The Month In Review - February 2024
Our year's shortest Month, was this publication's most successful!
Civic Capacity Continues to Grow Thanks to Our Readers!
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 endeavour.
One of the activities I want to undertake in this newsletter is to take time to look back at the growth of this project and bring forward new ways you can help support this effort.
If there is one thing I have learned about growing this newsletter, it is that this project is filling an unmet need; good, honest and quality analysis of the events that are shaping our local civic life. The growth of this project has exceeded expectations and while that growth is good — getting new people in the conversation isn’t a bad thing — it does mean we are all looking at this project from a different perspective.
One of these different perspectives is that we have all learned about this newsletter at different times, so whether this is your first time interacting with Civic Capacity, or your 100th, we are going to take a look back at the month and go over some great ways you can interact with this effort.
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about how organizations often through hard work and discipline achieve the “flywheel effect”. Through painstaking hard work, things start to become easier and the tangible results are clearer to see. Is this project at the point where the “flywheel effect” is starting to be seen? Well, I am not completely sure; it’s probably easy to determine that when it is in the rearview mirror. But, there are certainly some promising signs.
Last month, Civic Capacity had 21 separate editions go out, which is impressive considering that February tends to be pretty slow - the year is still kicking off and outdoor activities tend not to occur. Despite those headwinds, our subscriber numbers grew as well. Our free subscriber list grew by 5% and those generous individuals who make a financial contribution to our effort grew by 8% — three straight months of double digit growth in paid subscribers! Our publication also had 14,191 separate views throughout the month, another strong month. In other words, more and more individuals are finding value in this project and that is heartwarming! Thank you! 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.
Our Most Popular Post from February
Our most read post from last month was about taking a deeper dive into what exactly makes up an ALICE Household. These households were recently referenced in a study commissioned by the Miami County Department of Development looking at workforce issues. Over 1,000 of our readers to a look at this post and if you haven’t, please take a look.
Have Your Say!
If you have a contribution you want to make to Civic Capacity, please let us know! Whether it is a guest editorial, a letter to the editor or a column you wish to contribute, we would be happy to publish your ideas and your insights.
Unlike traditional media sources, you aren’t limited to word counts, nor will your ideas be stuck behind a paywall. We believe in the free exchange of ideas and welcome your contributions. Send your ideas to: william.lutz17@gmail.com
Sponsorship Packages Available for Civic Capacity
Looking at the readership of Civic Capacity, it is clear that we are creating a community of loyal readers that are becoming more engaged with their community; over the past month we have averaged nearly 500 readers a day to our newsletter. If you own or are part of a small business and would like to become a sponor of Civic Capacity, we have developed a month-long sponorship package. If you are interested, please send me an email at william.lutz17@gmail.com and we can get the conversation started.
See you on March 9th!
Here is a quick reminder that the quarterly, “Ask a Council Member” event will be on Saturday, March 9th at 9:00 a.m. at the Lincoln Community Center, 112 West Ash Street in Troy. I plan to be there and I hope to see you there as well!
Help Grow our Newsletter
One of the things I am really impressed with about the Substack platform is that they are always developing new tools to help grow newsletters. The good people at Substack have recently developed a referral program. Individuals that are sucessfully referring new subscribers to the newsletter are elgible to earn rewards. You can learn more here. Of course, one of the easiest actions you can take to grow this effort is simply share it with your friends and neighbors.
Thanks for reading!
September was an amazingly successful month for the Civic Capacity Newsletter and I am grateful for all of your support! If you ever have any comments or questions, please feel free to drop me a note at william.lutz17@gmail.com.