September 6, 2007

Committee Members Present: Rocky Martin, Bruce Wheeler, Kellie Stoll, Carl Bohlen, Dale Wernhoff.

The meeting came to order at approximately 7:10 PM.

Discussion of AHC Community Survey: Work continued on the survey. UVM survey specialist Mike Moser of the Department of Rural Studies provided some non-specific feedback on the survey draft. His main point was that the survey as written was not neutral enough and would lead the respondents. Carl didn’t see any questions that he thought were leading. Dale mentioned the survey as written is probably only leading to a survey specialist. Rocky agreed.

It was decided we would keep a simple “yes/no” format for the answers. Additionally, some questions were reworded, relocated within the survey, or deleted from it.

There was a discussion of additions to be made to the survey. Kellie wanted to know if we should add the question “Do you feel affordable housing is needed in Hinesburg?” We thought yes. Carl thought there should be a response deadline on both the survey and the cover sheet. Rocky wanted to add “I would be willing to make more housing affordable if it was made available to teachers, police, firemen, and other public servants” which is similar to the National Association of Realtors affordable housing survey question #20. Finally, we need to check with Donna to see if she has made any progress on the committee logo she had started on.

Rocky checked with the Post Office. We need to send out 2000 surveys to qualify for the town’s bulk mailing rate. Rocky is going to check on the price per letter at the bulk mailing rate so we have an idea how much this is going to cost.

Each survey will consist of a cover letter and the survey itself, whether it is mailed or distributed locally. For those surveys that are mailed we also need a regular size return envelope (without postage to keep costs down) plus an oversize outer envelope to mail everything in. The outer envelope will have a stamp of either the committee’s logo or a plea for help in filling out and returning the survey. The committee will supply all the paper products and stamps. All costs of the survey except for the printing are paid for out of the $1000 grant the committee received from the Vermont Housing Awareness Campaign. The printing costs are being donated by Kellie’s Employer, Chittenden Trust Company.

The timeline is as follows: Kellie will finalize the survey by 9/10, it will be printed by 9/20, the committee will stuff envelopes on 9/27 (and 10/4 if needed), and Rocky will get a letter in the Hinesburg Record to state the survey is available, coinciding with the mailing date of 10/10.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:55 PM.

Next Meeting –

October 4^th – Start a hypothetical project located at Alan Norris’ land on Route 116 south of the village; discuss an actual project via either a tax sale or located on the Bissonette property; discuss future speakers; discuss survey results; no speaker is planned.

Respectfully submitted

Dale Wernhoff