Unidentified Speaker 1 raised the issue of mass texting and asked whether the city had a way to send text alerts to residents. Unidentified Speaker 4, a city staff speaker in the transcript, explained how the service works and how residents enroll.

"If you go to our website, right on the front page, it says subscribe," Unidentified Speaker 4 said, and read the phone number for the sign-up line: "(269) 256-8349 so that you can sign up for text alerts." The staff member said subscribers can select preferences by topic or by ward so alerts are targeted to the recipient's interests or location.

Unidentified Speaker 1 raised the outreach challenge: getting residents to sign up. Unidentified Speaker 4 clarified the system requires each resident to opt in from their own phone, so staff cannot sign people up on their behalf. "They have to sign up themselves because they have to do it from their phone," Unidentified Speaker 4 said.

Committee members discussed learning from neighboring counties that implemented similar systems; Speaker 1 said they would connect county staff to the city clerk to exchange lessons learned. The committee agreed to put mass texting back on the next meeting agenda to review implementation steps and outreach strategies.

Next steps: staff will coordinate with the clerk's office to explore outreach partnerships with county staff and return to the committee with recommended approaches for increasing resident opt-in rates.