MEETING MINUTES
February 10, 2009
Present: Larry Field, Ted Lavash, Bill Lipchitz, Theresa Park, Anne Ruthmann, Steve Syverson, and Terry Williams.
The meeting opened at 8:35 AM.
The plan to upgrade the Downtown Lowell Blog was discussed. Bill and Anne met yesterday to further define the design and use of the site. Goals include: have the blog a center for all things downtown including information sharing and a forum for discussion of issues relating to downtown; have the site become economically viable, and add more graphics. In order to do this, we would need to find someone to coordinate/edit the site, recruit bloggers and identify outside blogs that could be syndicated to ours.
Lynne Lupien, creator of the blog “Left in Lowell”, attended the meeting at the suggestion of Anne Ruthmann to talk about her blog and ways in which the Center City Committee’s blog could be tied into a larger network. Lynne would like to change the character of her blog to one being a forum for other bloggers and organizations with an interest in Lowell. She talked about her site and how she was also planning to syndicate blogs and increase user posts. She is currently using Wordpress but is redesigning her site from the ground up with her own system. Lynne also teaches a class in blogging and one on website development at LTC. The next ones are in March.
Lynne suggested that the CCC blog change to a forum format with threads for different conversations and that the minutes of the CCC meetings could be summarized on the blog and would be linked to the actual minutes on the CCC website. Lynne suggested approaching the English Department at Middlesex Community College to see if a professor could be the point person in recruiting a student who might be interested in editing the blog. Lynne stated that the CCC needs more visibility in the City.
The new version of her blog would contain user posts. Each organization wishing to participate would have a password to make entries. Bill expressed concern about appearing to take a certain political position by contributing to her blog. Lynne said she realizes that broadening the scope of her website will change its character and would contain more points of view. Lynne also suggested that CCC members go on the WCAP John McDonough Show every two weeks or so to talk about issues they are concerned with.
The conversation then turned to news and happenings in the downtown. The Lowell Film Collaborative Food and Film program kicked off with a showing of Zorba the Greek at the Athenian Corner and it was very successful. Next up is an Italian film to be shown at Caffe Paradiso. Anne mentioned the Classic Film Night at Mickey’s Bar.
The Market Street Market is getting closer to opening its doors.
Theresa reported that this year’s Winter Fest was well-attended and a success. She also reported that the next workshop for the Best Retail Practices program would be taking place on Wednesday. This is the third round. Twenty people have signed up out of which six will continue on to use the grant program. To date the program has assisted 15 businesses.
Anne announced that the cabaret show at the Revolving Museum was opening this week. The opening reception is Thursday, February 12th from 7pm to 9pm to launch “Show and Tell, The art of the narrative” which runs from February 12th until November 29th 2009. Steve mentioned that the space for his store, located in the RM building, was up for negotiation. He said that Jerry Beck is interested in keeping the museum at the present location.
There will be no informal meeting next week due to the Presidents’ Day holiday, however the next stakeholders’ meeting will be February 24th. The Annual Meeting will take place March 31st. The types of awards to present this year needs to be discussed. Steve suggested an award for businesses that have made it through their first five years.
The meeting adjourned at 9:35 AM.
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