The SIPOA Communications Committee held its meeting at the SIPOA Administration Building Conference Room on October 16, 2015, from 10:30 AM-Noon.
The first item of business pertained to a discussion of communications during the October 2-6 weather emergency, with a focus on (a) lessons-learned re: distribution, accessibility, and timeliness of emergency information (e.g., road closures, ponding, weather) to property owners; (b) importance of updating software to be able to access timely emergency information; and (c) critical mobile traffic and weather apps to download.
The Town of Seabrook receives information from Charleston County, which is then forwarded to SIPOA for distribution to property owners via E-blasts. Given the severity of the weather emergency, SIPOA issued during the emergency three E-blasts daily. In addition, Tidelines was identified as a most useful source of real-time information, particularly as related to road conditions, as conditions changed rapidly and on-the-scene property owners often had more current information than was distributed by either the Charleston Sheriff’s office or County.
In addition, mobile apps were identified as particularly useful during the emergency: WAZE (traffic conditions); NOAA Radar (weather conditions down to street level); and Live5News (traffic and weather conditions). It is critical going forward that operational software—particularly on standalone desktops and laptops—be kept up-to-date in order to receive useful information, especially in an emergency, in a timely fashion. If software is out-of-date, HTML communications may be unreadable.
The Committee will take to the Board at its November 16 meeting for Board approval a short communications survey for property owners on lessons learned during the weather emergency. A standalone Tech Forum will be scheduled that will focus exclusively on emergency communications, and the SIPOA Communications Committee will do a brief Tech Forum teaser at the November 16 “Get the Scoop” meeting. The Tech Forum will focus on Tips and Tricks—the variety of tools that need to be monitored during an emergency ((e.g., NOAA, Live5News, WAZE, SIPOA E-Blasts, Town Website, Tidelines, and Club Communications)—and what to do to access information when electricity or Internet is down.
Next, Tidelines editors provided the following update:
Tidelines now has over 1,000 followers and recently had 12,000 views on one day. Tidelines, subject to SIPOA Communications guidelines and its internal operating policies, will publish posts on any event that would be of interest to readers, encourages civic involvement (such as the timely feedback on road conditions during the recent weather emergency), and has received positive feedback from readers and the community. Tidelines is exploring additional offerings, and Tidelines editors want to remind followers who receive posts on a fixed distribution schedule to switch to instantaneous during an emergency to receive the most up-to-date information.
Then, the Committee discussed mobile app development for 2016:
Dennis Pescitelli provided for discussion a Benedict Evans presentation regarding the rapid adoption and growing prevalence of mobile technologies, which is available online by clicking here.
The Chair outlined a mobile application wireframe proposal that would focus strictly on initial functionality for a proposed development and implementation in 2016. In addition, the Committee discussed a common format for landing pages in a mobile application that would provide a cost-effective gateway to existing Web applications and content on the Town, SIPOA, and Club sites.
Finally, the Committee discussed the following, with additional detail provided in the meeting minutes available on the property member access site:
- Communications questions for the 2016 SIPOA Strategic Planning Survey.
- Communication Committee volunteer for the Audubon International Sustainable Communities Program—Phase 2.
- Streaming video initiative highlighting Seabrook Island environment and amenities.
- Video (3 minutes) for the February 2016 Annual Meeting.
- A Unique Attributes of Seabrook Island white paper.
The next meeting of the SIPOA Communications Committee will be held on Friday, November 13, 2015, at the same time and place, to be followed in January 2016 at a date to be determined of a joint SIPOA-Seabrook Island Club Communications Committee meeting.
—Submitted by Ed Jones
The Town of Seabrook Island (“Town”), Seabrook Island Club (“Club”), and Seabrook Island Property Owners Association (“SIPOA”) over the past two years individually have invested in updating their Websites. For a variety of reasons, the Town, Club, and SIPOA now are collaborating on how they can cost-effectively harmonize the “Seabrook” look and feel of accessing information from each of these Websites. Toward that end, the entities are looking at creating a URL gateway with a set of “Seabrook” landing pages that would take a user to the appropriate site for the information sought, whether from a stationary device or a mobile smartphone or tablet. Survey respondents have informed SIPOA in its surveys that they want mobile capabilities that can be tailored to individual information and action needs and are available with minimum search. These results are consistent with US population responses and with market shifts in hardware and software offerings. In short, the nation is moving from email to text, from stationary to mobile devices, and from Website search to one-touch app to access desired information and to execute actions. This will accelerate in the next two years as one-touch biometric authentication makes such access and actions even easier. From a marketing standpoint, and from lessons-learned in the emergency response requirements and needs from the early October flood and late October King Tides that impacted Seabrook Island access and property owners, the Town, Club, and SIPOA have to address information accessibility requirements using a variety of sources that meet the diverse needs of property owners on the go. For example, with regard to the October weather conditions, the real-time crowd-sourced app WAZE and the continuously undated NOAA radar app were particularly valuable for property owner residents on the go. Accordingly, SIPOA’s Communications Committee has addressed these needs and is proposing initial app development in the 2016 budget, focusing first on IOS which has Apple hardware and software conformity, making it more cost-effective than Android applications, which use a variety of hardware devices for the Android operating system. Property owners overwhelmingly in survey have told the Committee that in initial application they want easy mobile access to initiate visitor pass and to get emergency alerts. Given your interest as a “technology professional,” I would ask you to consider participating in the SIPOA Communications Committee in 2016. A volunteer sheet accompanies the February 2016 SIPOA Annual Meeting materials. Ed Jones, Chair, SIPOA Communications Committee.