Rossmoor task force considers next steps for ‘most important task’

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Wednesday, March 19 (8:30 a.m.): Dwight Walker said launching a website that effectively markets Rossmoor Walnut Creek is the Marketing Task Force’s biggest and most important job, and that the work toward that end has only just begun.

“This is a monumental task, but it is the most important task of this group, in my opinion,” said Walker, chair of this task force, at its March 10 meeting.

There, the work continued, as Rossmoor Director of Communications Ann Peterson discussed the pros and cons of marketing websites operated by 14 other active adult communities around the U.S. (including Laguna Woods Village in Southern California, a former Leisure World property organized much like Rossmoor).

Some of these websites rely heavily on photos, videos and other visuals; others analyzed are more copy-centric. All have slightly differing emphases, and Peterson and fellow task force members Mike Kuller and Linda Register encouraged their colleagues to consider what qualities they believe will be most useful as part of this new marketing website.

Register said the new website should emphasize Rossmoor’s lifestyle; Kathleen Schaub said it’s crucial that the new site clearly explain what Rossmoor is. Peterson said that task may be a challenge, with its various components (Rossmoor, Golden Rain Foundation, Mutual Operations Division, etc.) sometimes confusing, especially for prospective buyers not familiar with Rossmoor.

One of this task force’s charges is to help simplify and de-mystify those various components.

“It’s not easy to explain Rossmoor,” Peterson said.

Task force member Ted Bentley said Rossmoor Walnut Creek (as this community has been officially re-branded) should look first to emulate the website operated by the community most like Rossmoor, likely Laguna Woods Village. Several task force members said they favor making a virtual tour of Rossmoor easily accessible – something the Laguna Woods Village website features prominently on its homepage.

Task force members said they understand that creating this website is a major undertaking. Peterson said it likely will be a six-month or longer process, and the GRF Board has already approved spending $100,000 to create this website as part of the 2025 capital budget related to the new NetSuite implementation.

Rossmoor Walnut Creek also could use some fortified social media presence, as well, said two UC Berkeley Haas School of Business student fellows who have been working with the task force. One of them, Pranjali Valdaputi, said Rossmoor’s current social media presence “is fairly minimal.” Currently, she said, there is no social media strategy to attract prospective residents or employees.

Valdaputi told the task force that a “high-effort” campaign would be to give Rossmoor an ongoing presence on Instagram and TikTok, two “new social media” mediums popular with younger users. She said these platforms are useful for mass marketing and for attracting potential employees but would require substantial work to generate new content.

Requiring less work, she said, would be updating Rossmoor Walnut Creek’s main Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RossmoorLife), to appeal largely to residents and, perhaps, their adult children searching for a potential landing spot for their parents. This outlet has not been used in a while; the most recent post on this page, as of March 10, was made in February 2023. Much of the content of a renewed Facebook page, Valdaputi said, could be repurposed from the Rossmoor News or other internal sources. Instagram and TikTok, she added, would likely require creating new original content, especially with TikTok and its short-form video “reels.”

Task force members are also looking to create a more robust residents’ website portal. That portal is now MyRossmoor.com, which task force members acknowledge has significant technological limitations. The task force’s intent is to merge the current www.rossmoor.com onto the current MyRossmoor.com site, while the new marketing website is being built. When the new marketing website is finished, a new residents’ portal can be developed on the same as-yet-unidentified platform.

Peterson, while acknowledging the technological limitations of MyRossmoor.com, also praised it for its diverse features, including event ticket purchases and golf tee time reserving. “We have the most robust (residents’) portal I’ve seen, bar none,” she said.

More thinking about Ambassadors

Appealing to current Rossmoor residents and staff is another channel for publicizing Rossmoor Walnut Creek. But a formal program to enlist residents to serve as formal ambassadors for Rossmoor, to reach out to potential new residents about the community’s strengths and merits, is on hold, at least for the time being.

Peterson contended that any Ambassadors program should be run by residents but said that GRF is limited by the state labor and corporations codes, as well as its own governing documents, in how it can use volunteers for this duty. Making the Ambassadors a Rossmoor club could be an answer, as might making it a “pilot program.”

But task force members said they need more time to think about the concept, and expect to talk more about it at the next task force meeting, either its regularly scheduled meeting on April 8, or possibly during a special meeting scheduled for Monday, March 31 at 9 a.m. in the Board Room at Gateway. Task force member Kevin Dowling is expected to present a plan for a small-scale program at the April 8 meeting.

Launching the Ambassadors, Walker said, “is not as simple as we thought it would be.”