Streamline Blog

Our community of special districts just passed 6.5 million monthly visits to their Streamline-powered websites in May!

Special districts ranked the importance of keeping the public informed of the great work you do 9.3 out of 10 in our recent survey. Phew, we were a little nervous for a minute there! You also indicated 67.3% of you use social media for this purpose and that 52.6% of you would like to improve how your district uses social media.

We believe California special districts deserve COVID-19 relief funds. So we’re partnering with CSDA and a growing coalition of communities and local leaders to urge the State of California to extend Coronavirus relief funding to special districts.

Over the last few weeks we've received valuable feedback from the Special District community on how you would like to use online payments. We've also dug into what districts feel will be the primary benefits of moving to online payments.

We speak with over 300 special district folks every month. And sometimes they surprise us. Like when we asked the big question of what you need the most help with, you said “payments”.

Special districts thrive when connected to the communities they serve, which can be done with something as simple as a newsletter. Our team is inspired by the newsletters we're seeing from our districts, and we wanted to share three examples!

Sharing best practices is important for the Special District community. Which is why the Streamline team is excited to highlight a few outstanding websites districts have created. We hope you find some inspiration and even brush up on a few best practices.

Jackie Vaughn has been serving the Lockwood Fire Protection District, in the tiny town of Volcano, California, for more than 20 years.

Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District had wanted an internal staff site for years, but when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred it became critical that they tackle the project right away. They were used to being closely connected and celebrating accomplishments, and wanted a way to continue doing those important things during the stay-at-home orders. The district spans three different work sites, has employees who work remotely around the clock, and had closed their offices to the public. Yet in spite of these challenges, the district was determined to find a way to collaborate remotely and support the great culture they had built over the years.

In 2019, wildfires across the west coast brought attention to local fire departments and districts, putting a spotlight on outreach and effective communication to protect the public. A local Oregon district, Philomath Fire and Rescue, responded immediately, and made the push to upgrade their technology to accommodate these fast-paced and growing needs. The district understood that a key part of making this successful was to make sure their internal team was working efficiently to show the public that they are operating on all cylinders.