By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Ocean Pines Association’s Strategic Planning Committee is seeking to enhance membership communication through a regular article or an updated webpage, informing the community about ongoing activities and initiatives that have been most frequently mentioned in recent surveys.

OPA’s strategic planning group met late last month, where they brainstormed how to best communicate to residents that projects referenced in feedback-gathering efforts collected earlier this year have been heard, and if and how they are being prioritized by OPA staff.

Rob Keesling, chair of the strategic planning group, said his team and the OPA’s Communications Committee have been working together on a possible outlet to inform Ocean Pines homeowners about how their concerns are being addressed. Communications Committee member Connie Corbett attended the strategic planning team’s meeting, where she presented her idea of publicizing survey outlets via the quarterly newsletter, a regularly published article, or a constantly updated webpage. The survey findings will be accompanied by an explanation of how the association is handling the feedback.

“We have an opportunity with the survey to match the statistics with specific actions that have been taken,” Corbett said. “The improvements, the outcome. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the amenities being self-sustaining and generating a net profit. If we can marry that action and impact with the survey, what we have is an opportunity for a branding campaign to describe that we hear you, we have your input, and we have a strategic plan.”

Corbett noted the strategic plan is available on the Ocean Pines official website and aligns with OPA General Manager John Viola’s monthly recaps of new and ongoing initiatives, such as the new racquet center and bocce ball courts; however, the webpage is seldom updated.

“We could match up the survey results with the corresponding strategy and show how the departments are aligned to support and address these various issues,” Corbett added.

This information could be compiled into an article that the association publishes regularly or promoted on the community’s social media channels. Corbett noted that these reports could be divided into “snackable content,” in which a few items, expressed as priorities by homeowners, such as safety and infrastructure, are bundled together. The communications committee member added that these promotional or “campaign” materials would likely be an ongoing occurrence.

“I use the word campaign because I don’t think this is a one-time article where you contact a reporter and get it in a newspaper and be done,” she said. “I feel like there is a theme, if you will. A campaign is eternal. We can take small pieces of the survey, of the actions, the progress that [Viola] reports to the board, and develop snackable content so we can promote that in various ways, whether that’s social media, or it’s mentioned at the board meeting. He’s connecting his team’s results with what the community has said.”

Corbett said that this information could also be incorporated into OPA’s quarterly mailings or could be used to create a strategic plan progress report on OPA’s website.

Additionally, according to Corbett, these updates about the community-wide efforts could quell negative social media comments. If people are unaware of an upcoming update to an aging building, they are more likely to take to Facebook to comment on its disrepair.

“Not everything is perfect,” Corbett said. “You won’t find a perfect community, and I don’t want us to be concerned with trying to debate or deflect any of the negative comments. Those are going to come. But I think if we can create an understanding of what is happening out there, that is the power of a survey. That way people feel like they’re heard, they’re seeing action, and they’ll have more of a positive outlook on the community.”

Keesling added that a key step in updating the community’s strategic plan efforts is strengthening the synergy of the advisory committees.  The committee chair stated that maintaining constant communication among the groups is vital in avoiding overlapping project conversations, ensuring each team spends its time as productively as possible.

“This might be another way to say, this is what the survey says about pools, let’s go talk to aquatics,” he said. “Or, let’s go talk to Parks and Rec. What actions are they taking? What are the advisory committees at large reporting on what they’re doing and what they have going forward? And doing it regularly.”

The strategic planning team’s next step will be to accumulate survey feedback, research the steps being taken by advisory committees and staff to address membership concerns, and confirm progress with Viola, Keesling said. The effort will be ongoing, with updates occurring often.

The strategic planning and communications committees hope that the initiative will inform OPA residents on upcoming and tabled projects. A regularly updated report card, Corbett said, can also help keep citizens in the know on when necessary endeavors  are taking place. For instance, she noted that maintaining a schedule of road paving can ease homeowner worries.

“I think it’s important to use all of our communication outlets to continue to remind people what they said, and here’s the progress and giving them a resource to go to,” she said. “Like when people’s roads are scheduled to be paved. So, people are now empowered. They have that information.”