A Farewell Note from the Creator and Senior Editor of the Paperless Airplane

Patrick Lacefield
Director, Montgomery County Office of
Public Information

When I envisioned “The Paperless Airplane” as a mass, email newsletter from the Office of Public Information about 11 years ago, I received a note back from a reader after an early edition. It said,” Wow, what a creative name, however did you think of it?” Later that month, I received a contrary view: “Who came up with this stupid title?”

Whatever, there have been hundreds of editions of The Paperless Airplane, sharing County news in an accessible, attractive format for more than a decade. Sometimes it’s been good news, sometimes bad. Sometimes it has been feel-good, sometimes edgy, sometimes pushing a strong point of view.

Right now, The Paperless Airplane reaches more than 220,000 Montgomery County households every two weeks or so – and with a very high “open” rate for email newsletters. I thank all the readers over the years for their feedback and I thank my colleagues – first Bonnie Ayres and now Judy Stiles, for their “care and feeding” of this creation.

May it continue to serve our new County Executive and County Council – and you, the readers – well on into the future.

--Patrick Lacefield
   Director, Montgomery County Office of Public Information