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Item No: 04 <br />Meeting Date: March 6, 2017 <br />Type of Business: Work Session <br />City Administrator Review: ________ <br /> <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: Vanessa Van Alstine, Cable Television Coordinator <br />Item Title/Subject: Mounds View Matters Newsletter Discussion <br /> <br /> <br />Introduction: <br /> <br />City staff is requesting City Council discussion and direction about delivery option for the city <br />newsletter, Mounds View Matters. <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />In November 2015, former Community Program Director Nate Danielson proposed moving the <br />publication schedule of the Mounds View Matters city newsletter ahead one month. The timing of the <br />quarterly issues did not match well with the YMCA programming cycles. Mounds View was about a <br />month behind other local city recreation facilities in program information and registrations, putting <br />them at a competitive disadvantage. Staff discussed possible publication schedule changes, but <br />decided not to make a change at that point. In September 2016, Danielson proposed removing the <br />YMCA/Community Center section from the newsletter and instead working to produce a separate <br />recreation guide with assistance from YMCA marketing. <br /> <br />Per Ordinance 800 (Chapter 12 of the City Charter - Section 12.13), the City of Mounds View must <br />publish a newsletter four times a year. Each non-commercial postal delivery address within Mounds <br />View must receive the newsletter. Nystrom Publishing has been the printer of Mounds View Matters <br />since 1998. The newsletter was hand-delivered using the Sun Focus route until 2011. At the <br />December 13, 2010, City Council meeting, Resolution 7714 approved direct mailing of the City <br />newsletter starting with the Spring 2011 issue. <br /> <br />Discussion: <br /> <br />The proposal to split the recreation guide from the City portion of the newsletter provides an <br />opportunity to reevaluation the design, content, length and distribution of the Mounds View Matters. <br />Staff discussion led to a concept of an 8 or 12 page, full-color, full-bleed, glossy booklet with direct <br />inkjet addressing using standard USPS mail rates. An initial RFP was sent to four printers to see if a <br />format change would be affordable. Quotes ranges from $2763.27 to $3736.25 for 5700 copies of <br />an 8-page newsletter. Some of the variability can be attributed to vague specifications, but the <br />numbers provided proof of concept to bring the matter to the City Council for direction. <br /> <br />Below and on the next pages are some of the decisions to be made. <br /> <br />1. Split recreation guide from City portion of Mounds View Matters. The YMCA continues to support <br />pulling recreation and program information from the newsletter. This would allow them to work more <br />closely with the YMCA marketing resources and match the timing and frequency of mailings to <br />program and registration dates. The YMCA could also target mailings to different demographics, for <br />example families with children for youth summer camp versus active older adult offerings. The