HomeMy WebLinkAbout033023 Communications plan for Jefferson County________________________________
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Hi Commissioners,
Congratulations on creating and staffing a position focused on Communications for Jefferson County. I understand the scope and priorities are still being formed, and there are existing
communications policies and responsibilities to weave into this new position.
Regarding social media:
As I’m sure your aware, Jefferson county’s population is the oldest in the state with a median age of 58.9 according to the 2020 census. A great number of residents have limited interaction
with the major social media platforms. I noted that 2 of the 3 commissioners during the March 27 meeting said they weren’t regular users of social media platforms. Facebook is not
used by the younger generation and many in our county probably still think Tik-Toc is the sound a clock makes. That means that each platform will have a different demographic as its
audience. Amongst my friends and neighbors, Nextdoor gets the most attention, but is not a good broadcast county-wide platform without a well-organized plan to contact all the neighborhoods.
Please proceed with caution regarding social media since the segment of Jefferson County you reach with each platform will be distinct and require different sorts of messaging to be
effective. If Wendy could recruit some helpful volunteers for each platform (>50 for Facebook; < 40 for Twitter and Instagram) to customize the message, that could be more effective
than a one-size-fits-all messaging policy for social media.
Regarding Emergency Communications:
I was very happy to hear that Wendy has experience and training in this arena since communications during emergencies can make the difference between life and death. I am a member of
the Volunteer Emergency Communicators (VECOM) team and a HAM radio operator. During a major emergency normal communications channels may be clogged or non-functional, and a backup system
becomes essential. While there is an organization under Willie Bence looking after this, it’s not clear how it would be deployed when needed and how all the technology pieces fit
together. The county-owned HAM-frequency radios are not all fully functional and some key antennas have been waiting for permission to be installed for a long, long time. This effort
needs higher priority.
Thanks for all your efforts,
Larry Morrell,
Port Townsend