Mark Sexton, the Communications Director, presented on the Discover 200 celebration of the founding of Alachua County since 1824. The celebration was kicked off during an event on January 11, 2025 at Depot Park. Videos of the January 11th event are available on the website: alachua200.com.
More on Discover 200 can be found on alachua200.com, including a proclamation that was created by the Communications team that would combine all aspects of Alachua County’s history, including the influence of the native Timucua on the Alachua name, African American history, and other key eras.
Gracia Fernandez was hired, who works for Equal Opportunity and part of her job is language translation, such as immediate Spanish translation for emergency communications when Alachua is in a state of emergency. Her role will expand to translation of all Alachua county services into Spanish, the second most spoken language in Alachua County.
There is a formal truth and reconciliation process on the truth.alachuacounty.us website, on the Truth and Reconciliation page. It shows the history of the process and the committees involved. The Communications team has participated in capturing services and creating feature videos each year for the past 20 years in commemoration of Black History Month. The archival of Black History in Alachua County exists on the alachua200.com website.
The website also provides the events that Alachua County is sponsoring. Most events are sponsored through Visit Gainesville Alachua County bed tax and through arts, nature, culture, and sponsorship grants. The Communication department is also using their resources and sponsoring Discover 200 events specifically to shine a light on matters of history, arts, and culture. This includes the 5th Avenue arts festival.
There are 200,000 media followers for the various Alachua County social media pages: Facebook, X, NextDoor, Instagram. These social media accounts allow for analytics where the Communications department can see the reach of each post, the interaction data, among other information like the amount of time people are watching or reacting to the content.
The Communications team used a software called ZenCity, which was one of the premier trackers of social media and the digital landscape in general. From the analytics, they are finding that they are gaining followers, particularly during states of emergency, such as hurricane season due to the effectiveness of social media in communication with citizens.
Demographics are unavailable through these analytics for user privacy. However, the Communications department is aware of the digital divide between older and younger populations. To address this, they still operate operate Channel 12, which is a popular way to communicate with our elderly population. Press releases that rise to the level of importance are also on our bulletin board. More feature videos are produced, including Alachua County Talks and the interview show, where both these air on Channel 12 and YouTube.
Members expressed concern for reaching the elderly population and suggested that physical copies of newsletters be sent out to the population that is 70 and above. Mark Sexton suggested sending out one postage paid postcard to ask if citizens would like to continue to receive a hard copy of the news letter and continuing based on the response. Chairman Ronald Rawls recommended that the Communications department works with community organizations to coordinate responses from the community.