DHRC Minutes

DOVER HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION The Dover Human Relations Commission (DHRC) met on January 17, 2024, at 6:10 p.m. with Chairman Gaddis presiding. Members present were Mr. Fleming, Ms. White, Ms. Hall, Mr. Lott, and Mr. Simmons. Ms. Mullen and Ms. Paige were absent. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Mr. Fleming moved for approval of the agenda, seconded by Mr. Lott and unanimously carried. (Mullen, Paige absent) ADOPTION OF MINUTES Mr. Lott moved for adoption of the minutes of the Dover Human Relations Commission Meeting of December 19, 2023. The motion was seconded by Mr. Simmons and unanimously carried. (Mullen, Paige absent) OLD BUSINESS Discussion – Objectives Mr. Gaddis discussed the objectives of the Strategic Plan 2020-2023 with the DHRC members. Responding to Mr. Gaddis, Mr. Lott stated that when the committees are formed, they do not have to meet in Council Chambers. Responding to Mr. Lott, Mr. Gaddis agreed with him regarding committees not having to meet in Council Chambers. Mr. Gaddis stated that Mr. Fleming and himself have worked on DHRC committees together before and have met outside of City Hall. Mr. Gaddis explained that they brought everything to the commission, and voted on it, and that is how they ended up with what they have now. Responding to Mr. Lott, Mr. Fleming stated that it has been so long since the public has heard anything about the Dover Human Relations Commission. He suggested that the first thing that they might want to do is have a piece in the newspaper, something that describes what the Human Relation Commission is, who the members are, and which district they have been appointed to represent. Mr. Fleming suspects that if they stopped and asked 15 people, what does the Dover Human Relation Commission do or who their representative is, they would not know. Most residents do not even know which district they live in. Mr. Fleming stated that if they could have a brand new introduction of the DHRC in the newspaper or however they can promote it, that would be a start. If they were to give residents an intake form, they would not know what to do with it, and residents are not even sure why the DHRC is there. He is upset with himself because he has a list of all of the accomplishments that they have done in the past. DHRC used to do all kinds of things, but he thinks that the first thing they need to do is to get themselves back out in the community. Responding to Mr. Fleming and Mr. Lott, Mr. Gaddis stated that he would be surprised if more than 30% of the population even knew that the DHRC existed. Mr. Gaddis also stated that back in 2019 they had a basic training session but only three (3) of them could attend the session on

DOVER HUMAN RELATIONS MEETING OF JANUARY 17, 2024 PAGE 2 the topic of mediation. It was impressed upon them that mediation is not an easy situation. It is not an easy process to handle and deal with. Mr. Gaddis explained that as a retired schoolteacher from New Jersey, they ran into some real problems when they had kids interacting badly with staff or their peers. It is not easy to try to improve the situation without somebody who knows more than he does as far as that type of situation is concerned. If they are looking at the next mission components, should they stay within that group for a period of time. It might be a good way of just getting the DHRC to start or get the word out. Responding to Mr. Gaddis, Mr. Fleming stated that the Delaware State News only comes out on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday in their mailbox. They use the postal service to deliver them, and readership has dropped significantly but it would be a start. Responding to Mr. Fleming, Ms. Hall stated that the Dover Post is still delivered. Ms. Hall continued to state that people who have online subscriptions would be able to see it. Ms. Hall suggested using social media platforms as well so that there is availability to get the message out that the DHRC exists and how to interact. So if that means that they have to migrate to an online presence, then they need to figure out how to do that. Responding to Ms. Hall, Mr. Simmons stated that this was his first meeting for the DHRC, and he was just taking everything in. Mr. Simmons continued to state that he believes Ms. Hall really resonates with him. He works at Kent County, and they just started a community engagement section, and they have done some extensive studies within the past three (3) months. He gets most of his news updates on his phone and he has been a resident of the City of Dover for 35 years. He pays his bills and interacts with the city via electronics. Mr. Simmons noted that they need to look at different ways to reach their target audience. Mr. Simmons explained that a large part of the population is senior citizens, but he also thinks that there are a lot of issues when it comes to residents in their thirties down to preschool age. Mr. Simmons does not believe that there is a lot of conflict in nursing homes, senior centers, or Modern Maturity. The police are going to Dover High School, Central Middle School, the playgrounds, and the parks. That is where the DHRC mindset should be focused. It is a different time and a different audience. Sometimes it is hard to see through their lenses but that is the barrier that they have to hide. Mr. Simmons noted that they need to think of how to get the young people involved and mentor them, like a junior member. Mr. Simmons stated that back in his day when they had bad beef on the playground or at school, that is where they kept it but now with social media, it can be anything that they are beefing over. Responding to Mr. Simmons, Mr. Lott suggested having a younger person be a part of the committee for publicity and to help get the word out. Responding to Mr. Lott, Ms. Hall stated that she believes in order to get that accomplished, they would have to have to pay somebody to do that. Very few people will volunteer their services because of upkeep and maintenance of regular interaction in order to have a robust presence on social media, it calls for multiple postings, on a regular consistent basis to establish a followership. Social media is in her wheelhouse, and she would be happy to take on getting a Facebook page, Instagram, or some kind of presence established for DHRC. They may be able to incentivize some of the younger people to help with managing those pages, such as giving them some community service hours. Ms. Hall knows that there are a lot of young people who need that for their college applications and resumes. They might be able to look at some folks

