Welcome

Welcome to the Napa Workforce Investment Board - Executive Director's Blog. I'm Bruce Wilson and I serve as the Director of the Workforce Investment Board. The purpose of this blog is quite simply to serve as a communication tool. A tool to keep various workforce development stakeholders and particularly the general public informed on the various discussions and activities that are taking place on behalf of the workforce needs of Napa County. There will be absolutely no formality to the information provided here, but rather I will try to simply capture the latest workforce news and debates from my perspective. The Blog is open to all interested parties. I particularly invite the public to participate, either by writing responses and comments to the blogs posted or, by writing your very own blog entry. If you need help getting started, please don't hesitate to call me at (707) 259-8679.

Very Sincerely,

Bruce Wilson

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Marketing Committee Meeting 7-16-07

The WIB's Marketing and Outreach Committee held its July meeting on Monday evening, July 17th. The committee is in some degree of transition due to some board member changes (i.e. Sandy Cooper moving to the Executive Committee) and some inconsistent attendance. At this meeting we had an avergage turnout. Three of the five members partipated including Mike Scully, Beth Pratt and Mary Ann Mancuso.

Some of the items discussed included:
  1. The disconnect between the WIB brand and the Job Connection brand. A board member and partner had approached me earlier to discuss her desire to re-evaluate how we link the two in the eyes of the community. There was some degree of hesitation by the committee to make any recommendations in this area at this time. The group simply did not feel prepared or qualified enough to move forward in this area. I expect that this issue is a large one with many significant positive and potentially negative outcomes attached to it. I may recommend that we employ a strategic marketing firm to look at.
  2. The planned Job Connection Open House. I had recommended to the committee that due to the fact that the WIB & Job Connection were in the middle of a reorganization, and the stalled progress of the EDD move to 1850 Soscol, that we should postpone the open house until possibly Spring. I think Spring would be a perfect time to conduct an open house for a number of reasons. First, it would give us more time to plan it; second, we may have more information about EDD's status; and third, we will likely have a few workforce reports published by then.
  3. Is Job Connection seen as a welfare program? One of our committee members/partners stated that Job Connection has become synonomous with welfare programs for the County. We all agreed that if this were the case, we have a big challenge in front of us. I reminded the group of the vast amount of employer services that we have available for businesses. We will have to do more to promote business services! Having a full time "Business Services Coordinator" will no doubt help us overcome this perception if it is indeed true.
  4. Communication - The group agreed that communication among board members, partners and the public was not good at all. We simply must find the tools, time and resources to ensure that board members know of all the activities and initiatives that are moving forward based on their discussions. I am certainly frustrated to hear board members complain about not knowing enough about what is going on but I will consider it a challenge. This blog is one tool that we will use to keep members updated. Beth Pratt also suggested using a tool called "Constant Contact". I will look into it.

In sum, we have a lot of work to do on the marketing and outreach front. On the one hand, we must wait until we complete our reorganization and get some successes under our belt before we market to the community. On the other hand, we must move immediately to find ways to keep board members abreast of all their good work. More later..

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