Communications Services

The vendor required to provide communications, public relations, and digital content support.
- Project management and coordination
•    Participate in weekly coordination meetings with the director of communications (typically 1–2 hours per week) to review priorities, assignments, timelines, and approvals. 
•    Provide brief weekly status updates identifying completed work, work in progress, upcoming deadlines, and items requiring village input and approval. 
•    Coordinate with relevant village departments and staff to gather information, confirm facts, and align messaging.
- Podcast services (monthly content + post-production publication + promotion)
1. Pre-production: monthly content development
•    Develop a monthly episode plan with the director of communications (topics, objectives, target audience, key messages).
•    Prepare episode outlines and run-of-show documents, including segment structure and approximate timing. 
•    Draft scripts and talking points for hosts and village participants, including:
o    Opening and closing language 
o    Segment transitions 
o    Interview questions and follow-ups 
o    Key message prompts and approved language for sensitive topics (as applicable)
•    Prepare a monthly production timeline with milestones for topic selection, script approval, guest coordination, recording date, and internal review and approval.
•    Create guest and participant briefing materials as requested.
2. Post-production: publication, hosting, distribution, and platform support
•    Perform basic pre-release checks (file naming, format compatibility, titles, metadata consistency). 
•    Upload and publish episodes to the village’s podcast hosting platform, including episode titles, descriptions and show notes, tags and keywords, episode numbering, and scheduling. 
•    Manage and confirm distribution to major podcast platforms (as applicable) and troubleshoot posting and listing issues, including RSS feed issues, artwork and metadata problems, and platform-specific requirements. 
•    Maintain an episode archive log (release date, topic, links, and assets used) and coordinate updates and corrections if needed.
3. Post-production: promotion and advertising
•    Draft and coordinate promotional materials for each episode, including:
o    Website post copy (and homepage callouts as requested)
o    Community e-blast copy and subject line options
o    Social media captions (platform-appropriate variations)
o    Suggested graphics, audiogram and video clip guidance (village may produce assets in-house or via vendor)
•    Coordinate paid promotion and advertising when authorized by the village, including:
o    Recommended audience targeting, budget ranges, flight dates
o    Ad copy variations and creative specs
o    Basic performance summaries (e.g., reach, clicks, engagement)
- Website support (design assistance + content review + copy writing)
•    Provide website design assistance (as needed) in coordination with the village’s website platform and vendor, including review of layouts, page templates, navigation, and usability. 
•    Review content to be migrated and provide recommendations to update, consolidate, archive, or remove outdated content. 
•    Assist in reviewing and drafting content for the new website, ensuring clarity, consistency, accessibility, and alignment with village voice. 
•    Assist in creating a visual display and presentation of the new website for internal stakeholders and public rollout (e.g., screenshots, slide deck, “what’s new” overview, launch messaging).
- Public relations and media support (on-call)
•    Provide on-call public relations services, including media strategy and guidance on messaging and public response. 
•    Prepare and review press releases and public statements, including key message documents and spokesperson talking points, as requested. 
•    Support response to media inquiries as directed by the village.
- Newsletter and community e-blasts
•    Review the village’s monthly newsletter for clarity, structure, readability, consistency, and accuracy. 
•    Prepare and review community e-blasts, including subject line options, formatting recommendations, and clear calls-to-action. 
•    Help ensure consistency across the newsletter, e-blasts, website content, and podcast promotion (voice, terminology, and branding standards).
- Crisis communications and public emergency support (on-call)
•    Provide on-call crisis public relations services during emergencies and time-sensitive events.
•    Work with the director of communications and village staff to develop protocols during a public emergency, including roles, approvals, message templates, and coordination procedures. 
•    Assist the village with communications during a public emergency, including drafting urgent updates for web, email, social media, and media statements as requested. 
•    Assist the village with messaging during difficult local circumstances, ensuring communications are sensitive, accurate, and aligned with village leadership guidance.

- Contract Period/Term: 1 year