did discuss that it would be a 1/2 day so I will touch base with him again today and nail down a time.

Xmas Promotion

I note in the KBA October minutes that Shaun Reily has an idea for tickets and has stated that he will be organising the Christmas promotion. I have spoken to Shaun earlier in the month and at that time he was embroiled in a petition and complaints process for Kelly, I didn't feel that I wanted to push him on the matter too much, nor did I take up on his suggestion of visiting Kelly for her input. I am happy to assist him in any way.

I will meet with her again this Wednesday to discuss help with promotion.

Communications Strategy

I have made progress with the communications strategy and have been looking into ideas for keeping costs down including digital text surveys and social media platforms.

I suggest that we meet to discuss a few key considerations.

I have included here a document that you may have already seen CommunityNet for you to evaluate what the priorities are.

It is impossible to write a community communications plan without the input of the community. The challenge that I have found in planning is assessing how our community communicates with each other at present.

We have a young population base who are technically savvy and an aged population who are not, so social media and text surveys will not reach the entire group but will get to a larger proportion at less cost that a mail out would.

A possible compromise could be to have a suggestion box and survey document inside businesses for people to fill out, this would have the added advantage of reaching our core group of KBA members.

I propose we have a separate questionnaire tailored to business/member communication needs, concerns and suggestions, this would also add value to KBA membership.

The business owners encourage the public to participate and they also get to have input into a community plan.

The message we would send is that the KBA is actively seeking your input and creating a communications plan that will link business with each other and the community.

To encourage community participation, perhaps a prize or voucher for service as an incentive?

This does have costs attached obviously and at this stage I do not know if there is a budget that will allow it.

Street number's

Further to Mikes email Oct. 15

"Kia ora Lahni,

One of the things discussed at our last meeting is the need for all our retail outlets to have their street number clearly displayed so that emergency services can find you quickly if you have an emergency on the premises

and minutes ..

10. Letter to go to all businesses suggesting they display the street number on their place of business – there was a recent incident where emergency services were unable to attend in time as they could not find the right place, and that led to a death. Could get a map from the Council, print the numbers on bright card and ask Lahni to give the number to the occupiers.

I have contacted council and they do not give out information of maps and addresses for businesses that they have, they confirm surveys have been completed by them and they have collected results but have sighted the privacy act as the reason for them not giving information out.

The membership database has some address information but it is incomplete and as discussed previously needs updating.

I can include this in door to door canvassing work, it does make this more of a priority.

I suggest that we work on the "script" for this as discussed at our September meeting.

This is also timely given the communications idea of a suggestion box and survey.

Branding

I have been in touch with Pamela McDonald about the electronic copies of the Our Home Town

brand. Pamela tells me that she did not do the design work and that it was actually done by Geoff??

who had the newspaper in Kaikohe at the time, it is no longer in print. I do know that he lives in Kohukohu and I will track him down for the back story about the graphics and find out if he has electronic high resolution copies for printing and promo's etc.

Pamela did say that she would email what she has, I contacted er again last Friday and I am still waiting for a reply.

If these are not available we will need to start again. The images that we have are too small to blow up to any decent size for banners etc.

I have spoken informally with a couple of youth group leaders and school principals about the possibility of a competition or promotion around creating a logo and a jingle for the town.

Participation is key in having our young people have pride in Kaikohe, this could be an inexpensive yet effective way of getting buy in. Winner gets their design and/or Jingle created. We could have a panel of local celebrity judges and key community figures. And get some excellent free media mileage for Kaikohe out of the exercise also.

ByWay Workshop Invitation

Thank you for the email Mike, I am registered for the Hokianga ByWay workshop on Friday

Please forward any instruction or prioritise KBA concerns so that I am able to represent them on the day.

Ngapuhi Festival

I have spoken with Erana Kara at TRAION and have a meeting with her on Wednesday this week.

At this stage we are meeting to discuss how we can leverage promotion of both Kaikohe and the festival in town in the month leading up to the festival and also during. I have suggested that the flag poles along the main street could be shared and alternate a KBA/KHO flag and a Festival one through town. There are 20 spaces from memory so that would be 10 flags each. We will discuss details and how we can mutually benefit. For instance they may have a good deal on printing as they will have a bulk order and get a discount form memory anyway due to the clothing line.

Costings for banners were going to be part of the KCB fund application, given we have missed this opportunity do we have a budget for flags?

Town assets

In our last meeting there was some discussion about the upkeep of town assets, planter boxes seats etc

Do we have a budget to give a koha to a person or any tax deductible charitable organisation for this?

Priorities discussed at our meeting Steve were

1. Database update - please provide script or lets collaborate online?

2. Contact details - as discussed above looks like leg work as council don't want to share the information

3. Space available on the billboard in town / I do note the tagging on the plough too, who can I contact to have that removed?

Administration

I have a couple of queries about administration. I have an invoice for September and October, what is the process for approval and payment please.

I have incurred costs in terms of stationary, communications and travel. Do you require these to be itemised in each invoice? I do note that Travel ($400) Phone and Internet ($500) and photocopying ($80) were included as expenses ($1940.00 over 12 months) claimed for in the funding application to council made in April.

Do I purchase stationary and sundries and keep receipts for reimbursement or do I have a budget allocated for these items that is paid out in increments and accounted that way.

My phone and internet costs are fixed should I itemise KBA costs or is there a budget available to spread over time.

Time Tracking

I did have a handy time tracking invoice system on my phone that is of course not useful at all to me now so for the months of September and October the invoice is not as detailed as I prefer, included below are general details of time spent.

I now have an accounting system in place which will be itemised in exact time blocks for the November invoice onwards.

In September the majority of time was spent meeting with people face to face and getting to grips with what had already been achieved and what the goals and intentions were for future projects.

I was floundering a bit until I got the links from Mike for the KBA members site after our September meeting. (22.09.15)

After gaining access to the information I spent a day reading through reports and minutes and making notes to gain an understanding of the direction to take.

This was particularly helpful with project planning and resolution of past projects. Because of this and the help from Maggie Thomas at council I was able to prepare for the funding application to council due 2nd week October.

I could then tailor the application based on the previous funds granted from the April round for costs related to the co-ordinator position adding a greater projected budget for communications, promotions and equipment.

I was unable to complete the application this round as above, however the information will still be relevant in the next round and we now have time to submit a more detailed document.

A full day was spent investigating event ideas, based around sports, art, culture and youth as

these are supported well by funding bodies.

As a result I have some suggestions for a biennial sports and culture event based at the new sports complex at Lindvart Park on the off year of the Ngapuhi Festival (Summer 2017) promoting the town and the region.

We will have a full year to secure ample funding, project plan and execute.

I would like to include questions in the communications survey to gauge whānau, hapū and community interest and support.

The priorities for the first 2 weeks in November are to;

1. Draft a press release about the role and direction the KBA want to go in,

this will serve as an introduction and a primer also for the communications strategy

and to advertise the Christmas promotion ideas.

2. Finalise a script for KBA membership drive, highlighting the communications survey for businesses and the community. Draft Survey questionnaire as a group. Confirm either survey boxes in businesses or digital media survey or a hybrid model.

3. Meet with John and get started on the Website.

Start on collaborative communications strategy.

Who do we want to reach? Why? What are we offering? What do we want them to tell us? When do we want it completed? What are the priorities of KBA in creating a communications plan?

Thank you for reading this report, on another note my email address has changed

please direct email to panui.media@gmail.com my other inbox needs culling and this

keeps work in its own space.

I look forward to our next meeting. Any questions or suggestions please email or call 0211714091

Lahni.