{"id":19343,"date":"2017-12-22T11:43:57","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T16:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=19343"},"modified":"2017-12-22T11:43:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T16:43:57","slug":"staff-recognized-as-communicators-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2017\/12\/22\/staff-recognized-as-communicators-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Recognized as Communicators of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>New Approach to Digital Communications Garners National Honor<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19345\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19345\" class=\"wp-image-19345 \" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/20171207_121716-e1513879990749-300x241.jpg\" alt=\"with awards\" width=\"350\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/20171207_121716-e1513879990749-300x241.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/20171207_121716-e1513879990749-768x616.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/20171207_121716-e1513879990749-1024x822.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Natural Resources Secretary Mark Belton (center) congratulates Communications Director Stephen Schatz and Design and Publications Manager Lauren Mitchell.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a> is proud to announce that Communications Director Stephen Schatz and Design and Publications Manager Lauren Mitchell were among several nationwide recipients of the 2017 Granicus Digital Strategy Awards.<\/p>\n<p>The awards were given to several federal, state and local entities in the United States and United Kingdom. Individuals and organizations were recognized for innovative approaches to digital strategy and excellence in key areas including transforming access to services, creative and innovative use of digital tools, and improving citizen engagement.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Specifically, Schatz and Mitchell were awarded as Communicators of the Year for revamping the department\u2019s email communications system, which included training department staff on best practices for email marketing, designing templates to improve brand consistency, meeting with various state agencies to identify partnership opportunities, monitoring analytics to adjust distribution and engagement strategies, and implementing new online content to reach the department\u2019s diverse audiences and stakeholders. As a result of their efforts, the department grew its subscriber base by more than 35,000 people per month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m proud of this recognition of Stephen\u2019s and Lauren\u2019s leadership, hard work and commitment to improving constituent outreach and customer service using cutting edge communications technology,\u201d Maryland Natural Resources Secretary Mark Belton said. \u201cWe work hard to find new ways to keep our department\u2019s customers \u2013 who represent a wide range of interests and passions \u2013 and citizens engaged in our mission and vision, and informed of important events, news and programming happening throughout the state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The department offers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/public.govdelivery.com\/accounts\/MDDNR\/subscriber\/new?qsp=CODE_RED\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a variety of electronic distribution lists<\/a>\u00a0on more than 25 areas of interest \u2013 from conservation and parks to recreation and wildlife \u2013 as well as a robust monthly newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>Granicus provides technology that empowers government organizations to create better lives for the citizens they serve. By offering the industry\u2019s leading cloud-based solutions for communications, meeting and agenda management, and digital services to more than 3,000 public sector organizations, Granicus helps turn government missions into quantifiable realities. Its products connect more than 150 million people, creating a powerful network to enhance government transparency and citizen engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Approach to Digital Communications Garners National Honor The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is proud to announce that Communications Director Stephen Schatz and Design and Publications Manager Lauren Mitchell were among several nationwide recipients of the 2017 Granicus Digital Strategy Awards. The awards were given to several federal, state and local entities in the<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2017\/12\/22\/staff-recognized-as-communicators-of-the-year\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19343"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19357,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19343\/revisions\/19357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}