Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Business Outreach topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Olivette City EDC hears low turnout but maps outreach after business survey yields 21 responses
Summary
Olivette City’s Economic Development Commission reviewed a business outreach survey that has received 21 responses so far, discussed simplifying the form and targeted in‑person distribution by retail center, and agreed to promote a target response window via the city newsletter and email blasts.
Dawn Doty, senior planner for Olivette City, told the Economic Development Commission that the digital business survey has produced 21 responses so far (about 6% of local businesses) and showed a map of respondent locations.
The presentation, delivered at the commission’s April meeting, explained the survey format (a QR code handout and a mobile form) and highlighted analysts’ concerns: the current form concatenates answers in a way that makes parsing qualifications and matching comments to specific businesses difficult. “We’ve had 21 responses,” Doty said, “and I didn’t produce them for this meeting — I’ll email the list after the meeting so volunteers don’t duplicate outreach.”
Commissioners discussed tactics to boost participation, including simplifying the nomination or qualification fields, relying more on verbatim comments instead of multiple‑choice checkboxes, and using the city’s June newsletter or an email blast to create a target submission date. Several commissioners suggested in‑person follow‑up: volunteers would deliver cards to retail centers during quieter hours so staff or managers could fill out the survey on site.
Doty said the survey would remain open but that staff would encourage responses before a promotional deadline tied to the newsletter cycle so results could be included in mid‑year messaging. The commission agreed to divide outreach responsibilities geographically and asked Doty to circulate the list of 21 responders and a vetted target list of businesses for volunteers.
Next steps: staff will email the respondent list and send a prioritization note about outreach timing; commissioners agreed to continue promoting the survey and to discuss results at the next working session of the commission.
