Williamsburg’s fire and information‑technology leaders told the City Council on June 12 that the city completed a transition from Everbridge to the Rave mass‑notification platform on May 15 and expects both cost savings and added functionality.

Chief Snyder said the switch to Rave saves the city about $30,000 annually and adds integrations useful to the 911 center because Rave is a Motorola product and can link to the Motorola computer‑aided dispatch system used by the regional 911 center. "We transitioned to it just last month on May 15," Snyder said, and added that the changeover preserved existing subscriber accounts so residents already signed up with Everbridge were rolled into Rave rather than having to re‑register.

Snyder and staff described a phased implementation: phase 1 delivers public notifications (voice, text, email, social media) and opt‑in categories such as weather and public safety; phase 2 will push notifications to city staff desktop computers; and a later phase will include a mobile app for city‑issued phones with a panic‑button feature. Chief Information Officer Mark Barham said the planned mobile app is currently intended for city employees only: "our plan is only city employees." Communications staff established a dedicated signup page at williamsburgva.gov/alerts and created a contact card that bundles the nonemergency and short‑code emergency numbers so messages appear as Rave alerts on users’ phones.

Officials noted a technical detail that may confuse some subscribers: short codes used for emergency texts are shared across institutions that use Rave, so messages from William & Mary or Colonial Williamsburg can come from the same short code; the city’s message text label differentiates the sender. Snyder said IPAWS—the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System—remains available and will be used only for immediate life‑threatening incidents, such as a dam failure; the council later approved renewal of the IPAWS memorandum of agreement.

Council members asked whether subscribers must re‑set preferences after the transition; staff said parameters were migrated but encouraged residents to review their profiles. Staff also said Rave will support geotargeted calling to landlines and non‑subscribers in a given area if needed.

Ending: Staff asked residents to check williamsburgva.gov/alerts to confirm subscription preferences during the transition period and said they will return with technical updates as phases 2 and 3 are implemented.