To: Mayor Dion Avello, Cheryl Bannon, Jim Craig, Tom Haynes, Heath Horyna, Vaughn Nun, Mark Staats, Chuck Warren, Randy White
From: Justin C Gum
Re: Civic Initiated Social Engagement
Date: 01 November 2026
Hello, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Justin Gum, I wish to take this time to discuss an opportunity I see within the City of Derby to connect businesses to the members of the community that would be their patrons, while also introducing these same residents to more city events. After browsing http://derbyks.com/ & http://derbyweb.com/, I knew I wanted to work with the City of Derby offering assistance to all City of Derby Programs & Departments, informing the public of events & offers, as well as other community happenings to stimulate local economy through social engagement.
I am interested in providing content for the Derby Channel offered locally on television as well as photography & journalism. A commercial platform should be established, advertising to surrounding communities via cable, enticing those outside the community to visit Derby, furthering internal economic stimulus during citywide events such as the parade, Derby Days, and annual fireworks. I will also highlight local sports & music programs, both academic and those extra-curricular based through the DRC. I will use my professional knowledge & experience to aid in increased exposure to, and engagement of the public. This stream of information will also reach out to local businesses to share their event schedule as well making Derby a viable nightlife option.
This concept is appealing to me as I am originally from Derby, attending Pleasantview Elementary through the Middle School into the new High School when it was built at Madison & Rock Road. Professionally, I have worked as a designer for multiple local businesses in Wichita & Lawrence, KS as well as San Jose & San Francisco along with large studios in Los Angeles. I have developed identities for businesses doing international business as well as within their respective community. This experience has brought me to several conclusions about interaction, content, information, usability & delivery that I will put to use for the City of Derby.
This familiar environment of Derby, the personal knowledge I have, combined with the City's plan for the future, would allow for a forum of expression and information to flow within the community. Thus allowing Derby to further thrive through the interaction provided by the immense information distributed to the community & those surrounding. Unfortunately, for many local residents, there are several entertaining, community wide, or beneficial happenings and events that go unnoticed due to lack of knowledge to its occurrence until after the the event has passed. The city would fare better financially with more public knowledge & coverage of just such events. You have a proud Derby High School football team along with several other sports, as I was involved in DRC soccer & baseball, then later wrestled for Derby High. My friends played football & baseball for the school, so I also believe it would be a matter of pride for the kids of the community to see their activities as destinations embraced more by the city. I remember very many loud and rambunctious basketball games in both Middle & High School.
Offering these events alongside others such as Shakespeare in the Park and games played at Garrett Park would encourage joining coed leagues and other community building activities such as those offered by the DRC, as so few in the community are aware of their existence. This resident tailored communication centered around local businesses and other points of revenue in the city will aid in intercommunication and increase outside interaction with the city as a community. Using the information such as that provided by the Chamber of Commerce and Event Registration Calendar we could easily promote local businesses & citywide events with frequent invitations to attend and appropriate ad placement within the web presence for additional advertising revenue.
My grandfather was Charles "Wes" Gum, a resident from 1954 to 2010. He was a business owner of "The Embers" in Derby from the 1960's to 2000. I worked with him as a teenager and enjoyed seeing my friends come in to his restaurant. Some of you may remember his main table that would always spawn great discussions from city leader. I want to foster that attitude again and continue Derby's tradition of supporting local businesses, seeing them thrive through increased community interaction and welcoming out of town guests. I'd like to arrange a time to discuss the additional prospective opportunities ahead for such an endeavor. Your input and feedback would be great inspiration to help this grow into a forum in which the city can communicate with itself freely from sporting & theater events, community happenings, or getting information out to the public from the police regarding a crime or even a lost pet.
I believe Derby is a good size and the appropriate community for this to organically become a more technically interactive city. The city's involvement will also aid in placement of media and materials in other privately owned establishments such as telecommunications stores and Wal-Mart & Target to inform the public of this publicly available tool which will also be endorsed by the companies it features & aims to support.
There are several community programs in Derby, such as YPD that will benefit from such an outlet for local information. This new concept can serve the purpose of two additional sites as well in conjunction to the two mentioned above, those are the http://derbyinformer.com/ & http://buyderby.com/. These sites provide a certain only a minimal level of information and value to the city at the benefit of the Informer, but not the city infrastructure, as the paper has just over 300 followers on twitter while the city has a population of roughly 22,000. I feel there is a more interested and energetic consumer base for the city to reach than 1.4%.
I will help Derby take initiative, thinking collectively & creatively, to fill this void, with knowledge of city happenings, properly informing the public, fostering social engagement though civic activity with the use of city produced television spots, online, Derby TV, and local channels in the surrounding community. Combined with a multifaceted site, serving many community interests as advised by ward representatives. Using many of the social media options available today including YouTube, Vimeo Facebook, Flickr, Google +, & Twitter, will make it easier for the community to follow, being informed of the city happenings in a timely manner, therefore including themselves more often, as planning will be able to occur. I need your input & resources to create this tool for the city of Derby to gain from both financially, and as a community interacting within itself at its many various functions; local service providers, sporting events, along with bars & restaurants.
Figures show approximately 52.7% of the estimated 22,231 Derby population are 18-39 while about 55.2% of our population have children. With those figures one can deduct 6,467 of the 11,716 residents in this specific demographic have children. With that, we come to a collective annual income of approximately $429,126,204 being earned and spent locally, representing an 8.5% spending account for entertainment of 18-39 year old individuals in Derby at approximately $36,475,727 or in simpler terms, an average of roughly $60 per each of these 11,000+ people per week within this demographic. (Figures not including their children.)
There are of course other members of the community over the age of 39 who will also be interested in the activities provided by Derby adding to this annual revenue stream available to tap into. Whether or not they are earning that money in Derby or not, efforts should be that residents spend it within the Derby City limits as often as possible. My aim would be to promote activities & events to keep as much of this spending in Derby and not let it leave into surrounding areas. This can be accomlpished through awareness and community programs competing with entertainment offered in the surrounding communities. It would also strive to invite visitors from outside the Derby community to enjoy parks, sports, social programs, entertainment & food options, providing an overall financial gain for the City of Derby and its locally owned businesses.
I currently have discussed a few of my civic minded ideas with Officer Mike Cordell and look forward to furthering those discussions & the ones I have mentioned in this letter with him once my citizen officer ride along date is set. I would like to arrange the opportunity to meet with each of you individually as well as in a group setting to discuss your wants alongside my proposals as to how you envision these facets of life in Derby all being presented together in a coherent and preceisely marketed, branded presence for the City of Derby to grow and share with its local business community. Beginning with a core of 10 people, the members of City Council, including myself, could easily build an outline for success and growth, along with assistance from the Chamber of Commerce providing information about events hosted & occurring at local businesses.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you regarding this community engagement program I have in mind
Justin C Gum
gum.justin@gmail.com
http://pixeltwins.com
Continue reading for an overview of my thoughts on the websites I found and examined regarding the City of Derby. Please understand the sites mentioned were my only sample, if there are more to be included, I would like to see those as well. It should be noted the 4 (four) part outline organization specified is that of my own creation and open to input.
