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Council Minutes
December 2003
10th December 2003
Minutes of Communications Committee meeting
Wednesday 10th December 2003 @ 2.00pm
CRC Boardroom
Present: Eamonn McCartan (Chair), Frances McCandless, Malachi O'Doherty, Michael Wardlow
In attendance: Ray Mullan, Jacqueline Irwin, Maurna Crozier, Linda Norney
Apologies: Robin Wilson, Mark McCann, Damien McIlroy, Duncan Morrow, Paul Jordan
(1) Minutes of meeting of 9 September were agreed
(2) Publication and Media Grant Schemes
It was confirmed by committee that a £7,000 maximum award would be available for applications under the Publications Grant Scheme.
As previously agreed (Committee meeting 9/9/03) part of the Publication Grant Scheme budget would be set aside (up to £20,000) for the publication of periodicals or published articles resulting from journalistic investigation where costs other than design and printing might be involved. The wording of the revision of the grant scheme criteria was agreed.
The Committee looked at an existing Media Grant application (for a sum requiring Committee aproval) :
03/0329 Gaslight Productions Ltd – Epilogues – a DVD
Committee raised concerns about (a) the DVD having one film source that attempts to give an objective view of the events of Bloody Sunday, and (b) how the DVD-based workshop was to be marketed and distributed. Committee believed this project to be worthwhile but would need a firm commitment that the workshops would actually take place among the sectors indicated. Committee agreed that the legal contract would specify a clawback clause of up to 50% of the grant if the workshops did not happen.
Award of up to £15,000.
(3) Communications Strategy
Committee were given a copy of CRC Communications Strategy – an outline (drafted by Robin Wilson) and Key messages for Community Relations (by Duncan Morrow).
Committee agreed they would like more time to read and digest the contents of the two papers. However they did comment on the 7 Key messages outlined and agreed that the Council needed to develop new catchphrases, slogans and key words to build up a better PR image, and promote these ideas over the next three years. Work will need to be done on this internally by staff and committee members. It was agreed that a staff paper would be presented to the committee for consideration at its next meeting.
It was suggested that the Council should do key messages and phrases “in house” with an external media facilitator.
The issue of Target Audiences was debated by Committee. It was agreed to include the private sector, Voluntary Sector and Trade Unions in the Target Audiences section.
Committee agreed on the need for more members of staff and Council, in addition to the Chief Executive, to be able to engage with the media and to speak to senior policy makers about the work of the Council. Committee also agreed on the need to employ different approaches when speaking to different target audiences. An advisor could be employed to talk to such key people to find out what they need and want from CRC.
The Chair suggested the Committee draft an indicative budget proposal for this.
Attention was drawn to the importance of CRC members being overt about their involvement with the Council. All board members have their own area of expertise and could be an authoritative voice for the Council on a range of issues. The issue of accessibility was deemed important in that council members should only be a phone call away if they are called upon.
Committee also agreed that the CR Strategy was going in the right direction and could changed/modified as required.
In reference to the Key Messages draft paper, it was stated that real progress was being made and the Council should capitalize on this. The Shared Future Conference, 27th January 2004, would be the perfect opportunity to get our new message out into the public domain, ie that we have a large CR programme up and running and we should be getting this information out. The PR aspect (previously discussed) would be helpful in formulating our message to the general public.
AOB
The Committee was informed about Community Relations Week , 2nd -8th April. This would be a very high profile event. Committee believed that this event should not just be CRC led but a Community Relations Forum, with a range of community relations organisations and a community relations agenda at the heart of it.
The next meeting of the committee would be on Wednesday 3 March at 2pm.
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