City staff offers EngageBozeman tools and a draft outreach plan to support commission’s study

City communications staff described the city’s communication and engagement capacity and offered the commission use of the EngageBozeman platform and other outreach tools during the Study Commission’s review process.

Chuck Wynne and communications staff explained that the city has a communications and engagement division that reports to the city manager and includes a neighborhood coordinator and digital media staff. The team described common engagement tools — the EngageBozeman project pages, email opt-ins, surveys (statistically valid and nonstatistical), open houses, community toolkits, social media, press releases and partnerships with neighborhood associations and community groups — and invited the commission to use those resources.

Staff offered to create a project page for the study commission on the EngageBozeman platform, set up a “stay informed” subscription for study-commission notices, and provide training or administrative access to the recording secretary (Caleb) so the commission can manage content. Staff said they can synthesize input from surveys, in-person events and written comments and present that material back to the commission. Commissioners asked for outreach beyond existing civic groups — specifically students, renters and people who do not belong to organized associations — and urged the staff to include MSU, the school district and business groups in outreach plans.

The commission discussed a draft engagement timeline: consult/involve phases through summer and fall (surveys, stakeholder interviews, stakeholder meetings at existing boards and neighborhood groups), deeper deliberations and workshops in the fall/winter, and public-facing summaries and required public hearings in the spring. Staff said they will send the city’s community engagement plan to commissioners and can train the recording secretary on using the EngageBozeman project page. The commission set deadlines for circulating drafts and summaries: staff to send the draft site link and engagement materials and commissioners to provide feedback on the communications/engagement drafts in early May.

Ending: Staff reiterated they will provide training and administrative access and asked the commission to confirm which outreach activities they will staff and which they want city staff to run; commissioners agreed to return input on priorities with their written summaries.