In the Office of Community Engagement and Constituent Services, we publish a newsletter that connects the residents of Anne Arundel County with what’s happening in Anne Arundel County government. You’ll find county news and updates, events, messages from the County Executive, spotlights on programs and resources, chances to share your voice in public comment, upcoming legislation that’s open for feedback, county job listings, and notices of subdivision application meetings. Our goal is simple: keep residents informed, engaged, and empowered.
When I took over editing the newsletter in 2020, we had about 6,000 subscribers. By summer 2025, that number had grown to more than 56,000, making it the top way to reach our residents.
In summer 2025, we launched a focused growth strategy to expand the County Executive’s direct communication with residents. By reaching more people, we aimed to:
Improve event participation and awareness of county programs
Strengthen community engagement by connecting with residents
Promote transparency by broadly sharing county initiatives and opportunities
To set a clear target for our campaign, we reviewed our subscriber increase from the prior year’s June through August window, which was 366 new subscribers, and challenged ourselves to increase that by 300 percent.
Our goal was to gain 1,464 new subscribers during the same three-month period.
Our goal was to gain 1,464 new subscribers during the same three-month period.
We rolled out several strategies: holding informational sessions in communities to explain county services; setting up tables at high-traffic community events like resource fairs and festivals; distributing more printed resource guides that included newsletter sign-up information in large quantities; partnering with community organizations to promote the newsletter to their audiences; improving our website to make sign-up easier; reviewing contact lists within our office so that newsletter opportunities were shared widely; and more.
The results speak for themselves. By the end of the summer campaign, we added
4,722 new subscribers, significantly surpassing our goal.
4,722 new subscribers, significantly surpassing our goal.
When we engage together, we build a stronger, more informed community.
See below to click through the presentation.
