Virginia State Parks E-Newsletter Keeps You Up to Date

Third installment in the “Check it out.

But even before we had the events all worked out, we still knew that we had to do more to keep folks aware of what was going on. We were starting to get some of our 2002 bond projects completed, opening new cabins and campgrounds, and no easier way to let folks we knew who were interested know about them. In fact, we didn’t have a way of tracking who those people might be. One day the Virginia State Parks Enterprise Director, Chuck Wyatt, mentioned to me that what we really needed was an e-newsletter.

Some of our parks had developed newsletters but technology had advanced to the point that printing a newsletter up and mailing it was just not cost effective. We’re pretty thinly staffed in central office so I knew what Chuck was really saying – “too bad we don’t have anyone to do an e-newsletter.”

The conversation weighed on me. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that regardless of how short our resources were, we had to do the e-news. So we started one. The first efforts were irregularly issued and done just through our email system so not very attractive. But, when Don Byrne came on board he researched software and found Constant Contact and Don is now responsible for pulling together the now weekly e-newsletter. The events and the e-newsletter merge together since once a month Don posts the events for the coming month (today’s e-news, for example, had April events) and each week the events for the next 10 days are included.

The e-newsletter has also generated excitement within our staff which has driven many of them to do a better job of listing all of their programs in the database with the end result that regular customers and potential visitors can keep informed about what is available in Virginia State Parks. Sign up for the e-newsletter today. You can even refer to some archived issues at the sign-up page.

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