Andrea Montgomery, Redbrick Communications made a presentation regarding the proposed Township of Huron-Kinloss Engagement Strategy - Priorities and Action Plan. Ms. Montgomery explained that effective communication and engagement go hand and hand and helps to build stronger trust and a respectful relationship with the public.
She outlined the list of engagement principles that include having informed and empowered staff, the expectation of respect, transparency and trust, open access to information, inclusion, feedback loop, and continuous improvement. She reviewed the benefits of effective engagement, methodology, and the input process.
A question was posed regarding the current practices that include Have your Say HK, all meetings are public and online. She explained that Huron Kinloss is not doing a bad job this engagement strategy is a way to do better. She explained that people's lives are busy and they do not have the time to read everything, they prefer a short scan "headline or highlights".
Ms. Montgomery reviewed some best practices that include making engagement a priority, leadership to set the stage and expectations, humanizing staff in the community, making it easy for the community to have a voice, level of engagement adjusted based on the level of impact, include a mix of formal and informal touchpoints, consistently report back.
The Top priorities for Huron-Kinloss include:
1. Obtain Council buy-in for the Engagement Framework, Toolkit, and Recommendations
2. Communicate a clear vision and expectation for both internal and external community engagement
3. Ensure Council, leadership, and staff across the organization are aware of the engagement framework and toolkit
4. Increase competency in all departments
5. Set up a planning system to better anticipate engagement needs.
She outlined a proposed phased action and implementation plan:
Phase 1: Lay the Foundation
Phase 2: Build competency efficiency
Phase 3: Increase community touchpoints/visibility
Comments were made regarding the need for two-way communications and dealing with negative public comments, the need to do better, and the understanding that there are different groups that engage differently.
A question was posed regarding the timeline to roll out. Staff commented that the intent is over the next 2-3 years.