Moon Township Honored for Outstanding Citizen Communication

Moon Township has won the 22^nd annual Outstanding Citizen Communication Award from the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors for its exceptional efforts to communicate with residents.

The award was presented at the association's 91^st annual Educational Conference and Trade Show in Hershey in April. The conference attracted attendees from every county in Pennsylvania except Philadelphia, which has no townships.

The association presents the award each year as part of its annual Township Citizen Communication Contest to recognize one township for its overall achievement and commitment to citizen communication.

Moon Township also placed first in the Electronic Newsletters category for its “Moon Township Monthly” email update, first in the Cable TV category for its production “Soak It Up: A Stormwater Documentary” and second in the category of Class 1 Newsletters (population 10,001 and over) for its quarterly “Moon Township Messenger.”

Manager Jeanne Creese says that for Moon Township, communication is a top priority. 

“Of all the functions that we do here, from public safety to public services, it’s probably the most important component,” Creese says. “If residents don’t understand those services, then we’re probably not doing our job effectively.” 

The township strengthened its commitment to communicating with residents and businesses about four years ago, Creese says, by rolling out some new communications tools and making sure that all township personnel are always in the communications loop.

Covering all bases

“We decided to communicate with our residents through a variety of different media,” Creese explains. “Some rely on our TV stations, some like electronic communications and social media, and some like print. We want to make sure we get the message out in all of those forms.”

The quarterly “Moon Township Messenger,” which includes news from various township-related organizations, is mailed to all homes and businesses in the township.

“We’ve gotten very good feedback,” Creese says. “People really like it because it has replaced some of the local newspapers that have gone out of business here. When we switched to the magazine style, residents said they really appreciated that.”

Those who want more frequent updates can sign up on the township’s website to receive the “Moon Township Monthly” by email, and residents who turn to their TV for information have two choices: Moon Community Access Television (MCA-TV) and Moon Area Government Television (MAG-TV). The first has been around for 25 years, and the second is a recent spin-off.

“Our programming on our first channel was getting so full that last year, we added MAG-TV,” Creese says. “The first channel is true public-access, where people can come in and do their own local broadcasting and where other local municipalities can show their meetings, as well. The second channel is our government-access channel, where we produce government education programs, such as the one about stormwater.”

The township also emphasizes internal communications and publishes a newsletter just for employees. 

“It has really improved our level of communication and built a sense of community with our employees,” Creese says. “It helps us make sure that all of our employees are informed, and that’s important because we believe that every employee is a spokesman for the township and the services we provide.”

Creese knows that effective communication is important for every township, whether large or small, and says it’s also a very achievable goal.

“People tend to measure municipalities by the individual services that townships are required to provide,” she says. “Communication to citizens isn’t something that’s ‘required,’ but it is important. 

“From a personal perspective, having managed municipalities large and small, I think that a lot of the things we do here in Moon Township are achievable by townships of all sizes,” she adds. “It just takes the commitment of everyone involved.”

Entries in the Citizen Communication Contest were judged on the usefulness of information presented and how well the information was communicated. Publications were also judged on their overall attractiveness and readability.

The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors represents Pennsylvania’s 1,455 townships of the second class and is committed to preserving and strengthening township government and securing greater visibility and involvement for townships in the state and federal political arenas. Second class townships cover 95 percent of Pennsylvania’s land mass and represent more residents — 5.5 million — than any other type of political subdivision in the commonwealth.

Submitted by Alexis Sergeant, director of communications for Moon Township.