A Look Back at November here at Civic Capacity
Vol. III, No. 184 - A busy year winds down here at Civic Capacity
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Welcome to December!
This year is nearly over, just one more month. And on the local government side, December tends to be a fairly quiet month. Budgets for 2026 are having the final touches put on them and save for the occassional December snow storm or water main break, things tend to be quiet around the City Halls and Township Garages of Miami County.
November was the 17th full month of coverage on civic topics important to Miami County. The original goal of our publication was to come up with an original analysis or story every three days. But, as the stories and the audience grew, that there was an opening for something more — something daily. As of this point, over 800 editions of this newsletter have been sent out, each one hopefully giving our readers both near and far a unique and interesting perspective on life here in Western Ohio.
As much as I might be the one producing and creating this publication, this is certainly by no means a “one man show”. There are scores of folks that have invested time, money, suggestions, and perhaps most importantly, encouragement, into this endeavor. This continues to underscore the fact that Civic Capacity is a community-based project. If things weren’t happening in our community, if people weren’t interacting, there wouldn’t be much to write about. That is why your support as either a free or contributing subscriber to this project is critical!
And the community response to this publication has been nothing short of amazing. Recently, this publication did a survey of it’s readers and one metric of success that was looked at was our “Net Promoter Score”. Basically, this was a measure to see how many promoters this newsletter has against the number of detractors that are out there. In the marketing world, anything over +20 is considered solid, if you have a score over +50, that’s a sign of a loyal following. Our score here at Civic Capacity? +88. That’s a pretty high standard we are setting. The basic Net Promoter Score for newspaper and newsletters in general is +25.
And this is where I really need to thank you —- the readers of Civic Capacity. The readers of this work are some of the kindest, most generous, and most encouraging people I could ever ask to be a part of this project. The notes, the texts, the phone calls are all welcome, and it’s exciting to know that we are on this journey together to make our hometowns great places to call home! Thank you for reading and sharing our publication!
The Big Story
This past month’s most read story, by a country mile, was an article talking about the City of Piqua’s short lived effort to rebrand itself. The City spent $50,000 to hire an outside consultant to create a new brand identity for the City and the results were immediately panned. In fact, the City Commission took the measure of passing a resolution to stop the rebranding effort from moving ahead.
The Big Story
November’s big story came earlier in the month when the Piqua City Commission really pulled a fast one. In one meeting, the commission adopted a series of measures to allow a series of massive data centers to be put on the south end of town. These items were largely passed as “emergency” measures, in which the commission even waived the long-standing three-reading rule — much to the protestations of those in attendance.
So, will the thirty pieces of silver the city coffers receive be worth all the potential problems that a data center could bring to the community? I guess only time will tell.
Civic Capacity: Inside the Numbers
Throughout the month, our publication was growing. Our free subscriber list grew at about a 2% clip, we currently stand at the point where 2,542 people are receiving this newsletter when a new edition drops. Those generous individuals who make a financial contribution to our effort grew by an impressive 7% — Thank You Supporters! In fact, our newsletter continues to be a “Best Seller” on the Substack platform!
Our publication also had 38,769 separate views throughout the month; each day nearly 1,300 views of our work occurred, which means more and more individuals are finding value in this project and that is heartwarming!
This actually a pretty impressive number. From what I have learned, efforts like this usually have a pretty hard slog in the latter months of the year, so to see our readership remain strong in the face of other distractions, like getting the kids back to school and settling into our post-summer routines.
If you have not become a paid subscriber to our effort, please consider it. With your paid subscription, you have access to all back issues of our newsletter and access to our paid-subscriber chat and the opportunity to comment on all our posts!
Perhaps, even more importantly, you are supporting a community based publication without annoying paywalls (like the Miami Valley Today) or annoying advertisements that disguise themselves as stories (like the Dayton Daily News). And I am not trying to knock those publications, they are running their own shops, and they are providing a service to the community. However, this publication believes that the news and analysis that are provided here should be as open and widely shared as possible.
A New Handbook to grow Civic Capacity!
Recently, we created a new digital handbook, “The Citizen’s Guide to Public Records”. This handbook is designed to help residents have a better understanding of public meetings and meeting records. It’s filled with templates, ideas and other information that will open a new world of public affairs.
Also, if you have ideas for future handbooks, please let us know at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Want to Learn More About Troy’s Businesses?
Our publication has recently released our September 2025 Economic Abstract, the most comprehensive and up-to-date report on the businesses and industries in the City of Troy. For those that want to understand our community’s business and industries, this is a must-have report.
Thank you to our New Media Partners!
Recently, many of our stories has been showing up on the local news website, www.mymiamicounty.com. We are grateful for the good folks for sharing our work with their audience and we would encourage our readers to check them out at their website!
Our publication would also like to recognize the good work being done at www.piquanewsnow.com. Piqua News Now is a new web-based news and information site for the Miami County area, with a specific focus on Piqua!
In addition, the good folks at Piqua News Now have started a new, 24-hour streaming YouTube channel. This channel is awesome with continuous weather updates and more importanly, it provides a 24-hour audio feed from county wide dispatch. Check it out here!
You Can Help Support This Work!
Our readers and subscribers have been asking for a new way to support the work being done here at Civic Capacity! Some of our readers do not like the idea of having to sign up for another subscription service. Some of our subscribers occasionally want to give more support through a one-time transaction.
Civic Capacity is partnering with “Buy Me A Coffee” to give our readers, subscribers and friends an opportunity to give one-time support to Civic Capacity. Personally, I don’t like coffee, but I will never turn down a nice iced tea. If you feel compelled to support this effort, just click the button below. In other words, this is an online tip jar.
Also, thanks for reading today’s Civic Capacity Newsletter! Please feel free to share this information with your friends and neighbors.
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