At the Aug. 21 meeting the Town of Hubbardston Cultural Council confirmed plans to run its community outreach survey using Google Forms, to manage council correspondence with a dedicated generic email account, and to use small-paid Facebook campaigns to boost distribution.

Secretary Laura and other members recommended reusing last yearsurvey content, copying it into Google Forms and setting reasonable start and end dates so the survey is closed before the council begins voting on Nov. 1. Members preferred keeping the survey open long enough for community input but closing it by the start of the councilvoting period.

Councilors discussed anonymity vs. single-submission controls in Google Forms. The group preferred to allow anonymous responses rather than require a Google account sign-in, accepting a small risk of multiple submissions in order to encourage participation. Members noted common practical issues (browser incompatibility) and said they will post multiple reminders and set the form to disallow duplicate submissions only if practical without forcing sign-ins.

The council established a shared account (hubberstoncc@gmail.com in the meeting notes) for publishing award emails and managing public requests; the account will be public-facing so staff other than the secretary can access materials if needed. Members agreed the account reduces dependence on any one personal email address and will host shared documents and archives for grantee paperwork.

For outreach, the council agreed to modest Facebook ad buys in a defined radius to reach residents; several sample past costs were discussed and the council asked staff to include a specific dollar amount for the October outreach in the October financial submission.

Members also discussed practical steps for survey administration: generate the spreadsheet behind the Google Form so results stream into a table, send multiple reminder blasts, and set the final form close date so the survey results can inform the councilvoting period starting Nov. 1.