St. Ann's Bay Development Association

Meeting of 22 April 2013

Present: Janet Dauphney, Loreto Doyle, Anne-Claude Pépin, Rosie Smith, Jitka Zgola

Regrets: James Murphy, Angelo Spinazzola, Paul Weinberg

1. Approval of Agenda
2. A discussion regarding a person to manage social media was added under Web Site Progress. Addition of Vice Chair Election and Web Site Committee Formation to New Business. A discussion of the logo design will be postponed until a meeting with Paul and Angelo present. There is no Old Business outstanding from the previous meeting of 15 February 2013.
3. Motion: to approve the agenda as amended (moved: Rosie; seconded: Loreto; carried.)
4. Approve Minutes of 15 February 2013
5. Motion: to approve the minutes of 15 February 2013 (moved: Loreto; seconded: Janet; carried.)
6. Financial Report
7. Current balance on the SABDA account is $10,133.35. Report accepted as tabled.
8. New Business
   • Vice Chair Election
   • Motion: to elect a Vice Chair (moved: Loreto; seconded: Janet; carried.)
   • Motion: to nominate Anne-Claude (moved: Loreto; seconded: Jitka; nomination accepted by Anne-Claude; carried.)
   • Anne-Claude acclaimed Vice Chair.
   • Committee Networking: Cabot Trail Map/Brochure
   • Need a new paragraph to describe the community that does not name only a few businesses; the map will be used for two years. This paragraph could be used on the home page of the upcoming web site.
   • Action: Jitka and Loreto will write a paragraph of no more than 125 words to describe the community, and submit to the board for approval by Friday 26 April. Once approved, the blurb will be sent as a press release to Destination Cape Breton, Tom Wilson, etc.
   • Committee Networking
   • There is a disconnect between SABDA and other organisations such as Destination Cape Breton. Tom Wilson has been active in involving SABDA in other regional initiatives, and will continue to be a great asset to SABDA. Paul is the representative from our area for the new Cabot Trail planning committee (which is stepping in to the gap left by Cabot Trail Working Association), so will be a good liaison between our two groups.
   • Destination Cape Breton's Industry Day will be held on Friday 3 May, from 9 am to 2:15 pm at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion. It would be helpful if a SABDA member could attend for networking purposes.
   • Action: Anne-Claude will ask Paul, Angelo, and Ruth if they are available to attend the Industry Day on our behalf.
   • Motion: to approve the $25 registration fee for any of the above SABDA members interested in attending (moved: Anne-Claude; seconded: Janet; carried.)
   • One Nova Scotia
     The Nova Scotia Commission on Building Our New Economy (an independent body mandated by the Premier's Advisory Committee on the Economy) is looking for input on what communities need to further economic development.
   • Action: All board members will review the survey done by SABDA in 1994/96 (currently on the SABDA web site), to get a starting point agreed by the wider community. A newer survey was done in 2008; a summary of results is also on the site.
   • Action: Jitka will submit the survey to One Nova Scotia as a first step in responding to their call for input.
   • Action: Anne-Claude will write a blurb on One Nova Scotia, and submit it to the Events sheet.
9. Letter from SABUC Regarding Green Gym
10. St Ann's Bay United Church has approached SABDA for future financial and other support with maintaining the Green Gym Project. They have not provided specific information.
11. Motion: to respond, requesting more information (moved: Jitka; seconded: Anne-Claude; carried.)
12. Action: Jamie will reply, requesting more information regarding the amount and type of support SABUC is seeking.
13. Community Web Site Progress
14. The web site needs broader content, such as local history and climate. Local experts can be asked to contribute these sections. We would like to have a page about the spirit of the community, featuring Ruth's text from the Spirit Award application.
15. Motion: to source three local writers to provide content for the history, weather, and natural history pages, and approve honouraria of $100 for each of these authors (moved: Anne-Claude; seconded: Loreto; carried.)
16. Motion: to ask Bill Danielson to write a monograph on weather (moved: Loreto; seconded: Rosie; carried.)
17. Action: Loreto will contact Bill.
18. Motion: to ask Clarence Barrett to write about natural history (moved: Loreto; seconded: Rosie; carried.)
19. Action: Anne-Claude will contact Clarence.
20. Motion: to ask Bonnie Thornhill to write about local history. If Bonnie is not available, James MacDonald will be approached (moved: Loreto; seconded: Janet; carried.)
21. Action: Janet will contact Bonnie and/or James.
22. As discussed at the AGM, some things such as Little River Beach should be kept as community "secrets." Loreto suggested that in the future SABDA work with other agencies to provide a beach for public use. Currently, Little River Beach will not be mentioned on the web site.
23. Motion: to retain control of all community web site content (moved: Anne-Claude; seconded: Loreto; carried.)
24. Content will need to be reviewed before it is posted on the web site. This could be done by the person hired to manage the social media content, as they will need to be in touch with local events and updates. If there are decisions that are more complicated, they can forward a description of the issue to a contact on the board to be voted on. The web site should be reviewed at each future SABDA meeting, to ensure it is staying on track with SABDA goals and principles.
25. We obtained a $3,000 grant from the County to market our region via the new community web site; the intention is to encourage marketing via social media. Loreto suggests using $1,000 to contract a skilled consultant to plan our social marketing approach, select the most appropriate outlets, and set up accounts and processes for us on these outlets. The remaining $2,000 can be used to contract one person for 4-5 hours a week at $20/hour (about 5 months' duration) to create and manage content for social media. This should be a community member, and potential candidates are discussed. Tom Wilson is hoping to hold a training session for this person and others in similar roles around the County.
26. Motion: to approve Loreto's suggestion (moved: Anne-Claude; seconded: Janet; carried.)
27. Action: Loreto will follow up with Tom regarding a social media training session.
28. Action: Loreto will ask the candidates we identified if they would be interested in the social media marketing contract.
29. The possibility of having a local buy/sell section on the web site was discussed.
30. Motion: to defer this discussion and create the web site basics first, as a buy/sell section can be added in at a later date (moved: Jitka; seconded: Loreto; carried.)
31. Motion: to charge local businesses a $50 annual fee for a page on the web site (moved: Anne-Claude; seconded: Jitka; carried.)
32. Motion: to waive the annual fee for non-profit groups (moved: Loreto; seconded: Janet; carried.)
33. Action: Loreto will make a package to distribute to local businesses and groups with information on the web site. The package will be made available for download from the SABDA web site.
34. Action: Loreto will re-circulate the list of local businesses to the board.
35. Action: The following board members will ask businesses in each area if they are interested in participating in the web site:
    • Janet: Indian Brook to Englishtown
    • Angelo: St. Ann's loop
    • Jitka and Rosie: base of Smokey to Indian Brook
36. The look of Mike Targett's proposed web site was discussed. It was agreed that the organisation works, but the overall image of the web site is not as expected. For instance, there was no inclusion of photos of local activities. The proposed logo is also not entirely representative of the community, and we feel it should be secondary to the photos. The photos could act as the banner or logo, with different photos appearing when the browser is refreshed. These photos do not need to be used on the business listings pages, where something more like Mike's original design would work.
37. Action: Loreto will contact Mike to let him know what we have discussed regarding the overall look of the site.
38. Next Board Meeting:
39. Tentatively scheduled for Tuesday 4 June at 7:00 pm at Simply Pizza.
40. Meeting Adjourned (moved: Loreto)

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