Communications Working Group

Minutes of the meeting on Tuesday 25th February 2003 at English Nature, Devon House, Dartmouth Street.

Present:
Rachel Cook. English Nature - Conservation Officer (London area)
Anne Homyer (Chair). BTCV - London Biodiversity Project Officer
William Moreno -LBP Project Officer
Claire Percy. London Wildlife Trust - Wildlife Watch Officer
Jenny Stratford. Thames Estuary Partnership - Education & Communications Officer
Adrian Thomas. RSPB - Media Officer
Helen Firminger London Wildlife Trust - Chair of Private Garden HAP Working group

1. LBP Website review Will has been working with James Farrell and a professional web designer on the development of the LBP website. There is a volunteer working with Will for two days a week who will be working on cutting down the text on the website. The group fed comments back to Will on the draft site map e.g. it is a good idea to stick to the '3 or 4 clicks of the mouse to get to where you want' rule. It was suggested that the LBP website could be entered in a competition once the improvements have been made (like the Black Redstarts website which won an award). The group talked about having a long term strategy for the website, which could form part of an overall communications strategy for the Partnership.

2. Londoners Wildlife Gardening Day Helen briefed the group on the Private Garden HAP working group's plans for this event on 29th June at the Natural History Musuem. The Day will include a conference for 120 ticketed people, and a fair open to the public with stalls and family activities. The aim of the Conference is to encourage existing wildlife gardeners and to empower them to get others involved, and to talk to each other. The Day could be a great opportunity to promote the Partnership and all the work that is being carried out across all partners and action plans. The group provided comments on the draft flier. Helen showed the group London Wildlife Trust's Wildlife Gardening Pack which is available for other organisations to photocopy, buy or reproduce with their own logo and contact details in addition to London Wildlife Trust's. Appendix 2 gives details of how to get hold of copies.

3. Feedback from December training workshops Anne will be putting together a list of relevant actions for the Communications Working Group that came out the Lead Partner workshops in December. This will be distributed to lead partners.

4. LBP Annual Report and Launch William distributed updates already gathered and informed the group he will be collating further information, including text and images, from Leads over the next few weeks. He noted his intention to ensure continuity of design and progress updates with last years publication. It was agreed that William will develop a first draft and if considered the most appropriate way forward, this will be circulated to Anne and Adrian for comment. A final draft will be circulated to the rest of the group.

5. Mistletoe SAP publicity (Not discussed)

6. English Nature London Edition of Patchwork Rachel asked the group for further LBP related events to be included in Patchwork. William provided details of Heron Day.

7. AOB It was agreed an events calendar should be finalised and posted on the website. There were discussions over the possibility of producing a London Biodiversity poster, drawing attention to biodiversity issues in the capital and the work of the LBP. This could be developed and launched in parallel to the Annual Report. William agreed to explore whether a budget would be available for this.

8. Date of next meeting
Tuesday 8th April, 2.30 - 4.30 Venue to be decided

Appendix 1

Summary of Actions from meeting 25th February 2003

Funding

Need to make sure that there is a pot of money for the LBAP in the funding strategy that Jan H at GLA is putting together for future.

Poster

General public orientated poster from the Partnership illustrating the wealth of biodiversity in London. Could have a montage of all the HAPs / SAPs on one side and a visual eye catching thing on there other, to give out at events (national) and send out to public. William to find out if there is funding for this from the annual report pot. Rachel to send William a copy of the Fed of City Farms and Community Gardens leaflet.

Londoners' Wildlife Gardening Day

Comment on press releases as and when. Claire Percy to send a copy of the "guidance on when to mention about LPG etc" to Helen to pass on to NHM etc to be incorporated into press releases. Publicise in any mags that can.

Press and Publicity Guidelines

Rachel to come up with a step by step press release guide (incorporating that which was given out at the December training event) to address "how to target key audiences" and with several case studies to go on website and be sent out with William's monthly updates to the Partnership. Will circulate to rest of group for comments first. The old document should come off the web.

Monthly Updates

William to send out a monthly email letting the partnership (email group shouldn't just be leads, should be partnership board as well) know about progress and events, changes to the web..

Communications Group email to Partnership

Anne to email leads etc informing them of how the Comms Group responded to the actions arising from the training workshop in December and future projects for us working on (?)

Terms of Ref

Anne to hunt out any previously written. If not, group to come up with some to go on the Internet and inform future working.

Minutes from Comms Group Meetings

To go on the Internet

Website revamp

Rachel to get copies of the information that was obtained for EN's website (if I can give out). William to discuss with project board the long-term revamp of website with a phrased approach

Press Calendar

Group to finalise and add to calendar that Anne has put together and put a edited version of it on the Partnerships' website. This could feed into a Communications Strategy for the LBAPAnne - could you circulate the table you have done, please? Rachel to ask Pete and Alex for publicity / events info for the table (no news on the Reptiles SAP, I am afraid)

Communications Strategy for Group

Rachel to look at other Communications Strategies to see if we can adapt framework; will talk to Pete Massini about whether this has been mooted before.

Annual Report Launch

William has requested an editorial group to assist with this…

Future Meetings

Next meeting 2:30 - 4:30 at BTCV on 8th April. Will try to have another one before the Annual Report launch

Rachel Cook 25/02/03

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