Rotonda West Association, Inc.
Community Relations Committee
Minutes
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Present: Earl Haas (Chair.), Sue Artz, John Forster, Ken Hirsch and Nick Gizzi (Ex-Officio)

Absent: Don Mahon, Dave Pulaski, Wayne Mengle, Robin Hendricks and Linda Harrison

Management: Dianne Brophy, Secretary and Jay Lyons Office Manager

Other Members: Claudette Romano, Nick Gizzi, John Carroll and Bob Bondeson

The Minutes were approved as corrected.

Earl Haas asked if there is any Old Business to discuss. John Forster said the Five Year Plan should be on the top of the agenda for next month. Earl said Don Mahon sent a letter to Buffalo Graphics to ask if 5% per year increase would be a good number to go by. Don did not receive a reply before he left for vacation. Secretary Brophy said there will be an increase in postage on May 12, 2008. Chairman Haas asked how will we know when it is going to increase. John Forster asked should money be included into the budget for the meetings that we will have 3 times per year. Jay Lyons asked the Community Meetings? John Forster said yes. Jay Lyons said monies should be included in the budget for those meetings. Discussion followed on Community Meetings and Neighborhood Watch and other committees wanting to be part of that meeting.

John Forster said there should be a comment in the West Ways as to the cost of maintaining the website. John said there was a statement made as to the exorbitant cost of maintenance to this site. Jay Lyons said this brings up an interesting question regarding finances. We should have An Issue of the Month in West Ways. People are under a false impression of the costs associated with running Rotonda West. A perfect example is the cost of maintaining the website per year. The cost is currently $6.95 for domain registration and $83.40 a year for hosting. Therefore, the total annual cost is $90.35.

Jay Lyons talked about a County Rumor Control Hotline. Discussion followed if Rotonda West should have something of this type in the West Ways. Earl Haas said the office would receive the calls on rumors and bring them to this committee to decide which ones should go into West Ways. Discussion followed on what to call the column. Secretary Brophy asked how many hits per day are there on rotondawest.org web site? Ken Hirsch said 50 to 100. Ken Hirsch said keep the question of the month brief.

John Forster said he spoke with Pete Traverso about having the developer explain his position in Rotonda West, Inc., what the future is for Rotonda West and what his function is within Rotonda West, Inc. Pete Traverso said that was a good idea and he would talk to the developer. The developer would look the article over and approve it before it was submitted to West Ways. John Forster said he would like the article regarding the developer to be a very positive one.

Earl Haas gave the schedule for West Ways. The final article and photo deadline is April 7, the board will review the West Way from April 14 to the 16, production will be from April 16 to April 25 and the target mailing date will be April 30th. There will not be a Jay Lyons follow up.

The meeting adjourned at 3:58 pm.

Next meeting will be May 7, 2008, at 3:00 pm.

Dianne Brophy,
Secretary