DOVER HUMAN RELATIONS MEETING OF JANUARY 17, 2024 PAGE 3 that are wanting to do Mass Communication, even at the collegiate level at DelState. Ms. Hall noted that she does recognize the power of social media and thinks that if they leverage that then they could effectively message and target demographics for very low dollar amounts. Ms. Hall stated that even if they had to pay it out of their budget to push some sort of an advertisement out to social media. Ms. Hall continued stating that they can target Facebook and that it has interactions through their meta suite to where it can add multiple touch points. So that same piece that you target on Facebook can go through Instagram and other social media outlets. She does not think that it would necessarily be an expensive thing. As she said before, she would be willing to spearhead putting together a presentation of how they could accomplish that at a very low dollar amount. Mr. Fleming moved to explore outreach through social media. The motion was seconded by Mr. Lott and unanimously carried. (Mullen, Paige absent) Mr. Gaddis suggested getting in touch with someone in the high school who is familiar with students who have talent in technology. Ms. White stated that there have always been news people in the audience with Delaware State News. Dover Post News Journal has also come to meetings before at City Hall. She believes that inviting them down would be a good idea, especially if it is a young journalist. Ms. White thinks that if they can get a journalist to come then they can touch base on what everyone is speaking about in regard to the schools. Ms. White reminded the members to never exclude the seniors because they are basically the backbone. Once they do that then there is a lot that the seniors can help with also. The younger generation looks up to the seniors. There are a lot of young and elderly people in the church, and everyone is not familiar with nor has access to social media. Responding to Ms. White, Ms. Hall stated that she was only suggesting that they have multiple touch points, so they do not necessarily think that the only capabilities that they have are newspapers. Responding to Ms. Hall, Ms. White stated that they were just discussing different suggestions but that they are connected with multiple broadcasting channels. She truly believes that they would love to know what is going on in Delaware. Ms. White asked them not to forget the seniors because they may not have access to a lot of things, nor are privileged to understand technology but they are workers. Discussion - Intake Form revisions and locations There was no discussion. Discussion - Strategic Plan 2020-2023 There was no discussion. NEW BUSINESS There was no discussion. ADJOURNMENT BY 7:00 P.M. Ms. White moved for adjournment, seconded by Mr. Lott, and unanimously carried.

DOVER HUMAN RELATIONS MEETING OF JANUARY 17, 2024 PAGE 4 Meeting adjourned at 6:53 p.m. Alan P. Gaddis Chair APG/aw