Communications Committee Minutes -- December 5, 2008
Meeting was called to order at 10:00 AM by Norm Kolb, Chair. Present were Joan Bitely, Dan Augustine, Denzil Willis, Margie Kramer, Bill Arnst and Debbie Sutton, Property Manager.
Election of Chair:
As first order of business, the floor was open for nominations for chair of this committee. Bill Arnst nominated Norm Kolb for Chairman, seconded by Joan Bitely. Nominations were closed and a vote taken showing that Norm Kolb was elected unanimously.
2, Evaluation of Armstrong Alert System used on October 31st and
November 13th 2008.
The committee thanks Jack Mounts for his six pages of documents detailing the recent history, description and evaluation of both Alert messages. The committee discussed these observations and added their own from personal experience and feedback from friends and neighbors. The Committee thought that these two Alert messages were a good first test that showed both the advantages and disad-vantages of the Alert system.
Most thought that our original recommendations for use of the Alert System did not include notification of social events. We think that a telephone Alert should only be used for an event or situation that affects all residents such as the Center being closed for more than a day or two, a water main break, a street closing, etc. (see ComCom recommendations to the FRCA BOD, Jan & Feb 2008)
We also think that the opening male voice on the recording saying “This is an important notice regarding your property (home)” can be misinterpreted by residents and result in numerous people hanging up, thereby rendering the message ineffective. We suggest the opening sentence be: “This is a Falls Run Alert message from Armstrong Management.”
The repetition of messages especially for the election reminder on November 13th definitely needs to be corrected.
Joan Bitely queried whether the Villa Board could access Connect as completely as the FRCA Board. She said that up to a few weeks ago that did not seem possible.
Discussion indicated that it was still very complicated for Villa folks to access Connect and ComCom again asks AMS to simplify this process. Dan suggested a common log-on and then a two button fix that would solve this problem. Debbie said she would discuss this with Sandra (12-08-08).
We recommend the following:
1. The Property Manager should be notified that the Alert System is being used so that she may be prepared to handle resident observations and complaints. (unfortunately this was not done for the November 13th message)
2. That only emails be used for social events and election reminders. Telephone Alerts should be used for events that affect all residents such as water main breaks and street closings or closing of the Center. Telephone alerts should be sent to the primary residence phone number, This motion was moved by Margie Kramer and seconded by Dan Augustine and passed unanimously.
3. Since Debbie Sutton was scheduled for a conference call with Sandra Profitt-Marsteller of Armstrong later that day, we asked her to pose some questions:
A) Can the opening message be changed to “This is a Falls Run Alert message from Armstrong Management”?
B) Can she arrange for only one message to be sent and allow a resident to push a button to replay the message?
C) Can only email messages be requested?
Debbie emailed at the end of the day (12-5) the answers to the above questions:
A) The opening message cannot be changed or altered, it is pre-recorded, then Sandra records our message.
NOTE: Further emails after the draft minutes were circulated among the committee indicate that most think that, if the opening recording cannot be changed, the telephone alert system will be ineffective and too confusing to use because most people will simply hang up when they hear “this is an important message about your property”.
B) Yes.
C) Yes
Norm Kolb,
Chair, Communications Committee