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Committee discusses mailer, marketing help and social media strategy as grant deadline approaches
Summary
As the committee races to meet grant and referendum timelines, members discussed expanding a mailer, hiring marketing support, using QR codes and managing social media and an FAQ to improve town outreach.
The Willington School Building Committee spent a large portion of its March 2 meeting on communications strategy for the upcoming grant application and a possible referendum. Members agreed to refine a one-page mailer, expand information about reimbursement and consolidation rationale, and consider limited paid marketing support to boost turnout and understanding.
Chair James Marshall said the committee should "paint the whole picture" of the process and make it easy for residents to find information; members recommended adding budgetary and reimbursement details, QR codes linking to study materials, and distribution to the library, post office and digital channels. The chair asked Lisa (committee staff/volunteer lead on mailers) to draft revised copy for the next meeting.
Social media and FAQs: members said social channels were a persistent source of questions and misinformation during prior efforts. They proposed collecting recurring questions into a running FAQ and disabling comments on informational posts while directing residents to a committee email or the beginning-of-meeting public-comment slot for substantive questions.
Marketing firm discussion: several members suggested that neither shortlisted OPM candidate had a "rockstar" outreach plan and recommended assessing whether a marketing or PR firm should be engaged to design outreach material and guarantee distribution. The chair said the OPM, once onboarded, should advise on public-outreach vendors and strategies.
Timing: the committee discussed delivery timelines (one member said mail submissions to the Willington Wire are due at the end of March or around March 1) and agreed to finalize next steps at the next meeting in order to have materials available for community distribution in the weeks that follow.
The committee will meet next to continue procurement and outreach work and to score architectural/engineering qualifications ahead of planned interviews.
