Meeting

Spark Novus - Current

May 19 · 6:55 AM

Gist

Chris walked Spark Novus through a rebuild comparison for their website, showing how the current Elementor site's manual/duplicative elements could be replaced with WordPress/ACF custom blocks and post types. He quoted roughly $7,500 to rebuild the existing design using the pattern shown, or about $15,000 for a from-scratch build, and clarified that ongoing maintenance (plugin updates, server care) isn't something his team handles — that's more Mickey Mellen's (GreenMellen) territory, though Spark Novus pushed back on needing a third vendor since Austin may absorb template/content tasks. Spanish-language support via Polylang or WPML was deferred to a phase two. Spark Novus is still shopping two other agencies and will report back next week on budget and vendor decision.

Distilled from the transcript by claude-sonnet-5 · Jul 25

What came out of it

Decisions2

Spanish-language localization (Polylang vs WPML) deferred to phase two, launching in English first
Spark Novus (client contact) is pausing work with current developer John and infrastructure contact Dylan pending vendor decision

Risks and blockers6

Current Elementor site has inconsistent, manually-entered elements (images, leadership pods) that are hard to maintain long-term
Mobile responsiveness fixes on the existing Elementor site are a black box requiring hand-coded CSS with unclear scope
Client's CEO favors Upwork resourcing over agencies and has not committed a budget
Client questioned whether the engagement is too 'Chris-centric' with no backup if Chris is unavailable
Project has already slipped from a planned January launch to May with no live site yet
Client is uncertain about needing multiple vendors (Chris for dev, Mickey for maintenance, Austin for content) versus a single accountable resource

Open questions5

Which plugin will be used for Spanish language support, Polylang or WPML
What is the client CEO's actual budget for the project
Will the client engage Classic City Consulting alone, partner with GreenMellen for maintenance, or go with a different agency entirely
What does the vague 'Bools site section' fix item from Austin's list actually refer to
Will Austin end up absorbing the small template/page-update tasks originally intended for Mickey Mellen

Next steps6

MeConsult a lead developer about multilingual plugin recommendation (Polylang vs WPML) and report back
MeSend Spark Novus the meeting notes/recording since their note taker did not join
ClientPing Austin via chat to clarify the unclear 'Bools site section' fix item
ClientDiscuss budget internally with the CEO and decide on the vendor approach
ClientSpeak with the two other candidate agencies by end of week
ClientCircle back with Chris next week on which vendor they've chosen

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