Communications & Intergovernmental Affairs

Bruce Smith

What We Do…

Our Communications and Intergovernmental Affairs office is responsible for all internal and external communications to provide consistent and open information for citizens of the Central Okanagan and beyond. We maintain and manage the Regional District website www.regionaldistrict.com, the My Dog Matters program website (www.mydogmatters.ca) and oversee communication through the corporate Facebook page (www.facebook.com/regionaldistrict), the RDCO YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/regionaldistrict and Instagram page www.instagram.com/rdco.cord.

We maintain oversight and responsibility for advertising on behalf of the Regional District, printed publications and production of the Annual Review. We also provide media relations assistance, produce news releases and Public Service Announcements and answer inquiries from media.

2017 Highlights

¢ Prepared and distributed more than 174 news releases and public service announcements for programs and services provided by all areas of the Regional District.

¢ Assisted with Public Information area during Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) activations for spring/summer flooding, Truswell Road fire and Okanagan Centre, Philpott Road and Finlay Creek wildfires. Cinnabar Creek and Bear Creek wildfires. A total of 188 news releases were produced via the www.cordemergency.ca website (including 140 floodrelated releases) and additional information shared via the EOC Twitter and Facebook social media channels.

¢ Coordinated creation and development, edited and distributed 2016 Annual Review

¢ Began coordination and development of a 2007-2017 update publication celebrating the Regional District’s 50th anniversary

¢ More than 3,200 media stories, interviews and contacts were made during the year highlighting RDCO programs and services.

¢ Provide ongoing updates for the new MyDogMatters. ca program website with more than 50 participating businesses.

¢ Produced two Water Talk newsletters which were distributed during the Spring and Fall to customers of the six RDCO water systems updating expansion plans and projects while encouraging conservation.

¢ Created and distributed 33 news releases affecting various RDCO water systems to local media, neighborhood groups and to email subscribers.

¢ Maintained and updated the Corporate www.regionaldistrict. com website more than 1,700 times. The website had more than 125,000 visitors viewing 375,000 pages.

¢ Created and recorded 13 updates to the public message heard by callers placed on hold when they phone the Regional District.