The meeting was chaired by Barbara Ross, Community Development Administrator, Denton, Texas.

Romulus Johnson, NCDA staff liaison for Technology, provided the Committee with a regular update on the general usage of NCDAonline, as well as a numerical count of the number of member communities who receive bi-monthly editions of The Washington Report via electronic transmission as opposed to hard copy.

Barbara Richard Montgomery, Chair of the Membership Committee, announced that later in the day that body would take up the issue of amending the Association's policy concerning electronic transmission. The principal question being, whether or not to return to universal hard copy mailings to all member communities as a way to improve Association-membership relations.

In a discussion of possible improvements and changes to the website, members expressed a strong desire to see the Association use the website to disseminate educational information about the topic of predatory lending and as a resource for getting them in touch with certified lead-based paint abatement contractors in their states. Staff agreed to look into these issue and communicate with the Committee and other members about the credible progress that is made on these fronts.

The last order of business that was taken up by the Committee had to do with the Association's progress in securing paid advertisers for the website. After reporting to the Committee that staff had been unsuccessful in all their attempts to do so thus far, Romulus Johnson solicited recommendations from the Committee about what new steps could be taken and about the names of any affordable housing and community development technical assistance providers working in their communities that it would be worthwhile for the Association to approach.

Morever, a motion was introduced to authorize staff to make appropriate changes to the website to encourage advertising within the previously approved guidelines, as well as to establish a simple, low-cost introductory rate for advertisers that would generate new commitments as soon as possible. The motion was approved unanimously and without objection.

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